Kids - Uncle Vincent McKay

Sixty-six years ago this was a big night for my Uncle Vincent McKay. He was in the airborne and parachuted into Normandy, France in anticipation of the D-Day naval invasion on June 6th. Given the chaos of the air drop, as with so many airborne soldiers, he was captured by the Germans. Although a prisoner of war, he spent the rest of the war working forced labor for the Nazi war machine. He was lucky to survive the jump and his time with the Germans.

One of the best mini-series ever made by HBO was “Band of Brothers” chronicling the story of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. Below is the jump scene over Normandy.

The clip starts off calmly as they travel over the safety of the English Channel but at 3:43 on the track the German flak begins to zero in on the troop carrier aircraft and the terror begins.



[Credit to HBO the Band of Brother Series and the videographer Timecomtinum145 for his video post.]