Saturday evening, after getting shot down once and then shot when taking off in a troop transport, I thought I would give paratrooping a rest. I hate that we never made it close to our objective, and everyone died. Later that night however, Le Fere was in dire straights. Gerry had capped most of the town and we were down to the AB. Allied were desperately in need of help in the bunker as they were trying very hard to keep the axis from entering and capping the town. mcafeed was the OIC so I got with him and asked if we could do a paradrop to relieve the poor bastards fending off the human wave in the bunker. He said he would love to do one but didnt have anyone to pilot. I told him that I would pilot and a JU will be waiting at maub if he could get someone to create a paramission.

I dropped out of the fight at Le Fere to spawn a JU at maub, but guess what, no JUs were left in the spawn list. I relayed this to mcafeed, and said that not to worry I would get one from Calais and pick up the troops at maub. He said good deal, and that he would be awaiting my message of successful touchdown at maub. I spawned JU at Calais and flew east to maub and landed. Relayed message to mcafeed and told him I was waiting outside the maub ab for paras. Next thing I know, there is an ALLIED message, that said "PARATROOPS desperately needed for Le Fere defense, OIC mcafeed, load maub in alphies plane." That was cool as hell.

By this time the sun had just went down and a few minutes after the .allied Im full and were airborne. AI is going off at maub when I lift, so I stay low on the deck. I head west toward Calais to put some distance between us and the front lines, and then head south to the IP of Le Fere. About 20 miles out I get off the deck and start climbing. At 5miles out Im at 2k and it is a madhouse over the town; LW in full force and all Im thinking is that Ive gone through too much shit today with paradrops, these guys are getting to the town dammit. It looked like a fireworks show on the ground as defenders are trying to keep the axis back, meanwhile over town it isnt just one furball, but several masses of planes, mostly axis, duking it out with our allied flyboys.

Mcafeed asked to be dropped on the depot south of the army base. I looked on the map and noticed its right in front of a T intersection in the road.. Ahh good, a visable landmark. I look ahead and left and see the T intersection about 5k away. I kill the engines; were in glide mode now and Im hoping to creep in and not let the germans on the ground know whats about to drop on their heads. I make a shallow dive toward the intersection. Im picking up a good amount of speed and when I guess that the intersection is below me, I yank on the stick and bring her nose up verticle. All the guys jump out and I start taking fire from all the 09s that are buzzing the town. When everyone gets out, I nose over 180 degrees and pass my paras that I just dropped and swing east skimming the river. Jerry still on my six, as I stay above the river and head north, but a dewo swoops from above and lights him up, massive damage and plane is wanting to lurch left but I want to rtb so I adjust trim and keep the stick hard right to make my wounded bird fly straight. Well one hell of a plane ride later and I land at Calais and rtb.

Mcafeed thanked me and said that was the best drop he has ever been on. I managed to land all my paras, 50 feet from the target depot and I managed to rtb a JU which is amazing considering the amount of LW over the town. My paras captured and held the depot and that was finally the straw that broke the axis back. We recaptured Le Fere and they didnt think about touching it again all night.

~ Sgt. Jack Alphie