Operation Neptune (D-Day) Parachute Jump Manifest Document

pid

es5045_d-day-jump-manifest-document

label

Operation Neptune (D-Day) Parachute Jump Manifest Document

Timestamp

10/6/2021 20:50:00

URL for full object

https://amcmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/d-day-jump-manifest-document.jpg

Citation for full object

“D-Day Jump Manifest Document.” Donated by Winfield Wood, Air Mobility Command Museum, 18 Apr. 2015, https://amcmuseum.org/collections/d-day-jump-manifest-document/.

Filename in shared drive folder

es5045_d-day-jump-manifest-document

General description of the complete original artifact

World War 2 Jump Manifest for Operation Neptune (D-Day) dated June 5, 1944. The form includes fields such as Drop Order, Army Serial Number, Rank, Full Name, Remarks and additional filled in fields labeled Main and Reserve. The bottom portion of the manifest also holds information on containers loaded onto the drop aircraft with their respective fields Rack No., Type, Contents (Gen.), Gross Weight, Prcht., and Color/light. This form becomes classified once filled out and the backside holds information on the aircrafts’ crew (NOT DIGITIZED). This specific document represents the 82nd Airborne paratroopers who were dropped at St. Mere-Eglise, France.

Estimated number of records in data set

24

Estimated number of fields if this were a database

13

Estimated time to digitize all records in set (hours)

1 hour. Single Document

Time period when data was created

20th century. June 5, 1944

Organization creating data

US Army Air Force

Individual who created data (if known or guessable).

Ineligible signature on document. It was donated to the Air Mobility Command Museum by TSgt. Winfield “Bing” Wood who was an aerial engineer on the aircraft listed on the form, a C-47 Skytrain nicknamed “Turf & Sport Special” (42-92841).

Shortcomings of this taxonomy for data set (if any)

The only shortcoming in the organization of this data is the filled in fields labeled Main and Reserve. They seem to be essential entries that the document does not account for. Every solider on the list, excluding those crossed out, have a Main and Reserve number that seems to correspond to a form of categorization or classification.

Notes about the image you chose

There are entries on this form that are crossed out by different colored pens indicating that they were confirmed as soldiers that are not dropping by different people. The soldiers crossed out on the manifest also do not Main or Reserve numbers, additional fields added to the form. This indicates that these numbers could have been written down when the soldiers boarded the aircraft and were confirmed dropping on the mission. Under the remarks field specialized soldiers were labeled such as medics. Private Joseph Morettini had a remark (NMI) stating “No Middle Initial” showing that the military took drastic measures to ensure proper soldier documentation. The first 18 entries in the personnel section have the same handwriting while the 19th and 20th were filled in by someone else. This indicates the document was exchanged between soldiers leaving opportunities for discrepancies. The entries under containers also have differences in handwriting indicating there were decisions made at different times on what to load onto the aircraft.