When the war began, John Donalson, who normally flew with the Alabama-based 106th Observation Squadron, which was assigned to the Pacific theater during the war, was transferred to Europe. Normally, he flew a Douglas C-47 Skytrain that he had named "Belle of Birmingham", in honor of his home state's largest city. But for Operation Overlord, the 1944 invasion of Normandy which opened the western front, it was necessary to cut holes in the plane's fuselage for extra equipment. Donalson, by then commanding the 438th Troop Carrier Group of the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron, part of IX Troop Carrier Command, refused, and so he was issued another C-47 to lead the formation of those aircraft which dropped paratroopers onto the shores of France.