Warriors in their Own Words

Remarkable stories of war told by the men who fought for a proud nation. Their words. Their voices. Our first episodes tell riveting stories from World War II, then we move on to the Vietnam War and other dramatic conflicts.

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Capt. Harold Sperber: In the Hours Before D-Day

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Captain Harold Sperber served in World War II as a Pathfinder co-pilot. Pathfinders were small paratrooper groups that were sent to mark landing zones ahead of major paratrooper missions. Their work helped insure the success of the drop, but it was incredibly dangerous because they flew in very small numbers, very low to the ground (to avoid radar), and had no backup chutes.

In this episode, Sperber describes the mission he had on the night of June 5th, 1944, the day before the D-Day. Sperber and the rest of the pathfinders flew over Normandy and were hit, forcing them to retreat back to the English channel. They narrowly avoided crash landing and freezing to death in the cold waters.


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