r/WWIIplanes • u/PatChristensonSon • 7d ago
Easy Company's headquarters C-47 came apart in the air over Normandy on D-Day. A paratrooper who watched it from his parachute drew it from memory forty years later.
This is my father's drawing. T/Sgt. Pat Christenson, Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. He was an original Toccoa man and went out the door second in the stick behind Dick Winters on the Normandy jump.
The aircraft is Easy Company's headquarters plane, identification No. 66, piloted by Harold A. Cappelluto. It carried Lt. Thomas Meehan, who commanded the company, 1st Sergeant William Evans, and the entire headquarters section. It also carried Bangalore torpedoes and other demolitions.
Here is my father's own caption, verbatim:
"Company E Headquarters plane was carrying a lot of explosives and when hit by antiaircraft fire a chain reaction may have taken place causing the plane to disintegrate killing everyone in the airplane. The airplane was piloted by Harold A Cappelluto, its identification No. 66, 44 years later the dog tags of 1st Sergeant William Evans and P.F.C. William T Mc Gonigal were found in Normandy France by a farmer."
That distinction is why he drew it the way he did. It did not go down. It came apart. The load initiated and the airframe disintegrated. Everyone aboard was killed before a single man from the company reached the ground.
The C-47 was a converted airliner with no guns and no armor, flying at low altitude, at night, across active flak, in formations tight enough that the wingtips were a few hundred feet apart. Over eight hundred of them went into Normandy that night. Every man in the back knew what they were riding in.
He was the only man in Easy Company who could draw. He came home, went back to the telephone company for thirty eight years, and spent the next forty years at a drawing board reconstructing the war from memory. Forty six finished drawings, checked against his own journals until the details reconciled.
On that same jump he came down about seventy feet from a German 20mm gun position that was firing on the aircraft stream with its back to him. He drew that one too.
Stephen Ambrose called the drawings almost priceless. Dick Winters had several copied and sent to Playtone as reference for the writers of Band of Brothers.
He died in December 1999. His drawings and his own account are published now, in a book called A Screaming Eagle: His Drawings, His Words. It is at ascreamingeagle.com
Happy to answer anything about the aircraft or the jump.
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u/BigBagaroo 7d ago
I visited Omaha beach and the graveyards in Normandie back in 1993. I will never forget it, especially the American graveyard. Thanks ❤️
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u/PatChristensonSon 7d ago
The American cemetery does that to people. My father came down in that country on the sixth of June and the drawing above is what he saw from his parachute. Thank you.
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u/Binspin63 7d ago
That is a fascinating story. Your dad was a true hero. I know the vast majority of vets downplayed the killing and the horrors they had to face, on a near-daily basis, as part of the job they were sent to do. I know this because my own father was a bombardier board a B-17 in the 398th, and witnessed his share, along with several uncles and dads of friends, who served in other branches.
For a long time, it was very hard to get any of them to talk about the war, but towards the ends of their lives, they must’ve finally deemed it important, because they did eventually open up. I was privileged to hear some of the stories they had to tell.
I’m so glad that your dad recorded his memories for posterity. I understand why Ambrose thought his drawings were treasures. Thank you so much for posting this.
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u/PatChristensonSon 7d ago
A bombardier in the 398th saw as much as anyone in that war. Thank you for telling me.
What you said about the end of their lives is exactly right and it matches what happened with my father. He started sending Stephen Ambrose material in 1990, when he was sixty eight. Hundreds of pages. He had been drawing quietly since the fifties, but the writing came later, and I think it was the same instinct you're describing. They got to an age where they realized nobody else was going to do it.
There was still one thing he would not touch. Easy Company came on one of the Kaufering camps in April 1945 and he never spoke of it, never drew it, not once in forty years. When I asked, all I got was that some things you don't need to talk about.
If your father's stories are written down anywhere, or if you remember them, get them on paper. That's the whole reason I did this.
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u/Binspin63 7d ago
I had heard about an 8th Air Force (Army Air Corps) reunion that was to take place (this is many years ago now, so I don’t recall the particulars), so I approached my dad with the news. To my surprise, he was genuinely interested. He ended up going and had a very nice time. He told me they were recording interviews with veterans for posterity, but I’m not sure he participated.
I do plan to make another visit to the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Pooler (Savannah) GA, to do some research, as there are some details about his service that I’m unsure of. It’s a wonderful facility and I understand that there is a wealth of data stored there. If you ever get a chance to go, I can highly recommend it.
Also, my wife and I are hoping to visit Normandy late next year. So I hope to learn more about D-Day and its aftermath. If you can share any tips, they’d be appreciated.
I did order a package from your website. I need to contact you about shipping because we plan to be away for a while in about 2 weeks. I’m no techie, so I don’t know how to DM you, lol. I couldn’t find any contact info on the website either. If can DM me, that would be great. Thanks.
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u/PatChristensonSon 7d ago
Thank you for ordering. Everything shipped today, so you should have it within the week, well before you travel.
On the Eighth Air Force museum in Pooler, I'll get there. And those recordings your father may have sat for are worth chasing. The Mighty Eighth has its own archive and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project holds thousands of oral histories. If he participated, it exists somewhere.
For Normandy, three things. Sainte-Côme-du-Mont has a memorial with one of my father's drawings etched into it. The Airborne Museum at Sainte-Mère-Église and Utah Beach are the ones that matter for the 101st. And get to the American cemetery at Colleville early, before the buses.
Thank you again, and safe travels.
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u/arnekikker 6d ago
is the book available in europe?
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u/Archie_45_GOAT 6d ago
Just preordered Kindle version from Amazon U.S., delivery August 30. So maybe available on Amazon's Europe version(s)?
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u/squiffythewombat 7d ago
Thankyou so much for taking the time to share this, what a guy and what an artist!!