June 6, 2021 – First Lieutenant David Hamilton was 21 years old on June 5, 1944 when he climbed into plane #14 of 20 Allied Pathfinder C-47 aircraft. He was preparing to depart from North Witham Air Field in England for a stretch of the Normandy coast. He was the pilot of an unnamed C-47 with responsibility for his crew and 18 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne. Their mission was to deploy radar equipment on the ground to guide thousands of paratroopers who would soon follow.

The Pathfinder mission was crucial to the success of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. C-47 aircraft were equipped with state-of-the-art technology (RADAR – Radio Detection and Ranging) to pick up signals from the ground. But soldiers had to strategically place the radar equipment on the ground. The plan called for equipment every 10 miles to mark seven drop zones.

Vito Pedone was the co-pilot in the lead (#1) Pathfinder plane on D-Day. In 2019, Redwood Learn interviewed Stephen Pedone, Vito’s son. Geraldine “Jerry” Pedone, Vito’s wife and Stephen’s mother, was a US Army Flight Nurse. She met Vito while they were both serving in England. On D-day, they were husband and wife. Stephen is a retired U.S. Air Force pilot.

In studying the Pathfinder mission, it’s remarkable to learn about the technology used to carry out the mission. Radar was first developed by the British Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE). The new technology first guided dellivery of supplies to soldiers in Europe. It also helped drop supplies to Resistance fighters in countries Germany occupied. Resistance fighters were civilians. They carried out covert missions to thwart the activities of Nazi soldiers.

Stephen Pedone said Pathfinder paratroopers jumped with three different types of drop zone marking equipment. The most important one was the Eureka-Rebecca system. Eureka was an electronic transponder. Paratroopers secured the transponder into the ground after landing. Once operational, its signal could be received by C-47 planes. It acted as a beacon so pilots knew when to have their paratroopers jump. The Pathfinder paratroopers only had a few minutes to place and activate the Eureka equipment.

Stephen Pedone explains the Eureka-Rebecca system

“The Eureka electronic transponder was powered by a battery, and emitted an electronic signal on a specific frequency designated for each drop zone (Seven drop zones – seven different frequency signals, all on at the same time.). The ‘Eureka’ signal for a specific drop zone could be received by the ‘Rebecca’ Directional Antenna mounted on the nose of each lead C-47, and heard on the ‘Rebecca’ Receiver inside the pilot’s cockpit. The “Eureka-Rebecca” system was very new, but proved very successful during training tests. The system only was accurate to within approximately one mile, so the pilots had to visually search the ground to see the actual drop zone point on the ground, to ensure good accuracy for the drop! This was very difficult on the night of 5 June, due to the low cloud bank over Normandy, the intense German anti-aircraft fire striking the C-47s, and the pilots having to take evasive action,” Stephen Pedone said to Redwood Learn in an email exchange.

Pathfinder #14 – David Hamilton

When he reached his target area, Hamilton turned on the green light signaling to his paratroopers it was time to jump. Once on the ground, the paratroopers marked seven different drop zones to guide the hundreds of aircraft and thousands of paratroopers following minutes later. Planes had to be within one mile of the ground radar to pick up the signal. More than 400 C-47s were needed to drop approximately 13,000 American paratroopers from the 101st and the 82nd Airborne. About 7,000 British paratroopers dropped on D-Day.

Hamilton accurately flew his plane over his intended drop zone. About 1:15 a.m. on June 6, 1944, the 18 paratroopers jumped out of the plane and landed behind enemy lines.

Hamilton then flew over Ste. Mere Eglise where he almost clipped a church steeple with one of his plane’s wings. That church became famous after the war in a movie about D-Day, called The Longest Day.

Hamilton recalls also flying over an area that he remembers from his mission briefing was a center for German anti-aircraft artillery. But as he flew low over the area at about 200 miles per hour, everything was fine. Underwater demolition crews from the US Navy had taken out the German artillery. Hamilton learned that information once he returned to his air base in England.

After landing in England, he inspected his plane. His Gooney Bird, the name given to C-47 planes during WWII, had 200 tiny bullet holes. But Hamilton said the bullets did not break any cables. And nobody on the plane was hit. However, thousands of Allied soldiers were killed or wounded on D-day and in the days after. There is no better example of the “price of freedom” than the D-Day goal to liberate Europe from Hitler.

After filling out forms, Hamilton attended a debriefing where bottles of whiskey were on the tables for the pilots. “I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was, but he should get the Medal of Honor,” Hamilton said during a May 16, 2019 impromptu interview on the air field in Oxford, Connecticut.

Video Interview with Lt. Col. David Hamilton (Ret.)

After D-Day, Hamilton flew many missions. He and hundreds of other C-47 pilots delivered gasoline to Gen. Patton (Commander of the Third Army) in the morning and returned to England with wounded soldiers in the afternoon.

After World War II, Hamilton flew 50 missions during the Korean War in the early 1950s and then flew for the Air Defense Command before retiring from the military.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Who were the Pathfinder pilots on D-Day (June 6, 1944)?

2. What was the mission of the D-Day Pathfinder pilots?

3. What state-of-the-art technology that is still used today did the Pathfinders pilots have on their C-47 transport planes?

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

1. Through the second link to the right, read about radar used during WWII. Write a summary. Research how radar has been improved (or replaced) since WWII.

2. Research other applications of radar that greatly benefit both the military and the public. Discuss.

3. Discuss how technology played a vital role during the Pathfinder mission on D-Day. Before reading this article, what did you think the state of technology was in the 1940s? Discuss.