On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Leutnant Thomas Beike and two other Luftwaffe pilots in Me 109Gs took off to fly a fast reconnaissance mission over Normandy to assess the Allied invasion. He took off into a sky filled with Allied aircraft. The other two Messerschmitts were shot down almost immediately, but at full power, he slipped away. The D-Day beaches were straight ahead. This is his story.

Please SHARE and SUBSCRIBE!

ORIGINAL STORY AT:
http://fly.historicwings.com/2017/06/a-daring-flight-on-d-day/

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CHANNEL:
-- https://www.patreon.com/historicwings
-- https://paypal.me/flyhistoricwings?locale.x=en_US

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
D-Day Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944
by Holger Eckhertz
An extraordinary collection of eyewitness reports from "the other side", including this story.
https://amzn.to/3uITSOV

Luftwaffe in Colour: From Glory to Defeat: 1942-1945
by Christophe Cony and Jean-Louis Roba
Through color photography, this book shows us the Luftwaffe in a new way.
https://amzn.to/3uRxJhy

Alarmstart: The German Fighter Pilot's Experience in the Second World War: Northwestern Europe
by Patrick G. Eriksson
Chronicling the war from the experience of a Luftwaffe front line pilot.
https://amzn.to/3wWkUUs

Thomas Van Hare has published over 450 articles on aviation history since 1997 at Historic Wings - http://www.historicwings.com/. He is an author, including along with Matt Lawrence, of the bestselling book, "Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & the Cuban Five", about the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue in 1996. He serves as the Director of the Defense Technology Innovation Program LLC, a public-private partnership with the Pentagon that scouts, identifies, and brings breakthrough technologies for potential military use. He is a former three-time White House appointee working in foreign policy, national security, and defense, a former CEO of an airline and flew as a command pilot and mission director on search and rescue missions, saving over 3,000 lives.

Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & the Cuban Five has been published in English and Spanish and is available at: https://amzn.to/3uPL8GK

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the individual authors writing in each writer's individual capacities only - not those of their respective employers, affiliates, partners, or businesses. All liability is hereby expressly disclaimed. Content provided "as is" with no representations it is error-free. Opinions and comments in the "Comments" section below do not reflect the opinions of Thomas Van Hare or of Historic Wings. We do not in any way condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence, or other questionable acts or statements expressed by others. We reserve the right to delete any comments violating the principles of decency.

Fair Use: Historic Wings is an educational website that relies on Creative Commons and fair use principles under Section 107 of the Copyright Act, which allows the unlicensed use of copyrighted materials for fair use purposes, such as commentary, criticism, teaching, and news reporting. It is not our intent to infringe on content ownership or rights. Please communicate any issues to: hw@historicwings.com

Story Research and Photo Credits: National Archives and Records Administration + US Navy + US Coast Guard + Imperial War Museums + 368thfightergroup.com + National Museum of the United States Air Force + World War Collectibles + Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-649-5355-02 / Heinz [Heins] / CC-BY-SA 3.0 + luftwaffe.cz + Riegele Wirtshaus + Robert Capa / Magnum Photos + WW2 US Medical Research Centre + Library of Congress + Hubertl, Papperlapap, Markus G. Klötzer, Namrood, XanonymusX and Thomas Fries / Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0

Music Credits: First Light - Atch https://soundcloud.com/atch-music
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/-first-light
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/0SVbJldc5wM

Copyright 2021 Historic Wings and Thomas Van Hare