MISSION FAILURE - JUMP INTO OCEAN
3rd Squad is tense, ready and primed to leap into the sky. Anti-aircraft fire shakes the plane and the men are desperate get out of the C-47.
"I'm a smaller target than this big, slow bird!" Corporal Kelly yells to Turnbull.
The Lieutenant, however, feels something is wrong. Why can't he see other Allied planes?
"And where is St. Mere-Eglise?", he wonders aloud.
But before Turnbull knows it the jump light turns green.
"Go! Go! Go!" Corporal Kelly yells, pushing Turnbull, straining to get out of the plane.
Turnbull jumps and the slipstream slams him backwards. The Lieutenant bangs about as his chute unfurls and swallows air before settling into the wind.
For a second, Turnbull thinks that all is ok but his relief evaporates when he looks down.
Where there should be farmlands and hedgerows, Turnbull sees only miles upon miles of ocean!
"We've jumped over the Channel!" Turnbull realizes.
They jumped low and Turnbull has only seconds before he's in the water.
Turnbull hits hard and his heavy gear immediately drags him under the waves. His thrashing only wraps him in the parachute harness, sucking him under.
All of Turnbull's paratroopers die the same way.
The last to jump, Sergeant Pickett, lands a few hundred feet from the battleship Nevada, steaming towards the landing beaches.
Pickett yells for help as he descends, but his words are smothered by the roar of the wind....
Go on to the right decision - hold off on the jump switch...
