‘L-Birds’ back to Normandy

L-BIRDS

From all over Europe they came to northern France — despite the weather, this gathering of wartime liaison aircraft was unprecedented, and emotional

During the D-Day commemorations, the incredible armada of American and European C-47s took centre stage in the skies of Normandy. Well, numerous they may have been, but not as numerous as the ‘L-Birds’ that French pilot and collector Isabelle Bazin succeeded in gathering at St André de l’Eure, about 45 miles south of Rouen. On the very airTheld that housed the Bf 109s of II./JG 2 ‘Richthofen’ during the summer of 1940, the L-Birds back to Normandy event assembled a grand total of 47 World War Two liaison and observation aeroplanes — the biggest such gathering in Europe for many decades. It was quite a feat, even if close to 100 had originally expressed an interest in attending.

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