Mr. Conti of 834th Air Engineer Battalion (Col John J. Livingstone, 9ème Air Force) remembers and tells
"In the early morning of June 6th, the advanced range (a rhinoferry, with earth-moving equipment, and an LCT with Company A and a detachment from the Company of Services) approached Vierville at 10.30 a.m. The passage in the obstacles was not yet clear ... After half a dozen attempts to approach, the artillery started shooting at us, touching a rhino engine that became impossible to manoeuvre. .... We could no longer move towards the land and risk losing our equipment. The Navy reported that there was no room for us and towed us to the cargo mooring area.... On the 7th, we landed in Saint-Laurent. We had to go to Saint-Pierre-du-Mont again in the hands of the enemy. Recognitions were made to find another site. One, on the cliff, at exit E-1, was retained.
We advanced, demining the ground so that the machines could pass and work .... Teams took care of eliminating snipers .... As soon as the vehicles were able to work (on 8 June), the track was plotted and levelled.
At the beginning of the afternoon (June 9) aircraft were flying hoping to land. A few Air Force radio operators who were with us served. These aircraft ran out of gas, although the terrain was far from complete. General Quesada (of the 9thème Air Force) placed one of the first ......
This same fact is reported by the pilot of a C-47 of 31ème Transport group coming to pick up wounded people. As he was preparing to land, the radio controller asked him to clear off so that a general could land. He regained altitude and then learned that the general in question was General Quesada.
Upon his return to England, Major General Quesada called the Ninth Air Force HQ. Unbelievable! There is a 1000 m track with petrol, ammunition and supplies on the top of the cliff. It's a real, dirt track. " The track was not covered.
Close to the field was a hospital embryo. Miss Tierney of 806 Wing of Sanitary Evacuation - landed there on June 11 and she remembers the poignant spectacle of the beach. She left with 18 wounded. It's Colonel C. Feldmann (Commandant of the 3rd Transport Group) who led this first evacuation mission aboard these flying hospitals. These "merciful aircraft" were these C-47s equipped with 18 stretchers and emergency medical intervention equipment. She landed there 16 times in June and 9 times in July. His wing, still carried by the 31stème Transport Group, evacuated to England from A21C and A1, in June 4,440 wounded and 6,590 in July.
On June 15, the headquarters of the 9thème Air Force asked Service Command to take over the A21 airfield. Parking areas were added and covered with MST (square mesh) grilling. This land was used as a transportation and medical evacuation terminal.
On the days that followed the storm of June 19 that destroyed the artificial port of Omaha, a large cargo could be transported through this land.
3 names were used for this aerodrome: E1, T1 and then finally A-21C. E1 probably because close to the E1 output. T1 appears to have been used by the Service Command.
The 834ème Bataillon was decorated for his action on A21C, then on A1 (St-Pierre-du-Mont), then on A9 (Le Molay-Littry).
:! C(,IillileÉlli'telli, n.i.e.