Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:50 | Fear was the great motivator that kept Elmer Wisherd focused on his airborne missions. On D-Day he recalls the dramatic sights and sounds of war and the incredible vision of U.S. planes approaching Normandy.
Keywords : D-Day paratrooper Normandy Glider
Elmer "Wish" Wisherd vividly describes his last big mission, pulling two gliders with a C-47 over the Rhine. He recounts all the action he witnessed and what happened to some of the other American planes.
On his flight into Normandy before D-Day, Elmer Wisherd recalls the silence and darkness aboard the plane, what happened when the pilot faced thick clouds and seeing gunfire aimed at the jumping paratroopers.
Elmer "Wish" Wisherd describes how he became a crew chief aboard airplanes hauling paratroopers during training at Fort Benning. He vividly recalls one chilling, but deadly incident.
Elmer Wisherd who was not a pilot, ended up piloting a plane after a glider drop in Southern France. Here he explains why that happened.
In this chilling account Elmer Wisherd describes flying into German territory before encountering heavy gunfire in Holland. After a bullet pierced his plane, he recalls what happened next.
Elmer Wisherd humorously recalls what happened when a Quartermaster was assigned to help him on a mission into Southern France, although that mission proved to be quite dangerous.
In Holland, Elmer Wisherd remembers the terrible losses he witnessed after a deep freeze. He dramatically describes how planes went down all around him as he approached Bastogne, the horrific scenes that followed, and an incredible story of survival.
