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

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

Robert Kirk

History

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.3	T's and Cs apply.
0:30.1	If you like listening to Warriors in their own words,
0:32.7	check out our other show, the Medal of Honor podcast.
0:35.9	The link is in the show description.
0:58.1	I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors in their own words. In partnership with the Honor Project, we've brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs these stories more than ever.
1:01.5	Warriors in their own words is our attempt to present an unvarnished, unsanitized truth
1:06.6	of what we have asked of those who defend this nation.
1:09.6	Thank you for listening, and by doing so honoring those who have served.
1:14.8	Today, we'll hear from Captain Harold Sperber.
1:17.6	Sperber served in World War II as a Pathfinder co-pilot.
1:21.0	It was his job to help fly small paratrooper groups called Pathfinders
1:25.1	to landing zones ahead of major missions so that the area could
	...

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