June 2nd and 5th were spent in the company of an impressive group of Douglas DC-3 variants. The Americans, identified as 'D-Day Squadron', crossed the Atlantic and met their European counterparts at Duxford Imperial War Museum (IWM) near Cambridge.
On June 5th they flew over to Normandy to start the commemmoration of the June 6th 1945 landing in Normandy France in earnest. Two of 23 had to stay behind at Duxford due to technical problems.
An historic air event never to be forgotten in itself.

The histories described below mainly stem from Air-Britain's (2006) 'DC-3 - The First Seventy Years', ATDB.aero online database and my own records noted from publications and fora over the years.

I had never seen this one before, so was pleased to get DC-3C (C-47B) F-AZOX (c/n 33359/16611) of Chalair in my lens!

Who or what is Chalair ('Association Un Dakota sur la Normandie'), I had not heard of it before..

Note the starboard engine trailing a bit of smoke

I had come across HA-LIX in 2006 at the Aviodrome in Lelystad,NL. My report on that can be found
on AVIODROME 2006, a unique DC-3 meet in Holland that was never, alas, repeated.
The report has a series of photos of this Li-2's interior and cockpit. In those days it carried 'Sunflower'-titles.

It was flown by the Hungary Air Force with serial 209, reg'd HA-LIX in 1958 and flew government VIPs.
Declared surplus in 1974, it was stored (or perhaps 'preserved') at Szolnok Kilián Geörgy Aviation School.
The Goldtimers Foundation transferred HA-LIX to Budaörs (former int'l airport Budapest) as along-term
restoration project. It took 30.000+ manhours, 120.000+ euros. The repaint (see my 2006 report) was
sponsored by Lufthansa Technik (Budapest) and Aerocomplex. By 2001 HA-LIX was airworthy.

That extra window behind the copilot is a telling sign this is a Lisunov Li-2 rather than a DC-3.

Theodore von Kármán or Kármán Tódor (b. 11May1881 – d. 06May1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician,
aerospace engineer and physicist, who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is
responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow
characterization. He is regarded as the outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century.
[Wikipedia]

As with the early DC-3 design it had a rh-rear passenger door. But it has in fact doors on both sides.
Having changed its appearance a few times, it wore a vintage Malév livery since Aug.'08 and Blue Air c/s from Aug.'17.

While not all things went well in the organisation at Duxford (no visits to the participating aircraft, no merchandise allowed for sale by the participants, no para drops) one has to be flexible with these sort of events, it is a gigantic undertaking and one has to be especially grateful that such an initiative got underway.
Having said that, in France things went from bad to worse. I expected as much knowing how the French cannot organize themselves out of a paper bag and how I experienced that at Cherbourg 5 years ago (why I went to England this time), I don't think this report is complete without some of the criticism expressed left and right.

forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-aviation/3864684-avoid-daks-over-normandy-sat-8th-june
"The weather in the latter part of Friday June 7th curtailed all flying. Even the final scenic flights were shelved. Granted, the weather is out of human control, however if you are planning on going to Caen-Carpiquet tomorrow, please read the comments on Facebook and Twitter before you make a decision.
A vast number of people are requesting refunds. The organisation is beyond awful and unfortunately Daks Over Normandy seems to have been a non-event."

"I know this organisation [Daks over Normandy] . I declined the opportunity to work with them. I dont wish to be drawn into any big discussion, if as reported Peter Braun has had a suspected heart attack then we all wish him well and hope he makes a speedy recovery."
"The public details for the company [Daks over Normandy] can be found on the UK Companies House, I can tell you that as of March last year the company running this multi million Euro event (their words) had £279 in net assets."
"Brauns miracle recovery from a heart attack has now been compounded by his claim he also suffered a complete mental breakdown."

"There's more than a few pointed comments & character assessments on the DoN FB page. Apparently 200 jumpers were left without their bags etc for 3 days & are going to be billing DoN for the clothes etc they had to buy. They did a great job getting the Daks over but it seems event management was a shambles.
Thankfully they had the IWM's infrastructure to rely on at Duxford, but it did seem pretty amateurish at times. Yes the weather caused problems but the Caen event in terms of no buses, hardly any food, access for veterans and flights was a disaster.
Also the photo flights in T6's paid for months in advance never happened & the photo opportunity for the punters at the airport never happened either... Dididn't help matters that they had the Daks facing away from the crowd line."

"It's rapidly becoming apparent that the whole deal in France organised by Braun was a scam from the start. All those photo flights he sold in T6's were illegal, There were never any NOTAMs filed, He didn't bother asking the tower to open at 7am instead of 9am. No permits etc. It appears all he did was collect money & lie to everyone. There's a LOT of people very angry over all this & Braun has dropped off the radar."

K-682 'Foreningen for Flyvende Museumsfly (C-47A OY-BPB; c/n 20019). The last time I would see it fly!

'DC-3 Friends'. Manufactured in Long Beach, California in 1944 as type C-47A.

I think its summer home is at Vaerlose (Roskilde?) in Denmark and winter accommodation is in a hangar at Karup AB.

C-47A OY-BPB, its history in even greater detail by Niels Rosengaard

K-682 was named 'Den Gamle Dame' ('The Old Lady').

Douglas C-53D 268823 of Stiftelsen Dakota Norway (LN-WND, c/n 11750)

I have a page on the DC-3 with background information and a page on the many (Skytrain) variants

Dakota Norway has a long record of keeping LN-WND in the air, participating in events such as 'D-Day 75'.
So sad that their starboard engine gave problems which prevented them to join the crossing into Normandy!
Fred Barnes photographed WND while landing with the port engine shut down; see my Photos by Friends & Guests #58.

Douglas C-47 N431HM (c/n 9995) in sparse vintage Swissair livery and Crossair titles.

Its history is described on my Duxford 'Flying Legends (2017) page.
Normally based Dubendorf,Suisse and owned by Hugh Mathys same as 315087/P-9X (N150D) (D-Day 75 page 1)

Another 'Skytrooper': C-53C 'Airveteran' and wearing titles 'Aero OY' + 'Finnish Airlines'
OH-LCH, c/n 6346, was part of a batch of DC-3A's (6345-6355) ordered by Pan Am but taken over by
the USAAF or US Navy as C-53C's and R4D-4's off the production line.

I also came across OH-LCH at the 'Daks over Normandy (2014) event at Cherbourg in France

OH-LCH has also been docuymented on my website: DC-3 Fly In (2006) Aviodrome and Daks over Normandy (2014)

OH-LCH joining the massive DC-3 formation crossing The Channel and into Normandy for 'D-Day 75'.

From Flypast Forum threads 'Daks over Duxford' and 'Daks over Normandy':
"... organization for spectators was not great at Duxford and poor at Caen. Not much in terms of maximising the opportunity in terms of flypasts at Duxford or mass formations anywhere.
The mass departure from Duxford was delayed two hours or so by a 'VVIP' not being in place and that hoped-for mass formation flight to Normandy ended up late, and as a line of two's and three's at best.
Yes, weather played a part but a great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see D-Day type formations over England and France seems to have been squandered.
Ditto access by the public to the aircraft.
Can't comment on how the jumps went."

"Sounds like everyone should have gone to the Hotel SNAFU to have a few drinks at the FUBAR!"

"There's been some comments about the safety of the drops from the Daks in France from the actual jumpers, including one having to abort a drop when another Dak flew under it & another of a near collision between two aircraft.
One dropped some jumpers over a town resulting in them landing in the roads & yards of houses etc & another dropping jumpers over power lines."
Reactions? EMAIL - please state url of this page so I know to what you are repsonding; thanks.

C-47A SE-CFP (c/n 13883) of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), named 'Fridtjof Viking'

VARIOUS

My focus on those days at Duxford IWM was on the 'Daks' but in between the action there was time to shift the focus to other subjects, albeit briefly.

Classic Wings did brisk business taking paying customores to the air with their Harvards.
Top: Noorduyn AT-16 Harvard IIB, G-BDAM / ER-992.
Bottom: North American Harvard IV, G-BGPB / 1747 'TAZ'

Canso A, G-PBYA / '433915' (c/n CV-283)
I have summarized its history on my ENGLAND 2017 PAGE

Clockwise: G-BGPB / 1747 'Taz'+ Harvard T-6 'AJ841 Wacky Wabbit' also of Classic Wings
North American AT-6C Harvard IIA, G-TSIX (c/n 88-9725) + N.A. AT-6D Harvard III, G-BGOR / 14863

Top: Beech Expeditor 3NM (D18S), G-BKGM (c/n A-853 / CA-203)
Bottom: Beech C-45 Expeditor, G-BKGL ('1164'; c/n CA-164) 'Good Vibrations'.

Supermarine Spitfire LF.IXc, G-BMSB 'MJ627 RAF' (full details on www.aerialvisuals.ca)

Clockwise: Spitfire G-BMSB 'MJ627' + P-47D Thunderbolt 'Nellie' - F4-J/549192 (G-THUN)
N.A. P-51D Mustang, (G-BIXL) '472216/M' 'Miss Helen'
North American P-51D Mustang, G-SHWN 'GA-S' (Norwegian Spitfire Foundation)

A brief glimpse in the hangar; more on these on my DUXFORD 2017 report

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress ‘124485 / DF-A’ ‘Memphis Belle / Sally B’ (G-BEDF) c/n 8693(A-VE).
Its actual US military serial was 44-85784. To see it fly go to my Duxford's Flying Legends air show, 2017.

A tremendous sight to see so many DC-3's trundle to the runway, pistons pumping, engines rumbling

The fun of vintage aviation!

Europe only has two flying Catalina, Britain's Canso A G-PBYA 'Miss Pick Up' and
Canso A N315KM at Tatoi, Greece (made airworthy in 2019 and for sale).
I saw G-PBYA participating in a fine flying display at Duxford's 2017 Legends air show.

When it was time for the paratrooper to board, departures got under way and closed a very fine day!