Gendron Walter F.

Monuments

C-47 D-Day losses over DZ-C

Upottery Airfield US Armed Forces Plaque

Name:

Walter F. Gendron

Rank:

Technical Sergeant

Serial Number:

20141260

Unit:

91st Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group

Date of Death:

1944-06-06

State:

New Hampshire

Cemetery:

Long Island National Cemetery, New York

Plot:

Row:

Grave:

13620

Decoration:

Purple Heart

Comments:

TSgt Walter F. Gendron, crew chief of the C-47 42-100819, took off from Upottery, East Devon, UK to drop 16 paratroopers over DZ-C as part of Operation Albany during the Normandy invasion. Their target time was 0114. To complicate matters, there were heavy clouds at 1500 feet, gone unreported due to the strict radio silence. Some pilots decided to pull up and find their DZs with the Eureka-Rebecca system, others went low to obtain a visual of their DZs, and a rare few stayed the course through the cloud bank. While approaching DZ-C, flak hit the plane, sending it crashing in flames before any of the paras had a chance to jump. His remains were never identified, and he is buried with Pvt Williams and T/5 Davis.