Operation Market Garden, 17th September 1944

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"One particular young Para was a strong swimmer who when a teenager, his idea of an early morning swim was to swim across the river Tay in Perth, Scotland. He made the far bank which was just as well for me .......... because nearly 6 years later, that young Para became my father."

Well, somebody had to

[Jock2413 Association Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jock2413]

Mind you, only a mother knows who the true father is.

[Lynx7 Association Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lynx7]

As the Islander was returning in the wee hours one night to Aldergrove after a Compassionate A trip to the mainland I brought the subject up of Normandy, Arnhem and the Glider Pilots with the pilot I was flying with that night. It was a moonlit night with little cloud and we could see the runway lights of Belfast International from quite a distance and at that time of the morning Belfast had no other flight or radio traffic to distract us. The pilot was a QHI/QFI, an Ex LI Soldier, Warrant Officer Helicopter and Fixed Wing Flying Instructor I'd know for over 15 years.

As we approached base in the darkness I said it must have been a bit like this being the tug aircraft taking the Gliders into Europe in 1944, well apart from people shooting at us! As we had the hight he throttled back both engines back till they were just ticking over, then stuck the nose down to increase the speed and all we could then hear was the rush of the air as we descended out of the sky. It was brilliantly weird not to hear the engines, just the noise of the Islander dropping out the night sky. Just before hitting the runway he pushed the throttles forward to give us power and did a STOL landing using hardly any of the main runway, the Grey Ghost had returned from another successful mission.

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