Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

Priller simply notes in his book that because his 3 Gruppen were elsewhere, the unit had only 2 combat-ready aircraft on hand. He and his wing man flew to the "Kampfraum" (battle area), and he was happy that with an advantage of several hundred aircraft the enemy didn't shoot them down. There is no comment on straffing the beaches.

Hope this helps,
George

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

Oh dang! the "rest of the story" is on page 239--AND they don't have page 239!


nm

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

..wasn't this incident immortalised in Zanuck's film (1964) .....not having read Priller's JG 26 history I'd always imagined the events depicted in the 'Longest Day' were based on Priller's own account..if this is not the case, what then?

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

There is indeed (reworked by the author) Priller's account in Ryan's The Longest Day, but the question remains in regard of validity of Priller's claims. Perhaps someone here has a copy of his log book and can post respective pages.

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

...forgot the film was based on the book.....I thought Frappé in his " Luftwaffe face au débarquement .." book might have something but he doesn't, aside to say that this was a recce sortie so that Priller could find out for himself what was happening - 'apparently the invasion had begun' . There are some photos taken of Priller getting airborne that day...(not in the book though)

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

The problem is that as far as I remember, Priller's log book has only one or two local sorties, lasting about 15 minutes. This is not enough to go to the beaches. Unfortunately, I do not have any copies of the log book.

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

Phil, Your relative being in such unique position may be able to help things with a time. Obviously he was under some duress at that moment but does he have a timing that forum members could tie in with a pilots log book? Regards Disbos

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

Sorry Franek, I see what you mean now.

As for "The Longest Day", I just checked the book. Ryan acknowledges Priller among the Germans who contributed to the book by granting him interviews.

So the story came direct from Priller.

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

It might be helpful to check the unit diaries of other British units, especially those which stayed on the beach all day. If German fighters made a low level strafing pass then surely someone would have made note of the time and place.

Re: Sword Beach D-Day
 

Thanks George, just what I was hoping for when I first posted. I'll pass your information on.