History

On the early morning of D-Day, June 6, 1944, Flight Officer Pete Buckley was flying his glider into Normandy:

"It looked like fluid streams of tracer bullets and explosions in every direction. It seemed so thick that I could not see how it would be possible to get through it unscathed. One feels completely alone up there while every German in Europe zeroes in on just you." Buckley pulled his arms and knees together. He wanted to make himself as small a target as possible. He even squeezed the cheeks of his rear end as close together as possible: "I probably could have cracked walnuts from the pressure I was exerting."

From John McManus, The Americans at D-Day : The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion, pg. 176-177.