Had a question asked of me from a historian in Holland. He has found a hand written note, by a Dutch civil servant, in the archives of Sint Michiels-Gestel stating, November 29th 1944, Montgomery & Eisenhower arrived by Helicopter, they were to watch the testing of a new flame thrower. Anyone have any info on a new flame thrower? Were helicopters reliable enough, if they were indeed in service then, to permit Monty & Eike to travel like that?. Only photos I found on IWM were of training choppers, dated late 1944 early 1945.
The first proper operational Allied helicopter was the Sikorsky R-4, known has the Hoverfly by the RAF. It certainly equiped a few units of the US and Britain, including 529 Squadron (August 1944) but I've not heard of it being used operational like that before. It would probably have been a bit too risky to have the two most senior military figures travelling in one, especially so close to the frontline where a lone Luftwaffe aircraft would have found it an easy target. As for flamethrowers, I couldn't say. One way of checking where Eisenhower was is contacting the Eisenhower Library who maybe able to confirm or deny the helicopter story. Unfortunately, though they have all his diaries, they have only digitised a few key entries for his pre-presidential period and so direct contact would be required.
Talking of helicopters this is an interesting history of rotor craft in Britain: Rotors over Churchdown
I can't answer your question I'm afraid 51highland but .... Ike was inspecting the guard of honour of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division in Hertogenbosch the Netherlands November 29th, 1944 Photograph by Harold G. Aikman. Department of National Defence / National Archives of Canada, PA-151501 Wonder if that was before or after ??
