Chester County PA Archives News.....Lieut. Dilks D-Day Account* July 13, 1944
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dan Lindley danoh19344@hotmail.com September 22, 2005, 9:21 am

Daily Local News July 13, 1944
Daily Local News
July 13, 1944
From the Ninth Air Force Troop Carrier Base in the European Theatre of 
Operations comes the story of Lieut. Bertram H. Dilks, Jr., AAF, Harrisburg, 
and the crew of his C-47 ‘skytrain’, which took off on a paratroop mission on 
the Normandy peninsula in the largest armada of troop-carrier planes ever 
assembled.  Almost miraculously, he flew through a hail of flak and machine-gun 
fire, reaching his drop zone on schedule, and brought his plane, riddled in 22 
places back to its base.

Lieut. Dilks is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Bertram H. Dilks, of Harrisburg, and a 
grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar H. Dilks, 335 West Barnard Street, West 
Chester.  In describing the flight, Lieut. Dilks says;
“I had no fear of enemy opposition from the air, due to the thousands of Allied 
fighter panes that provided an umbrella for us, but the flak was very intense 
along the coastline and near the objective.  We had to come out low after 
dropping the boys, and as a result we ran into heavy machine-gun fire.  I could 
feel he bullets hitting the plane and it started to get out of trim.  I made 
inquiries over the interphone as to how the crew were, and when old that they 
were all O.K., I informed them that we would try for our home base if our gas 
would hold out.  We landed with very little to spare and that was leaking out 
fast.”
Lieut Dilks is a graduate of the Sunbury High School. His wife, Mrs. Gladys 
Dilks, lives in New Haven, Mich., with their ten-month’s old son, Bertram H. 
Dilks 3rd, whom he has never seen.

His brother, Sergeant Edgar A. Dilks, is doing radio work in the South Pacific, 
going overseas last January.  He trained at Cherry Point, N.C.; Jacksonville, 
Fla., and San Diego.  Before going in the service he was a machinist at 
Middletown Air Depot.	



Additional Comments:
*No title was on the article, but entered this for searchability.  Reference 
grand parents Edgar & Abigail Dilks whose obits and other Dilks are posted.

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