Veteran US Pathfinder pilot visits former base
Lieutenant Colonel David Hamilton raises his hat in salute to 'D-Day Doll', as she flies in salute over him at North Witham in June 2019. (South Kesteven District Council)
Legendary American pilot Lieutenant Colonel David Hamilton returned to North Witham airfield in June 2019, 75 years after the airfield’s historic mission that launched the US Airborne assault on Normandy on D-Day.
Hamilton’s C-47 aircraft, packed with elite 82nd Airborne Division Pathfinders paratroopers, flew on the second wave of aircraft to Normandy to drop Pathfinders behind enemy lines and lay markers for the following main force of aircraft.
His visit to Lincolnshire, part of the 75th anniversary commemorations of D-Day, drew a welcoming party of British and American military personnel, international media and excited Air Cadets from Grantham.
Hamilton's recollections included flying at 50 feet above the Channel to dodge enemy radar and coming home with an aircraft riddled with holes from small-arms' fire – a testimony to their low level exploits.
As he was driven around the wartime runways in a wartime jeep, he was amazed to see how much remains of the old airfield. His visit was capped by a tribute flypast from D-Day Doll, a wartime C-47 that had flown across the Atlantic as part of an armada of C-47s making the journey to the UK and Europe to commemorate the Allied landings in Normandy.
David Hamilton died in January 2025. His crystal clear memories of the mission were captured in one of his last ever television interviews - one of many recordings and magazine articles that have honoured his remarkable life and career: