Original subtitles

Well, I wanna do something special.

The 75th anniversary of World War II's big 'un.

June the 6th, '44.

D-Day.

This was World War II's endgame,

the final Allied attempt to beat Nazi Germany.

Comes after Dunkirk, after the Battle of Britain,

after the Blitz and after the Dam Busters.

Then we get D-Day.

It is still the largest military assault ever conceived.

Dependent on epic logistics

and the meticulous coordination of 155,000 troops.

Say D-Day to anyone, it's all about the beach landings.

Yes, yes, that was the main part of it,

but they weren't the first boys in.

The first boys in were the parachuters.

They went in six hours before.

They had the worst job - jumping at night,

being shot at, definitely not getting welcomed.

They're the sort of unsung heroes.

Best way of learning about it is - let's get in there!

And that's what we're gonna do.

That's what we're gonna do, we're gonna put me in those boys' shoes

and I'm gonna jump out and replicate what went on in 1944.

Watch, it'll be really big. I'm not gonna be shot at.

In his biggest ever undertaking, Guy Martin will experience what those

elite paratroopers went through, jumping into Normandy 75 years ago.

He'll help with the painstaking restoration of one

of the planes the troops jumped from...

I'm committed.

..and learn how the vital D-Day supply lines worked

on land, sea and air.

Load moving. Load gone.

Doesn't get any more exciting than that.

He'll hear from the veterans who fought in the Normandy Invasion...

You don't joke with the SS - they don't like it.

Down!

..and undergo gruelling World War II training.

Stand by! Go! Jump!

But only if Guy qualifies as a parachutist...

Urgh! Ooph!

..will he be able to fly over the Channel and find out what it

was like to be part of the first-ever major airborne assault.

It's all right reading about it, yeah, the most complicated military

mission in history, you know, to be honest, I'd rather have a go myself.

Yeah, let's get stuck in.

Nearly five years in to World War II,

an Allied force of 13 nations crossed the Channel to take

the fight to Nazi-occupied France, and meet Hitler's army head-on.

Guy's parachute jump will be a tribute to one

soldier in particular -

a 20-year-old Royal Marine lorry driver, called John Martin -

Guy's late grandfather.

I don't know what he's doing there, that's me grandad. Me dad's dad.

And then...I think that's me.

That's when we went over for the 50th anniversary when I was at school.

Yeah, kipping in me grandad's car.

Yeah, just kipping in the front seat!

We spent, like, ten days doing it, it was great.

Me, me grandad and me dad went round all the places

me grandad got to.

I got a load of time off school, it was great!

Good old boy.

Would Jack be proud?

Erm, he wouldn't make a fuss of it, he weren't like that.

He weren't like that. Man of few words, he wouldn't say much.

I think he would, deep down he'd be... Yeah, he'd be proud.

25 years after that family trip, Guy will return to Normandy,

all being well, by parachute.

But first, every Paratrooper needs a plane.

The aircraft Guy's going to jump out of is also one he's going to

help rebuild.

He's brought his father, Ian, a World War II buff to a restoration

in Coventry to start work on the plane that led the way on D-Day.

There's half a million rivets. Oh, it's amazing.

Weren't a fighter. Weren't a bomber.

Just a bit of a cargo plane.

Yeah, it's like a transit van,

it were just unsung hero, yeah, I like it. Workhorse.

It's a Douglas C-47, nicknamed the Dakota by the Brits who flew in it.

I've got great faith in Dakotas.

I'd jump out of a Dakota this afternoon.

There was nothing flash about it, but they was marvellous planes.

The Allied Supreme Commander, Dwight D Eisenhower,

said this unarmed, unarmoured cargo plane was as important to

winning the war as the atomic bomb.

This is gonna be steel, this bit.

Right. Cos you need to put jeeps in - if it'd been aluminium

it'd have buckled it. Oh bloody hell. Yeah.

It was so versatile, I mean, it would carry

God knows how many paras,

it could tow a glider.

Damn useful.

Trust the Yanks to come up with something really good.

What about bullet holes there, that are cut-out?

It's gone through some work, ain't it?

1,200 were used on D-Day.

1,200 Dakotas.

Only a handful remain.

The Coventry plane, called Night Fright,

flew on D-Day but needs a full rebuild to get it

ready for the 75th anniversary in nine months' time.

I think that's a bit on the optimistic side.

Loads to do, ain't there?

Oh, hydraulics, bulkheads, engines,

fuel tanks.

Electrics. Where do we end?

You had a look at the centre wing? Have you had a look at all the wiring and the piping in there?

Some work to do.

And another go. Ready?

The plane was saved from an Arkansas scrapyard by an aviation

enthusiast who wants to create the ultimate flying tribute.

And today, the rebuild begins.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

It's a significant moment, definitely.

We've been taking the aircraft apart since we bought it in 2012, so

it's a big moment to finally see two sections of it going back together.

The first task is to join the two biggest parts - the fuselage

and the centre section of the wings.

Worst-case scenario is we undo months and years of work

and dedication. You know, all in all, the aircraft is probably worth

300, £400,000, so it's a significant chunk of money

but it's just the time you'd lose

if you damage it there, you'd have to go back and repair it, really.

Same on the top, please, Guy. Yeah, OK.

Guy's jumping straight in to the middle of it all to rustproof

the bolts that keep the wings on.

Right, let me put a taste on there, then. Right.

The thin strips of metal are called shims.

So you'd want that fairly well glued down cos I don't want

that bugger to swing out, do you?

Like a wedge under a table leg, they ensure the fuselage sits level.

And obviously when you drop a fuselage

on to the top of a wing section,

it's not gonna sit 100% true, you know, cos there might be a bit

of a gap here but tight there, so you nip it all down

and it's stressing the fuselage,

so by putting them shims on there's nowt under stress.

The small restoration team are determined to prepare everything

to an immaculate standard, even the areas that won't be seen.

It's not about that, is it? It's not about seeing 'em,

it's just making, erm, you know, so it'll last another 70 years.

Longevity. Yeah, this job's simple but it's either right or it's wrong.

And that's the right way to do it. Come forwards as well.

The Dakota is one of the world's most-successful aircraft designs.

ARCHIVE: It is made of metal, it has two motors and two propellers.

It was based on an aviation pioneer, the Douglas DC-3 of 1936 - the

first plane to fly passengers across America cheaply, and dependably.

Those little white lines are highways.

America used its industrial might to scale up

production for the military version.

Six months before D-Day, the Douglas factory in Oklahoma was

completing an unbelievable one plane every hour.

Nice and steady. Slow it down.

Too far.

Things move a little slower in Coventry.

Right, I'm gonna come down really slowly, yeah?

Everybody clear. If the two-tonne load isn't lined up correctly...

Fingers! ..it will strip the threads clean off the bolts.

We're gonna lower it another inch, yeah?

What a sight to see, eh?

OK, that's lined up.

Jiggling those sections of fuselage in to that sandwich

section on the wing, getting one side in

and then you get the other side in

but the other side pops out. Up, please. Yeah.

And the crane driver, and half-a-million quid of crane.

Any more available? Just on his control, a millimetre at a time.

Bit more. That's enough. Yeah.

No messing. Yeah.

It takes an hour of tense manoeuvring

before the lift is complete.

Yeah, we're down, that bit. Relax.

Guy's dad has loved every second.

Oh, I've taken me hat off to everybody.

When you think the size of the fuselage, the engine's on,

the wheels, all fastened on by ten studs and nuts each side,

I mean, takes me breath away.

Absolutely out-of-this-world experience to watch.

It went really well, it's been a really good day for us,

yeah, a momentous occasion.

We've got over that milestone now, so it looks like an aircraft now

and not a giant Airfix kit.

And we can sort of move on

and do some of the detailing now, it's been a great day.

There are nine months to go before the D-Day anniversary,

and Guy's parachute jump.

With the plane under way,

he can now start preparing himself to become a paratrooper.

Up! Get up! Get moving!

We will die!

Guy Martin is recreating a D-Day parachute jump to find out

what the first soldiers into battle experienced 75 years ago.

Congratulations, you're the first person to hook into night flying since 1945.

Bit nerve-racking, genuinely.

It's hard to select reverse when you're in this position. Yeah!

The mission Guy will train for was the opening stage of a massive plan,

where the allies would take the fight to Hitler.

MEDIA REPORT: June 6th, 1944,

when, from England, came the conquest of German-occupied Normandy.

With 200,000 vehicles and 155,000 troops,

the invasion was like transporting a small city

across 100 miles of water overnight in secret.

This is it, they're on the beach.

The mind recoils from the dimensions of it all.

Known as Operation Overlord,

it was planned by some of the war's most brilliant strategists.

By here. Left, my left.

Its success depended on basic logistics.

If the allies could storm five Normandy beaches,

codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword,

and build up their forces faster than Germany, they'd win.

All right, Normandy coastline.

What we've got here, Utah, Omaha, the two American beaches.

You got that? These two are where the American troops come up.

Yeah? Right?

And then we've got Gold. British troops are coming up here.

Juno, Canadian troops.

And Sword, British troops.

So that's the thick and the thin of the Normandy beach landings, right?

But for all this to have half a chance, we need to protect the flanks, right?

So what that meant was dropping paratroopers six hours before.

And how we're going to do that, we're going to drop

American paratroopers here, on the western flank.

How's that look?

I've made a pig's ear of that, haven't I?

It was somewhere about there.

And then, bit of a traipse down here, bit of a traipse,

then, the eastern flank, we're going to drop British paratroopers.

Again, six hours before.

We're going to drop them lads here.

Their job was to take the bridges, put the big guns out of commission

and stop the Germans counterattacking.

So you just think "That's a lot to do, a lot to go wrong", but it half-worked.

Well, I'm not going to say it half-worked, it did work.

Operation Overlord, as simple as that, yeah.

Those paratroopers were no ordinary soldiers.

They would have to jump in darkness, behind enemy lines,

into the path of bullets.

It's time for Guy to experience how they have always been trained.

Left turn!

His paratrooper training starts at Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire.

Soldiers, arms!

It's here that the Parachute Regiment make their recruits ready for anything.

Quick march!

The regiment takes its history very seriously,

with famous D-Day operations being taught to every recruit.

At 0500, nine Para were forced to engage Germans with hand-to-hand combat.

That's what we're trying to instil in you guys.

No matter how hard it is, there's always something more to give.

Paratrooper selection has always been tough.

Only a certain breed will do.

All right, mate? What are you doing, scraping anyone up?

The most daunting selection exercise is the trinasium.

Stand by! Go!

The paratroopers' assault course.

Go! Where everything is harder at height.

We have quite a lot of ankle breaks and that. Do you? Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of lads end up, like, dislocating their knees.

60 foot, yeah, you're at a bloody height.

Before teenage recruits may jump from a plane,

they must prove they're fearless.

Guy will also be tested.

Stand by!

Go!

It's a process that hasn't changed since 1944.

Come to the first obstacle, my left foot up and over.

Further along with my right foot, up and over.

And at the end, you're really glad that that's over.

Move your feet!

Guy will have to do the same thing.

I don't think that looks over-hard, to be honest.

But he has no sympathy for a nervous recruit.

Come on, come on.

Come on on! Keep going!

No! Keep your arms up!

No pressure or owt, but you're holding the whole job up, mate.

Look at me. Keep going.

Keep going. Get your arms up!

Get your arms up!

Get your arms up! GUY LAUGHS

Compose yourself.

Come on! Foot.

Lift it, you're not going to fall.

It's just learning to have confidence

in what you're being told.

Lift it! Ooo! Lift your foot!

Lift it!

Right, stop.

Next foot. I'm going to jump out...!

Shut up! Get your foot over now.

Can you hear this? Lift your foot!

Get up! Right, stop!

Fair play!

Fair play! He's done it!

Stand by!

Even small jumps are challenging at height.

Main issues we have is the illusion jump.

It just plays with their minds, it's not because of the gap. Yeah.

Basically just react to the words of command.

Cos on the day of the races, you're in that door, when you get the red on, green on, go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to go.

Go! Go! Go!

Pick yourself up!

Good lad! No congratulations or anything, just get on with it.

I like that. That's what this job needs.

Get on with it. Go!

Good! I was just talking to a lad, do you know what he said?

Every jump's a night jump.

HE LAUGHS

Every jump's a night jump.

I thought, that's a good 'un.

It's Guy's turn next.

Get warmed up.

Oh, you biter!

Civilians are prohibited from using MoD equipment,

so instead, Guy will be tested

on his own specially-constructed trinasium.

Built to the same 18-metre height,

a fall would mean serious injury...

Stay on the toes. ..or death.

For the next four hours, he'll be drilled by an unforgiving selection team,

led by Sergeant Major Keith Shark.

You couldn't just rock up with a bunch of civvies and say, "Crack on, get across it".

People will break legs.

Be aggressive. Come on, stick with it.

It's not a toy.

It is there for a reason.

It's a confidence course.

Come here.

Right, calm BLEEP down.

I'm going to set the scene.

Before midnight on fifth June, 1944,

600 men jumped into DZ. They went to the naval battery.

Out of that, only 75 survived.

The reason why they survived is because they had airborne mentality.

Teamwork, aggression, speed, control.

And, most of all, the will to win.

That's what I want to see from you.

So what I've got today for you

is a small snippet of what it means to be a paratrooper.

You have to prove to me you can jump out a plane. You understand?

Yes, Staff.

Happy? Yes, Staff.

You sure? Yes, Staff. Nervous?

No, Staff. You will be.

Climb. Go! Get away, let's go!

Keep close to contact at all times and climb up. Let's go!

Climb!

Guy climbs to the top, six storeys high.

When I say stand by, I want your number and your name.

Do you understand? Yes, Staff.

Stand by! Release the bars!

What do you say?

Number eight, Private Martin, Staff!

Put your arms out wide, shimmy along!

Steady-ho, steady-ho. Let's go!

Do not lean forward! Push your hips forward!

Look at the obstacle, cross it.

Do not hesitate. Look at it, get across it!

Get across it!

Now! Well done!

Do not touch the bars! Get over it!

Get over it! Stand still! Stand still!

Touch your toes. Touch your toes!

Touch your toes! Stop showing off!

Stand still!

Walk to the end with your chest.

Walk to the end, walk to the end, walk to the end, walk to the end!

OK, climb down.

Fall back too much, a little bit of hesitation.

After then, I was sort of all right.

After the shuffle bars...

Now, go to your left and stand still.

..comes the illusion jump.

A one-metre gap that seems impossibly wide

when there's nothing below.

When I say go, react. You understand?

Yes, Staff.

Listen in. Stand by!

Stand up. Stand up!

What are you supposed to say?

Number eight, Private Martin, Staff.

Remember it!

Stand by! Number eight, Private Martin, Staff.

Down! Jump!

Go! Keep going! Keep going!

Keep going! Well done! Get across!

Do not BLEEP about!

Keep going! Keep going. Climb!

Come on, get up there, get up there.

Knees on the outside, knees on the outside!

Come on, slide along! All the way to the end!

Phase one complete.

I didn't struggle with the illusion jump. Climb down the ladder! That was all right.

The biggest thing was, number eight, Private Martin, Staff.

I was just trying to remember those words.

Next, Guy must advance to battle.

Phase two. When I say spin, you spin.

When I say grenade, you're going to BLEEP dig in with your eyelids.

Good to go? Yes, Staff.

Turn, face that way. Stand by. Now! Sprint! Get going!

Grenade!

Get down! Get down! Good! Get going!

BOTH SHOUT AT ONCE

Crawl, you BLEEP idiot! Stand up!

Stand up! Stand up! Come here!

What did I say to you?

Why I say grenade, you BLEEP get down!

Do you understand?! Yes, Staff. You need to get down! You'll get BLEEP killed!

You will BLEEP die! Sprint, go!

Let's go, let's go! The tough treatment is known as combat inoculation.

Crawl! Crawling's hard.

Just crawling, like that, that's hard.

Get up! Get up!

It's designed to get paratroopers hardened to adversity.

Underneath, underneath! Get underneath it, get underneath it!

Get underneath it! Get up! Oi, get up!

Get through the middle! And again, this way!

Come on, come on! Straight through, straight through! Go!

Keep going, keep going, keep going! Keep going, keep going!

Sit down!

Keep your head down.

Don't utter a word. Stay still.

Guy's getting one afternoon of robust treatment.

The recruits of World War II went through months of it.

They knocked the sugar out of me,

in no uncertain manner, like, you know.

I thought, "What the hell's happening here?"

A bloke pushing his foot on my back

to make sure I got down in the water.

I thought I was a kingpin until I went into the Paras, you know.

Right, Staff, I'm going to bring him up.

The hardship breeds something that is crucial to those

who are first behind enemy lines - a brotherhood.

You know, we all tried to look after each other.

The comradeship in the Paras was absolutely unbelievable.

Stand up.

Phase two over. Phase three, close in and kill the enemy.

Yes, Staff. Follow me.

He's proven he can get to the front line.

Smash as hard as you can... But can Guy fight?

Milling is the final chance to show that he has the requisite

never-say-die attitude.

He'll be fighting Afghanistan veteran, Sergeant Major Sean Vine.

Good to go?

One minute of your life.

Gumshield.

Centre!

Straight punches, target area is the face.

Look at me. Think back to 1944,

when these men had to go in bunkers and clear the enemy out of them.

Do you understand? Yes, Staff. That's what you're going to do now.

You're going to fight him, smash him. Right, straight BLEEP punches.

Gloves up!

Now!

Come on, guys! Let's go!

SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going!

BELL RINGS Stop! Stop!

Up!

Get over here. Get in the corner, get in the corner! Get in the corner.

That's what I want! Keep it going, yes?!

You know what's coming now. Centre!

The will to win! Gloves up!

BLEEP smash each other now!

SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Stop! Guy's milling career finishes on the floor.

BELL RINGS Stand up.

Good effort. Face the referee.

Valiant effort by both.

However, Sean wins.

APPLAUSE Well done, fellas.

Get over there, get the gloves off.

As soon as the bell rang, he clocked me straight on the nose

and I was sort of, like, "Right, you're getting it now".

Come here, come here. All right?

Calm it down now, calm. All right?

What you've proved to me there is that you can work at height.

You can take a thrashing and you can get in that trench

and go hand-to-hand with enemy.

Well done. Give us your hand.

Well done, lads. Give them a round of applause.

APPLAUSE Well done, Guy! Well done, Guy!

You all right? Yeah.

Half the battle is getting back up.

People that get hit, get hurt and run away, we don't want people like that.

The people we want in are the people willing to get up and get stuck in,

and that's exactly what he did, so fair play to him.

I might've landed a couple but then I'm on my arse again.

I didn't see where they came from. Did not see where they came from.

I think he was in a world of hurt,

but he's got the drive needed to be an airborne warrior.

Well done, mate. Good work, good work.

Yeah. No worries, mate.

HE CHUCKLES AND EXHALES

Got a thick head now. Need a cup of tea.

Arms out, into the freefall position.

Guy's training now goes up a gear

as he makes his first ever parachute jump.

Guy Martin wants to recreate a D-Day parachute jump,

and to do it he's helping rebuild

one of the last surviving D-Day Dakotas.

Today, he'll fit the part

that gave this workhorse its legendary reliability,

letting it carry 28 paratroopers into battle with ease.

That's bloody great, innit? Just look at it.

Yeah, radial engine.

Mission today, we're fitting the second engine.

The first engine was fitted on Monday, we're on Wednesday now.

Um, 14-cylinder, Pratt & Whitney - not a massive amount of power

for its size, it's 30 litres, but it's 1100 horsepower.

It's like a truck engine -

never stressed, just plugs away, just plugs away.

I've heard stories of these, I don't know if you have.

We've had cylinders of these missing,

blown off in a, in a firefight, er, but they'll still run.

Each engine weighs more than half a tonne.

Bloody hell, she's coming, she's coming, mate.

They were reconditioned by specialists in America

at a cost of £40,000 each.

Those stanchions have never been on this airframe before

so this might need a few love letters and a bit of caressing,

a bit of a gentleman's touch.

Where do you want me? Here or...? Go on, there. Cheers, boss.

The engine is attached to the airframe by just four bolts.

But the bolts won't slot in until everything is lined up perfectly.

Jiggling match, boys, it's a jiggling match.

She's teasing us, boys, she's teasing us.

Wartime machinery requires a robust approach.

HAMMERING

One big hit is much better than millions of little ones. Yeah.

Yeah, she's in, she's in, she's in.

There are six months to go before Guy plans to jump out of this plane.

Don't worry, do not worry. That's...

They're not gonna drop off.

I'll tell you now, they aren't dropping off.

With the heavy engineering dealt with,

the team can turn their attention to some of the D-Day details.

The lead plane of every squadron

was fitted with the latest radio technology

to help the pilots drop their paratroopers

at the correct location.

Night Fright hasn't worn this special aerial since 1944.

Yeah, what we've got here is the Eureka Rebecca Pathfinding System.

These fellas here - well, not fellas, because they're girls,

it's called Rebecca - and then they would drop a bloke in a field,

he'd have a transponder box with him called Eureka,

Eureka would talk to Rebecca through beeps and beeps,

and, er... like an oscilloscope wave,

lefts and rights and rights and lefts.

And that'd get the Dakota going in the right direction

until we've got equal waves left and right.

That means we're dead ahead.

Lads out the back, job's a good 'un.

Job's a good 'un.

A secret group of paratroopers

were entrusted to deploy the Eureka boxes behind enemy lines -

the Pathfinders.

I think they trained us to believe that we were quite wonderful.

They would be the first to land in Normandy on D-Day,

operating under the cover of darkness.

They made us have carrots because they said by having

a lot of carrots they said we could see better in the dark.

20-year-old Bob, filmed here, and the other Pathfinders,

would have a crucial part to play

in ensuring the accuracy of the mass drop.

When we got on the plane there was a lot of joking

but I noticed that it gradually slowed up

and, er, and then people were very quiet.

The Pathfinders would have just a 30-minute head start to set up

the Eureka radio beacons that would guide the rest of the fleet in.

A Spitfire had gone out to see where we were going to land

and it had a photograph to show there were no enemy there.

The German camouflage must've been quite wonderful

because when we landed it was like a...

A wasp nest.

Bob had been assigned two bodyguards,

but one was immediately shot dead.

Under enemy fire, Bob hid amongst the long grass

and tuned in Eureka as quickly as possible.

Well, first of all, it didn't beep.

I was in too much of a rush, I think -

we were rather anxious to get the real paratroopers there.

And I found that the beep was just very faint.

Then it came on louder and louder,

then I could hear the aircraft itself.

Bob's mission was a success,

with hundreds of troops landing safely at his drop zone,

but not all the aircraft that delivered them got away.

I always remember there was a Dakota, it was on fire,

and the pilots just kept going until they did the job.

And then they crash-landed,

which was terrible, terribly upsetting.

The paratroopers saw off the Germans and rushed on to their targets,

leaving Bob and the three remaining members of his unit

to guard the whole drop zone.

Unfortunately, coming towards daybreak

the Germans came back and that caused us some trouble.

They brought a tank in, and, er...

..one blew me up.

My hair got burned, my face got burned,

and it just...

I just felt dopey.

Bob was captured.

After his wounds were treated, he was handed over to

some of Hitler's most fanatical troops, the SS.

Unfortunately, they found out I was a Pathfinder.

They kept asking, "How many units? How many more are coming?

"Where are you going?" It went on and on and on.

I tried to joke once or twice.

That was rather a painful experience - you don't joke,

you don't joke with the SS. They don't like it.

Once you've been hit once, the pain is not so bad the second time.

After three days of interrogation,

Bob was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

From his hospital bed, he worked on the escape committee.

While work continues in Coventry fitting the Dakota's tail...

OK, ready when you are. Ready.

..the next stage of Guy's preparations

for his own personal D-Day take him to Nottinghamshire.

First taste of parachute jumping.

I've no apprehension at all about what's gonna happen today.

I'm gonna get chucked out the side of a Cessna.

Nothing's gonna go wrong. Nothing's gonna go wrong.

In the run up to D-Day, the village of Langar

was home to four American squadrons of Dakotas.

Now it is one of the training bases for the Red Devils,

the Parachute Regiment's freefall display team.

They will be flying in formation today

and have agreed to take Guy along for the ride.

Arms out into the freefall position, brilliant.

And what we'll do is we'll just move these arms slightly forward like so,

nice and relaxed.

We could hit maybe 190, 200mph. Oh, cool.

Yeah, pretty quick. Bloody hell, right.

Sergeant Dean Walton has done 1,500 jumps...

Move them out into this position here.

..and has some invaluable advice for Guy the novice.

During World War II when the Dakota was used by the military,

it did have a reputation for people hitting the tail.

Right. So if you jump out

and for whatever reason get big into the airflow,

you could catch a bit of lift and you could hit into the tail.

So my advance to you is... I don't want any lift.

I want to be dropping like a stone. No, you don't want lift.

So just be careful. Noted, noted. Yeah.

Things rarely go wrong, but malfunctions are always possible.

Has that gone wrong?

During Guy's visit,

this student's parachute failed to deploy correctly.

Emergency procedures are well drilled

and the reserve parachute is used instead.

Oh, look at that. What's all the panicking about?

He's got down, no-one's died.

And with that, it's time for Guy

to jump out of a plane for the first time.

He'll be strapped to Sergeant Walton as a tandem.

The jump comes with its own hazards.

I'm not very much of a deodorant wearer. I always stink.

I don't know, what's today's level like?

I've done months on the ground in Afghanistan, so... Right, yeah.

So I'm used to... It's fine.

At 16,000 feet, the world's best parachute team -

and a Grimsby lorry mechanic - get ready to jump.

At 6,000 feet, after 50 seconds of precision freefall,

it's time to pull the chute and decelerate by 100mph.

DEAN CHUCKLES, GUY WHOOPS

That's mint.

1,000 feet, later the parachute is fully inflated

and Guy is falling at 20mph.

How peaceful's that?

You lucky BLEEP, getting to do that every day.

I've never done owt like that.

I had to pop me lug holes.

Right, here we go - ready?

It's quite responsive, innit? Yeah.

It turns fast, bloody hell.

We're moving now, aren't we?

Legs up. Yeah, legs are up now.

Legs up, point your toes. Point me toes.

Point your toes, point your toes. Point me toes.

Point your toes, point your toes.

There we go, dude. That was brilliant.

You can stand up now, mate.

Dean, you're the man. Thank you very much.

No problems, buddy. Someone who enjoyed it.

There might be a little bit of apprehension

when it's me that's having to jump out the door.

I really, I was strapped to Dean, I had no say in what was happening.

But when it's me jumping out in France, yeah, it's all on me.

I'll be all right, I'll be all right. Yeah.

Thank you very much, Dean, it's been bloody great. No, no,

it's been an absolute pleasure, Guy. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Stand clear.

Back at Coventry, Night Fright's owner Charlie Walker

has made another acquisition.

Yeah, pretty cool.

It's a scrapbook from a Dakota pilot -

an extraordinary, never before published view of the war.

That's the original. What mementoes to be looking back at.

Oh, amazing. What else have we got?

That sort of gives you an idea of the scale of it, like that...

Yeah, the size of the Dakota compared to the Spitfire there.

These guys would have very limited experience

flying in tight formations together

so, you know, very little combat experience -

you imagine it's pitch black, everything's kicking off,

you know, and you've got people

dropping paratroopers in the wrong places,

aircraft bashing into each other in the formations, let alone...

That did happen? Yeah, it was chaos, absolute chaos.

Bloody hell.

These are pretty cool as well.

I mean. it wasn't just that D-Day was dropping paratroopers...

Everything that came in afterwards, yeah. Exactly, yeah.

They're then onto resupply missions and, you know, evac missions.

You can see that will be a flight nurse

stood in the cargo door of the C47 there.

Looks well-battered but he's still got a smile on his face.

He's still loving it, isn't he? Yeah.

Dakotas had carried medical supplies in Burma, North Africa and Sicily,

but their role evacuating 100,000 Normandy casualties

would be their finest hour.

The nurses on board would become known as Flying Nightingales.

It was a lovely plane. I was very fond of it.

And you got in, it was filled with ammunition or medical supplies,

so you'd sit on an ammunition box.

And that was all the luxury that we got.

And then you were given a parachute.

You can use that chute on the way over if you're attacked.

Coming back they took it off you,

because you have to stay with the patients.

Yes. Which is...fair enough.

Flying Nightingales would play an invaluable role,

but they'd always be second to the aircrew.

They had a good dinner when they landed. We got egg and chips.

We were paid eightpence each trip.

Yes. They didn't put much value on us, no.

Margaret and her fellow medics would spend over two months

taking home the wounded from D-Day and the fighting that followed.

I've not thought about this for years.

It's memories that you'd want to keep to yourself.

Oh, how horrible.

Some were so, so bad.

Arms, legs, face...

I think a facial injury is the hardest injury to take.

If it's the arm or leg it's covered,

but if you've got an injury to the face, that was...

That was hard.

The daily casualty rate of Allies, Germans and civilians

would be higher than the Somme.

Had it not been for the Dakota flying hospitals

and a new wonder drug called penicillin, it would've been worse.

Some were very grateful that they were going back home.

Others were quite sad, yeah.

But I'd never lost a patient.

The D-Day Dakotas weren't just transporters of troops and patients.

Guy's about to find out how they also dropped crucial cargo -

like an airborne motorcycle.

Chances are it's probably gonna take a bit of a battering.

Start engines.

The restoration of the D-Day Dakota that Guy Martin wants to

parachute out of is progressing...slowly.

Well, come on, let's get these buggers open.

Spares are in short supply.

These parts salvaged from a wreck in Bolivia have finally arrived...

And that's it.

..three months after payment was made.

It's been a massive, massive coup for us.

These are hot-ticket items.

3,500 quid, hey?

Right, what's the plan?

Obsessed with attention to detail,

the team are using the original manual to make sure the plane

is built exactly as it was 75 years ago.

I like the detail, though. I mean, you could, couldn't you?

You could just put a bit of sheet in there and cut it and do it

and make it look half-right, but not right.

But perfectionism takes time.

So fill your boots, have a go.

Cheers, mate, thank you.

All the painting is done by hand.

There will literally be 700,000 components like this

that all have to be sprayed.

Just slow down with the gun.

OK.

Happy? You're a natural.

I doubt it, mate!

Altogether, these would have four coats of paint,

so, as you can imagine, it's a hell of a task...

Just bring the gun away a little bit.

..but it makes such a nice job of the finished product.

That's good.

You know, that's what the aeroplane deserves.

Beautiful.

Only another 100,000 to go!

Oh, yeah, eh?

Lovely, that. A lot of work. A lot of work. A lot of work.

The quality is just mind-blowing. The detail is bloody brilliant.

You could put 1,000 men on that

and it's not really going to happen any faster.

It is all happening, slowly, but it's happening.

D-Day's airborne action was just the start.

It was to be swiftly followed by a colossal seaborne invasion,

codename: Operation Neptune.

You couldn't see the water for craft

and you began to wonder, where did all these come from?

And it wasn't only the ships, it was all the equipment that had

been on the docks - different sizes of lorries, small Jeeps,

tanks, it was really mind-boggling.

Yeah, so Operation Neptune was a massive undertaking.

7,000 boats to get 200,000 men to the Normandy coastline.

Hang on... It takes some getting your head around.

It takes some getting your head around.

That landing craft was terrible, you know,

just bobbing around like corks.

A lot of the infantry chaps,

they were as sick as dogs and some of them were even

crying for their mothers, saying, "Oh, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum..."

Then the big guns started to open up on the warships.

The destroyers that reached Normandy first would try to disable

the guns defending the beaches.

The Navy often get forgotten over D-Day,

when, in fact, if it hadn't been for the Navy,

there wouldn't have been any landings. It's simple as that.

Dubbed the Atlantic Wall,

it was supposedly Hitler's impregnable defence.

Well, I didn't think it was impregnable at all.

I think we proved that it wasn't, and proved it very well.

The firepower was tremendous.

We'd give it a little bit of a bash just to keep them quiet.

What actually gets you is the way the air vibrates.

It's a constant noise. It isn't just a noise in your ears,

it's a noise in your whole body.

You got quite a big boom.

Not...not too bad.

If I look at my mission's log book, there is no emotion there at all.

There was no panic and no rushing around or anything of that sort.

I might've got a bit panicky when the tea or the coffee

or the cocoa didn't come up to the bridge at the right time.

"Tuesday, steaming down sweat channel.

"Yanks right, us left.

"German bomber passed low overhead, opened fire with everything.

"Getting light, bombarded, target destroyed,

"fires raging, smoke, etc.

"Assault craft went in."

Well, I mean it, it all brings it back, obviously, of course, yeah.

It was our job at the time.

We took it as it came.

After the defences had been weakened,

the beach landings would finally take place.

For the first troops in, H-Hour on D-Day was 06:30.

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

There were 10,000 allied casualties on D-Day and, while tragic,

the losses were a quarter of those expected.

Attention now turned to resupplying the front line

so the invasion could advance.

One vehicle that would be instrumental was an amphibious lorry

nicknamed The Duck.

2,000 were used on D-Day.

It's about five tonne! How's that going to float?!

Guy has tracked down one of the few that still exists.

It's worth £70,000.

It's owned by a bloke called Mitch.

Mitch, you'll take us for a run in it, won't you? Please.

OK. Right, go on. The ignition is there.

Yeah. Let's turn that on. Press that button.

ENGINE REVS

Yep. Handbrake...and away you'll go.

Where's me biting point?

Oh, that's it. And we're away. That's her.

Military vehicle collector Mitchell Hickman is giving Guy

his very first amphibious driving lesson.

You got the hang of it straight away.

Do you get wet in here?

Er, no, you shouldn't do.

I'm not bothered if you do, I'm not bothered.

It does feel a bit unnerving when you go from the contact

of terra firma to the floating.

Oh, bloody hell!

I'm not really clever enough to know the maths,

but as long as it displaces the right amount of water to what

it weighs, then it will float.

And that's what it did.

Put that into third gear. Into third gear.

Give us a few revs. That's it.

She's away. And away one goes. Simple as that.

Quite manoeuvrable, quite responsive.

Let's see how it deals with a wake.

It don't bother it, does it?

It was great! It was bloody great. It was bloody great.

But if you can try and imagine what happened on D-Day...

..the lead flying around, the shells going off...

..the total chaos of it all, really.

You've gotta look at the ages of these blokes as well.

Yeah, yeah. A lot of them are 18, 19,

and try and imagine what you were like at 18 and 19 as a...

Yeah, but you don't know until you was put in that position.

If I was put in that position at 18, you'd have been...

Well, you'd have grown up very quick, wouldn't ya? You would.

Soldiers are only effective if they don't run out of bullets.

D-Day's success would hinge on the Ducks dropping ten tonnes

of cargo every hour, and delivery drivers

were every bit as important as the front-line fighters.

Guns, fuel, first-aid kits, ammo, food... Everything.

That's it, go on, go a bit faster if you like.

And then, when you're ready,

just change into second gear and you should go right out.

OK, straight up, that's it.

Now drive.

GUY CHUCKLES

There you go!

Bloody great job.

With a top speed of 50mph,

the Duck was the fastest lorry in the army.

I can't believe how comfy it is.

I thought it'd be rattling me teeth out.

After D-Day, it would be instrumental in helping the Allies

push on to Berlin.

Are we going to give it some berries?

But the king of resupply was the Dakota.

47 Air Dispatch Squadron was set up specifically to deliver

cargo to the front line on D-Day.

75 years later, they're still doing it

and still paying tribute to the Dakotas that were originally used.

To learn more about their air drops,

there can be no better cargo for someone with Guy's background

than a paratrooper's motorcycle, the Flying Flea.

Yeah, throwing motorbikes out of planes, yeah, what better way

to keep the troops supplied with the gear that they need to go forward?

And a motorbike is a bloody handy piece of kit.

Radio transmissions could be intercepted

so motorbikes were used to deliver messages instead.

Guy is going to see if one of the last remaining examples

of these 125cc Royal Enfields can really survive an air drop.

You manage to find a bloke who owned one in its original bird cage,

which is what it used to be chucked out in to keep it protected.

Matt is the bloke you've talked into allowing us

to chuck it out the back of an aircraft.

How you've talked him into it, I don't know.

Helping Guy and primary school teacher Matt make the first

motorcycle drop since the war will be a team from RAF Brize Norton

who are experts at parachuting military cargo...

..accurately.

INDISTINCT RADIO MESSAGE

Matt's still nervous. Yeah, I'm still quite nervous.

It's your baby. It's something I just couldn't replace. Yeah.

If anyone's going to do it right, these guys will.

Yeah, they know what they're doing, don't they?

We did take a few precautions.

Come on, I mean, you could nearly say it's...it's priceless.

Go on. What we doing?

So we thought we'd wrap it in a bit of a box...

..because the chances are it was probably going to take a bit of a battering.

When all my friends were buying PlayStation games,

I was buying bits of motorbike.

Only three of them in the world. No pressure or owt.

The bike still has its original rubber band suspension

and the cover that makes the head lamp harder to spot at night.

They were designed to be disposable,

so the fact it's made it this far is a miracle, really.

I'd never sell it. It's sticking with me, definitely.

We did it properly, a bit of foam...

Yeah, spot on.

..a bit of strapping.

OK, yeah, just start ratcheting it until it's tight.

Right, stop there a sec.

A bit of cardboard. What do they call it?

EDM - energy dispersal material.

Just a bit of corrugated cardboard, yeah.

Look at that, hey? Look at that.

The last job is attaching the parachute.

Er, you can never be 100% sure of anything with parachuting, but...

..I'm just excited to see it happen, really. First time since the war.

Three in the top. Three in the top.

You've got to do these things haven't you?

Yeah. Perfect.

Getting the story out about what these brave men did 75 years ago.

All they need now is a plane.

The Air Dispatcher's plane of choice

is the Dakota's modern-day equivalent, a £50 million Hercules.

The line that will pull the parachute open

is clipped onto the plane.

So you'll do this for when you're jumping as well.

That pulls that... Boom, there you go.

Static line up, DCC.

The Flying Flea is secured behind another training load.

Full, full ratchets on me. Tighten now.

One... One...

..two... ..two...

..three... ..three...

..four. ..four. Four.

Hold it there.

The mission can commence.

Start engines.

INDISTINCT RADIO MESSAGE

Radar master is on, flaps checked at 60%.

Puke packs, just in case.

Better looking at it than for it, mate!

Flight controls...

On D-Day, Dakotas flew low to try and maintain

the element of surprise.

The Hercules does exactly the same thing,

hiding behind hills from enemy radar.

Yeah, come left a little bit, mate, you've got...

Just to the right-hand side. Come left.

So we're coming up into Snowdonia, Matt.

Yeah, look, they're above us.

The view from the front is great...

..but the view from the rear...

..is spectacular.

Twice the size, twice as fast

and about five times the payload of a Dakota.

I've got some confidence in that, ain't I?

How can it get any more exciting than that?

Going out the back of a Hercules over Bala Lake,

how does it get any more exciting than that?

Best job in the world.

Yeah. Yeah, on days like this, it is the best job in the world.

Beautiful. Look at that. Look at that.

This is Ascot 128, signal Charlie 130,

en route to Abingdon to commence air drop.

In 1944, the loads were pushed out by hand and gravity did the rest.

Today, the principle is the same.

Stand by. Action stations, action stations.

The shackles will be released by computer, then when the pilot

pulls the nose slightly up, the bike should fall out the back.

One minute, one minute. Pop up, pop up. Go, 125 not set.

The Air Dispatchers are a highly specialised unit of 150 people,

more used to flying dangerous missions,

supplying secret equipment to special forces...

30 seconds. All right, stand by.

..but even for them, dropping a priceless World War II motorbike

from 400 feet is an unknown quantity.

Red on, red on.

Green on, green on.

Load moving. Load moving.

Load moving. Load moving.

Load off.

Guy Martin and the 47 Air Dispatch Squadron have just airdropped

an incredibly rare paratrooper's motorbike for the first time

since World War II.

The package appears to be in one piece, but owner Matt Moore

is about to find out if the priceless contents still works.

You can just see the back wheel, I think.

You can see part of the frame.

Yeah, what does it look like Matt?

What do you think? Well, they seemed to be very low.

Canopy took a bit of time to open.

It's certainly improved its top speed, anyway. Yeah.

It made a bump when it landed.

Oh, did it? Yeah, you could hear it from where we were.

Looking promising. She's all there, mate.

Looks good, doesn't it?

Good job.

Just like that.

Job's a good 'un. We'll get her going, shall we?

No messing.

Now, it's time for Guy to perform the acid test.

You're away!

Not quite an Isle of Man course, but it's all right, innit?

Like a peach!

When you ride it, it feels really fast.

When you're looking at someone else riding it, it looks really slow.

TOOTS HORN

That's bloody brilliant. Hey! Nicely done.

That's bloody brilliant.

Matt was happy, I was happy.

Not too bad for having just jumped, is it?

I think this will take some beating. This will taking some beating...

..really, won't it? Where you beating that?

Still, I don't think I'd have risked what Matt has risked.

Risk!

Oh, I wouldn't trust me with it, anyway.

The Flying Flea isn't the only piece

of original paratrooper equipment in Matt's collection.

So, go on, Matt. What else have we got? Right, well, I'll start with

some of the stuff you'd have been issued, if you were a paratrooper...

OK. ..going off on D-day.

The first thing you'd be given is two of those.

24-hour ration.

Basically, it's high-energy stuff. Yeah.

It's all stuff to keep you going.

Chocolate, oatmeal, meat, sweets.

There's even toilet paper in there as well.

Bloody hell, just in case! You won't always be on the curry

the night before, though, with that amount. As well as that,

you'd be given this... Go on.

..which is your emergency ration.

Again, pure energy. Yes.

This has actually got speed in it. Is that right?!

So, it's what, with speed in it? It's just chocolate.

With speed? Yeah. Amphetamine? Yeah.

"Only open on instructions of an officer." Right!

But then, the problem was, you start seeing Germans behind

every blade of grass. Has that gone off? Probably.

No, there's not a lot there. So, then, the other thing

you'd be given... Go on.

This is a real James Bond gadget.

It looks like an ordinary uniform button.

Yeah, it does. You unscrew the top...

Bloody hell, compass inside. Tiny little compass, yeah.

Look at the workmanship in that!

Early on, the Germans found out about these,

that British troops were wearing them,

so when they captured them, they unscrewed them and found them...

Yeah. ..so the way they got round that is, the later ones,

they put a left-handed thread on them. Did they?

So the Germans tried to unscrew it and just tightened it up.

They never found them after that. Is that right?

Yeah, Matt, thanks very much.

Bloody brilliant.

Back at Coventry, the build is behind schedule,

but work has started on the cockpit instruments.

You need to see that, boy.

If you want to see what fuel level you've got in each tank,

just turn a nob.

Right-hand main, left-hand main.

How trick is that!

Original war-time parts are being sourced from all over the world.

We've all these shackles,

these have been dug out of French fields,

and, then, we've got the tow rope.

Nylon rope had only just come out.

It's got communication wires threaded through the centre.

You see, in the middle of the bloody rope.

A tow rope, because after Dakotas had dropped their paratroopers

on D-day, they would make a second journey over Normandy

towing gliders behind them.

It's all right dropping paratroopers off, you know,

like a stick of 12 that's jumped out...

You know, they could be spread, at the best, over 100 metres,

you know, at the worst, over miles.

If you're dropping them in a glider,

we could keep the force united, you see, and that carried 25 men right,

so we could have fuel in there, could have a jeep in there and we

could have artillery in there like a big gun, so we could do some damage.

And the Horsa, what this was towing, right?

It's the size of a bloody Lancaster bomber!

These wooden giants were flown

by some of the air force's true mavericks.

We'd volunteered for something dangerous.

We were not to be disappointed.

The Horsa was a masterpiece, really.

I would hazard a guess that it was the best glider

that any country turned out during the war.

You've got to keep it in line with your tug plane.

You can't go up too high, otherwise you'll pull his nose down,

cos you lift his tail up.

You've got to keep bang on all the time.

Cut loose.

There are two ways you can land a glider.

You can glide in nice and gently or you can stick the nose down

and dive like hell and get down as fast as you can.

With no armour or weapons,

you chose a steep, fast landing if you were being shot at.

As we flew in, there was a line of tracer came up in front of me.

Now that was a chap aiming at me who was a very bad aimer.

You were completely defenceless. You're at the mercy of the gods.

I was landing with a tail wind of about 27 knots,

which is not the way to land!

I could see some trees coming up so I slammed it down on the deck

and, in so doing, dinged in the nose wheel

so when ultimately we came to a halt, we were distinctly nose-heavy

with the tail out in the air.

We all walked out.

The explosives carried in Laurie's glider

would be used by paratroopers to blow up Troarn Bridge

on the eastern flank.

I didn't know it was the most important bridge at the time,

but I'm not letting anybody forget it now.

It wasn't just a one-trick pony.

You could use a glider again.

You had your tow rope on your glider

and the end of the tow rope was a huge circle supported on some poles.

And the Dakota, particularly, was good at this, and it would come in

as about - well, zero feet pretty, well - with a hook and catch on

to this circle and the glider pilots would suddenly get jerked like that.

It were absolutely incredible.

There are now six weeks left before Guy's parachute jump.

He's back in Coventry to find out if the plane that he's been

helping rebuild is going to be ready on time.

All right?

She's not looking good, boys. Best come and have a look.

Come on.

Come on.

Right.

It's a bit of a way off, isn't it?

It's not going to be ready.

It is fair to say it's not going to be ready.

It's been a huge project...

Massive, massive. ..and a huge undertaking,

but we wouldn't have sat here

and said it was going to be ready for June

if we genuinely didn't think it was going to be ready for June,

but it's all the detail.

Go on, what are we talking about? I mean...

You know, this costs you a week here and two weeks there

and three weeks here... Go on.

Oh, there's lots of things, really.

I mean corrosion has been the biggest problem

with this aircraft, I mean, you know,

it's got something like 90,000 flying hours on this airframe.

90,000 hours?! 90,000 flying hours,

so, you know, you pull the fuel tanks out, it's all corroded,

it's not a five-minute job to replace sections of skin, you know,

it takes longer than you think and we've probably been

victims of our own perfectionism a little bit and that's cost us

time and money and everything else that goes with it,

but, of course, you get that sinking feeling that you're not going to

be taking it to the 75th.

I'm not disappointed, I'm not disappointed because they're

being true to the original plan of absolute perfection,

so I'd rather it this way, yeah.

I'd rather it was right than ready.

So go on, right, I'd still like, erm...

..and these boys would jump out of a Dakota.

So you need to jump out, don't you? I do.

We need to find another C-47, don't we, really?

Yeah, how could that possibly happen?

There's this EC3 Airshow C-47 community out there

so I think if we called in a favour or two...

Do you think it could happen? I think we could make that happen, yeah.

We've got to get you to jump out, haven't we?

So we'll find you an aircraft, the plan will be the same.

We'll take off and we'll chuck you out the back.

Right. Thank you very much, Charlie. No worries. Thank you.

Guy needs to hope that, just as in 1944

when the Allies could rely on a seemingly endless supply

of American built equipment, another plane will always be available.

That massive equipment advantage was witnessed

first-hand by a 19-year-old German dispatch rider.

IN GERMAN:

As part of a reconnaissance unit, Erich rode a motorcycle

all over Normandy, witnessing the superior Allied supply lines.

When the Germans lost a tank, they tried to repair it overnight,

but if his enemies lost a tank, it was replaced by five more.

The Allies had total air supremacy as well.

Erich's division was destroyed in the Battle of Normandy.

He eventually surrendered to the Allies,

but a mutual respect had formed between the enemies.

You saw quite a few dead.

You did feel sorry for them.

Whether they were German or whether they were British,

you thought, "Poor sods, they never made it."

I've got quite a lot of friends now in Germany that I can go to

and they would give me their dinner and everything else

and be friends with each other.

Today, the Normandy battlefields are a tourist attraction

and it's where Guy will visit next for the most important part

of his D-Day adventure.

There is one vital piece of the machine that needs putting in

and that's me having a parachute licence, which I haven't got,

so for anything to go forward, for me to able to jump out of a Dakota,

I need to get a parachute licence,

but I want to jump with an original parachute, which is a

round canopy and to be able to jump with one of those,

I've got to go do it in France, so we'd best go for a look.

Go!

Go!

There are few parachute schools that still teach how to use

a World War II style round canopy.

Go!

The nearest one is in France.

Ladies and gentlemen, messieurs, dames, ecoutez moi.

So a little briefing before we start,

a debriefing avant de commence.

Guy and a group of military history enthusiasts from across Europe

are here for a week-long course...

That's for you.

..led by jump master Hubert Acton.

1, 1,000, 2, 1,000, 3, 1,000, 4, 1,000.

And then check your canopy.

It may perhaps not open, this is why you need to check it.

Ground school was great. Hubert...

..um...

Je fais le grand aigle. He can be very theatrical.

Et naturellement, on ceux de regard, j'ai...

I was making notes, I was making notes, yeah.

Trying to keep awake, yeah.

This is the same static line system that was used on D-Day.

A hook is tied to the plane

and the act of jumping out breaks the cords that deploy the parachute.

Just start counting, 1, 1,000 - slow motion.

2, 1,000, 3, 1,000.

Vrrrrrr, it's open.

If the main parachute fails...

No canopy.

..you have just four seconds to

manually pull the spring-loaded reserve... There you go.

..before hitting the ground.

Never hesitate to pull that reserve, it's your life.

After the theory comes the practical.

Prepare to land.

Land.

Almost.

Guy will hit the ground at 18mph.

The safest way to spread that impact energy is with a technique

engrained in D-Day paratroopers 75 years ago.

Keep your feet together, bend your knees

and land on the flat of your feet and roll over.

There you go.

And you'll be quite safe.

Parachute training was very tough going in those days.

The first thing we did was to go up in a basket out of a balloon.

And that was horrible cos all you could hear was

the creaking of the basket.

I was lucky, I never thought about hesitating at all.

As a young officer, you couldn't begin to show any fear.

Today's students must complete five jumps before they are awarded

their wings.

Turn.

Bends forward.

If Guy doesn't complete the course safely,

he won't be allowed to take off from England

and make his commemorative D-Day jump into Normandy.

Good to go.

A bit nervous, a little bit nervous, little bit nervous, yeah.

What's the worst that can happen? Well, it's quite simple, really.

Torpedo into the ground at terminal velocity,

I don't really want to be doing that.

Ah, good old boy. Top old boy, good old boy.

Cheers, boss, thank you. French.

Guy's first solo jump will have the added pressure of being

watched by his family.

Yahoo! Airborne!

It's not an easy drop zone.

Because we have the cliffs right over there.

And, er, there we have a big city.

Hubert, if anything goes wrong, that's one pull upwards?

Yeah, just...

Pull it upwards. And it goes up.

You've got to just let yourself go and see what happens, and land.

You really have to steer your parachute.

Sit in the door.

Put your legs out.

Here it is, you see it? Yeah, yeah.

Go!

Get canopy, gain canopy control.

Ah.

The holes in the parachute direct air flow and offer limited

steering when Guy pulls on the toggles to rotate the canopy.

Into the wind, into the wind.

But he soon realises he's heading for the runway rather than

the soft grass.

Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Despite hitting the asphalt, his first parachute landing is

a success.

You see, it all came as a bit of a shock, really,

because he's just going, "Jump!"

Let's go!

And then I thought, "Oh, that ground's coming fairly sharpish!"

Next thing I was on the bloody runway.

I came here sort of half worried that I didn't really want to go

and spanner myself. Thank you.

And I just done that, on the concrete, nothing to worry about.

Not everyone is as lucky as Guy.

But thankfully, nothing's broken.

Unfortunately, Guy's second jump

does not end well.

Go!

So I jumped out, I do my 1,000, 2,000, 3,000.

Gets to me 4, 1,000,

looks up... "Oh, heck, I've got some twists. Bugger."

You've got twists, you've got twists.

So I have to do what I was taught - get my hands up there,

pedal me legs like a push-bike to try and get those twists out.

And by that stage I thought, "I'm going to end up in the water here!"

All right, back to it, back to it, back to it, back to it.

Good job, good job, good job.

Turned into the wind to try and slow everything down.

And then I've sort of... I'm going to land in that field.

Oh, BLEEP.

That's you right.

Get your feet together, mate, feet together.

I just ploughs into the ground.

And bloody smacked me head.

BLEEP!

HE GRUNTS

Gets dragged along a bit.

Matey boy gets out his tractor, gives me a hand to get my parachute down.

Yeah, mate, sorry about knackering your...field.

Merci, sorry. Merci. Merci.

No panicking - job's a peach.

Some jumpers get caught out by a gusting wind...

Oooh!

..landing in trees, on the airport terminal roof,

and in the fuel dump.

Right.

See you in a bit, thanks, mate.

But it's Guy who has the longest walk home,

all the way round the perimeter fence.

Don't blame me.

I made the best of a bad job.

What more could you have done?

Well, I got a twist.

He makes it back two hours later, with his first parachuting injury.

A cut nose. Ah, merci!

MAN SPEAKS FRENCH

The helmet. Yeah, helmet, BLEEP helmet.

Done more damaged than it saved, I think.

Allez.

Merci, merci.

The next day, the parachutes are repacked.

Round canopies like these were designed to be easy

for soldiers to use, but the basic steering contributed

to 10% of D-Day paratroopers landing 10 miles off target.

It's such a lottery.

Yeah, if you're set to go out at midnight

the night before D-Day, don't matter what the wind's doing,

you're getting tossed out of that at night whilst being shot at.

Hey, it got men on the ground, just not generally in the right county.

Preparations begin for the third jump.

While some people are anxious, there was

only one thought in the minds of the 23,000 British

and American paratroopers who jumped into Normandy.

We wanted to be the best.

I don't know about being too scared.

We were trained...that way.

Sometimes they said wash your brains.

All right.

Honestly, I never was scared because I didn't know what the hell war was.

I knew that they killed one another,

but I didn't think that was going to happen to me.

Legs out the door.

You have a feeling when you go out the door,

but you've already made up your mind what you're going to do.

And that's it.

Go!

Go!

Go!

Legs together, mate.

Best one yet.

Guy even had time to admire the view.

See the cliffs, see the water.

I could see the bloody distance I walked yesterday!

Go!

Guy's next two attempts go perfectly.

He passes his parachute course with flying colours.

All right, mate. It's all right. Thank you very much.

You qualified. Thanks for all your time and effort, mate, great job.

Right, what do we do next? Big one.

Chucking me out over Normandy.

Guy's next jump will be for his very own D-Day landing,

out of a Dakota into a Normandy drop zone by the very first

village to be liberated during the war.

I'm looking forward to it. What an honour.

Guy Martin's D-Day mission will start at Membury -

a forgotten airfield in Berkshire.

In 1944, four squadrons of Dakotas carrying

the 101st Airborne Division

departed here for Operation Overlord.

She'd have been a busy place, unlike now.

Well, it just would've been a sea of Dakotas, wouldn't it?

50-odd Dakotas based here.

All with 28 men in 'em, taking off within

seconds of each other, really. Yeah, and all top secret.

A Dakota hasn't flown paratroopers from here since D-Day until now.

This is the plane Guy will jump from,

made available by its generous owner at the 11th hour.

It is one of only three airworthy wartime Dakotas in the country.

It's all right, innit? It is a proper D-Day machine.

You can see the pictures - can you see them there?

Can you see 'em?

The top line of how many aid missions its done,

how many paratroop missions its done, how many glider

missions its done and then the train at the bottom is the resupply...

Peachy.

Guy will use this plane to recreate Mission Albany, flying from

Membury to the exact coordinates of a D-Day drop zone by Utah Beach.

Pilot Charlie Walker will be in the cockpit.

And then run into the drop zone across this way so essentially

what we're doing is retracing their steps from Membury 75 years ago.

75 years ago. Which is pretty cool, really. A momentous day.

It will be. Fingers crossed!

Situated 500 metres behind the invasion coast,

drop zone Alpha is still a challenging target. Surrounded

by hazards, Guy will have to land in a field just 150 metres square.

Yeah, nervous, I think nerves are good, the focus,

they focus the mind. Nothing to worry about. You're gonna love it.

You're not jumping out the back, though, are ya?

I'm not - well, not intentionally anyway.

Joining guy for this very special jump are 12 friends

he made at parachute school...

This way... Other way.

Hook up!

..all under the careful control of jump master Hubert.

Check static lines! Check static lines!

The Dakota will be flying faster than anything

Guy experienced in training...

THEY ALL SHOUT OUT

..and there are far more safety procedures to get right.

Three OK! Two OK! One OK.

All OK, jump master.

All OK, jump master. All OK, jump master.

That's it. Questions?

No?

The drop zone is ready.

Complete with temporary passport control.

The 90-minute cross-Channel flight, with the door off, can begin.

How do you read me? Loud and clear? Loud and clear.

Joining Charlie in the cockpit is experienced display pilot

Peter Kuypers.

And let's blow away a couple of Portaloos. Yeah, why not?

I remember well, our colonel said

we have got a plum job in the invasion.

The sound of the aircraft above was deafening.

You couldn't see the sky for aircraft.

I don't think you gave any thought

about whether it's dangerous or whatever,

it didn't enter your head.

10 minutes! 10 minutes!

When we got over the French coast, the anti-aircraft fire

started and that made us think a little bit.

Can you see it?

Get ready!

ALL: Get ready!

I thought, well, "Blimey, we ain't gonna be able to see

"anybody." We didn't have to see them,

we knew where they were when you see all the bloody shells

whooping up at ya.

Hook up! ALL: Hook up!

Six OK! Five OK!

Four OK! Three OK!

Two OK!

One OK, jump master!

This is what we trained for - we never had any hesitation at all.

Stand at the door.

This is what helped to win the war

because there was this very well disciplined soldiers and sailors

and airmen who were actually running it on the front line.

I don't know that I've got a lot of knowledge of today's

18-year-olds or whatever but, er,

I'm hopeful they would do a similar job.

11 o'clock. Go!

Jumping, jumping.

Guy leads the way into the 90mph airstream.

Oh, we've got a bit of a twist on, bit of a twist.

Guy's parachute has multiple twists...

..but he frees himself.

That's it, that's it.

Go! Jumping, jumping.

And the sky is full of the first Membury-to-Normandy mass drop

in 75 years.

Jumpers out, jumpers out.

Oh, you can feel it's already a bit lighter. Yeah.

No hesitation at all.

All Guy has to do now is land safely.

It'd be all right, mate, if it weren't an electric fence.

Ooh!

We're in Normandy, I've got me passport with me, Officer!

The gendarmes, the gendarmes.

Bloody frightened of that bloody electric fence, man.

I was a bit nervous and I was sort of talking meself

out of it. Everyone was sort of relying on me here because I'm

first out, and I was sort of saying,

"Bloody hell, what are you gonna do? You can't back out now."

So I had to change the subject in me head

and then the next thing Hubert is shouting, "Jump!"

Go!

That's it, I was out the door.

And then you just think, "What would that have been like 75 years ago?"

The tension must've been unbearable.

That was only the drive to work, really, you know,

they was landing to do a job at what, 1:00 in the morning, eh?

Whilst being shot at! Yeah, all right, mate.

I've been thinking twice and I'm doing it for a bit of craic, eh?

Massive respect, just...

Hopefully we've done the 75th anniversary of D-Day justice,

just had the tiny bit of the experience of what those boys

had, just a tiny bit. Bloody brilliant, bloody brilliant.

I don't think them boys are that fussed, to be honest, because

the passport control man has just buggered off, he ain't checked me.

So I've invaded France, officially - officially!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media