Charlie Dawson

> "I've been writing it since we got stationed...My mama writes her cookbooks for the church back home. I figured I'd try it over here. All the stuff regular folks don't know. What goes on from basic to here.
>
> *Dawson explained why he joined the Army and was planning to become a Writer if they win the war.*

**Charlie Dawson** is a supporting character in the 2018 live action film Overlord. Dawson was black paratrooper serving in the 555th parachute Infantry Battalion as a smokejumper were paratroopers take out wildfire that were caused by Japanese balloon bombs. In April 1944, everything changed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt desegregated the United States Armed Forces in the use of more manpower in an attempt to win the World War II. Dawson along with black paratroopers of the 555th were folded into the 101st Airborne Division. On the eve of D-Day, He and a group of paratroopers have been dropped into France, in order to take out a satellite tower in a Nazi-controlled church. But things don't go to plan and their plane is shot down en route. He survives the jump but is later He stepped on a land mine setting it off killing him instantly.

## Biography

Charlie Dawson was born in 1920 in Atlanta, Georgia and a son of a preacher and a mother who wrote cookbooks. At a young age, Dawson was so into reading and writing that wanted to be a author. In 1942, Dawson joined the United States Army in attempt for adventure and joined the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion on December 31, 1943, and became a smoke jumper given the unprecedented and undeniably dangerous job of jumping into forests that were set on fire by the nation’s enemy at war. This was his best friend since boot camp Edward Boyce who became a smokejumper two months after him, and Sergeant Ben Rensin. But everything changed in the Spring of 1944, everything changed when on Boyce day off when he was cutting grass when a mailman show up to his house in California with a letter from the army saying that President Roosevelt has desegregated the whole US military, and he along the rest of the 555th were reassigned to go to the United Kingdom to train with the 101st Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division to prepare for D-Day. By this time, Dawson got a letter from his mother, saying that his girlfriend is pregnant. Excited by the news, he came up with the idea to writing about him and other colored troopers who went through racism and white supremacy to being in a unit with white soldiers participating in the largest invasion in history, so one day his child will look back to see their father as a hero. He told Boyce and he congratulated him, Dawson making Boyce a promise to watch his and will watch his, then the two watch each other since.

## Before Overlord

As the black paratroopers are getting to blend in along with white paratroopers and were given new equipment such as new M1 helmets, parachutes, given the screaming eagles patches on their uniforms, and even given weapons, instead of their tools. Dawson was assigned as a support gunner and uses a M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. Boyce and Dawson met a cocky paratrooper Lyle Tibbet, Morton Chase an Army photographer, and Jacob Rosenfeld a Jewish paratrooper. During the first weeks of desegregation, Tibbet hated both men because of the color of their skin and both constantly ripped on them and bullied Boyce the most, Rosenfield on the other hand, he can understand what it feels like to be discriminated against daily and became friends with Boyce. Then one night inside of the Army barracks, a big mouse kept crapping on Rensins pillow, so Rensin (Who was pointed out as leader of Little Groups of Paratroopers) ordered Boyce, Tibbet, and Rosenfield to go find the mouse and kill it. Boyce managed to catch the mouse in his jump boot and as he was about to kill the mouse, it reminded him of his home in Louisiana and let the mouse go and set it loose in a field. The next day, this resulted in the mouse crapping on Rensins pillow and making everybody run hills all night because of it.

## Flying

*"Hey, Grunauer! How do you say "full of shit" in German again?... (Laughs) I love that."*―Dawson asked Medic Grunauer who he said "Full of shit" in German

On June 5th, 1944, the Allied forces launched their forces to prepare for Operation Overlord also known as D-Day, however Boyce along with this squad of 18 paratroopers are given a secret mission to take out a radio jamming tower located at the town center of the French village of CielBlanc. As the men prepare to jump behind enemy lines, Boyce scans to see the men, some of them that he used to be smokejumpers with and even seeing Dawson interacting with the paratroopers about his book. The men of the 555th and or colored soldiers from other colored units has been through so much to this point about proving the white man wrong. He also spotted Lewis Ford, a paratrooper that transferred to the 82nd Airborne and is an explosive expert for their mission. Tibbet tells Rosenfeld that more GI's died in planes than before Nez playfully tosses a wet glob of chewed gum at Tibbet and tells Rosenfeld to not listen to him and he's full of shit. Dawson even asked Medic Grunauer who he said "Full of shit" in German.

As the men talk to each other about what they are going to do when they get to Berlin, the ride of the C-47 becomes shaky, causing Boyce to drop his chain; Tibbet grabs it quickly and bullies him for having a lucky charm. Due to a few months of knowing each other, Boyce’s performance as a soldier (From Tibbets point of view) left him unsatisfactory, making Tibbet and the other white paratroopers in his batch racially bully him. Boyce asked Tibbet if he was finished running that Falmouth off his and gave the chain back or he would beat his ass on the plane. So he gives him his chain back said that he was just messing with him and the men continue talk to each other about what they are going to do when they get to Berlin before Rensin shows up without wearing his parachute gear (Believing it makes him superior and makes him feel entitled against some of the white paratroopers who talk behind his back and distrust him because of his skin color) with his Winchester 1897 shotgun, leaving everybody both confused and in shocked, even for Boyce and Dawson. He starts asking his men where the drop zone is and where's their target is, one by one answer his questions correctly (Due to him not nothing the correct response), then Rensin put Boyce on the spot by asking him why the Nazi's have a radio on top of a church and Boyce fails to answer because they were never told anything that part, so Rensin replies that the Nazis are "rotten sons of bitches" and they will anything they have to destroy anything that is good in the world and so they have to be just as rotten as they are. Before heading back to the cockpit of the C-47, Rensin reminds paratroopers what is the mission and says there are gonna be a hundred and twenty Allied troopers fighting on their way to the beaches but they can't without air support if the radio tower isn't by 06:00 am and tells them to do there jobs and used the 101st paratroopers (Who have been trained for two years) Battlecry against them and heads back with a smirk on his face.

## All hell broke loose

When it hit midnight, the C-47 started to rumble, some paratroopers woke up by deep thuds and the crackle of tracer fire and the plane was heaving back and forth tossing the men around violently. Dawson along with Boyce some smokejumpers tries their best to keep his composer and stay calm. Rensin comes out of the cockpit of the C-47 and tells the men that it is just a "Kraut Hello" and tells them to sit tight until the light tells them to jump. The Navigator of the plane tells Rensin that they are taking too much flak but with quick thinking, Rensin tells them to break formation so they won't get hit by flak knowing that the paratroopers while a couple clicks south of their target. The C-47 suddenly descends 100 feet flak erupting all around as it yokes hard to left into the clouds.

This formation saved the men as the flak destroyed a plane beside them. He took the time to remark to his white paratroopers who had doubted him since day one that he was going to show them a good time. Dawson, unable to hold his dinner, threw up on the floor of the fuselage before bullets from the AA guns pecked the floor of the C-47 and tore some men up like butter. Everyone including Rensin and Ford because, a few days before Operation Overlord, the 101st, 82nd and the 555th were giving more information about General Wilhelm Strasse although some men heard that the man was so intelligent that he upgraded the German Army weapons, vehicles, and even the soldiers to be fierier to the Allies. This myth became a reality and everybody including Tibbet were starting to panic but Rensin and Ford kept calm for their men, Paratrooper Private Murphy was so scared that got out of his seat before he was pulverized and was dead before he hit the floor. Rensin continues to tell everyone to sit down and tells them this is why they were given this mission.

The red jump light above the cargo door pops on and that is when Rensin orders the men to stand up and hook up. Tibbet, Boyce, Rosenfeld and what was left of the squad scramble to their feet and hook their chute lines to the anchor cable running along the ceiling of the fuselage. Tibbet is second from the door (Rosenfeld is fourth, Boyce is fifth, Dawson, is sixth). As the light flashes green, the plane catches fire, and then a huge eruption blows the cockpit door away sending it to a paratrooper's head decapitating him. The front of the C-47 is gone is nothing but a gutted, flaming mass of shredded steel, and half of the roof about the men is now a gaping hole. The anchor line renders it useless. Some men fatally fall toward the back, burning themselves to death. In a desperate attempt to save what's left of his men, Rensin tells everybody to manually deploy, Ford quickly unhooks from the jump line and helps Rensin push paratroopers, Grunauer, then Tibbet, some of the surviving paratroopers manage to jump out of the aircraft after the signal goes green, Rosenfeld stumbles. Boyce crouches to help, but Ford is already rolling Rosenfeld out the door.

## Landing

As Dawson managed to pull his ripcord and activated his parachute landing safely on the ground, he rendezvoused with Tibbet and two to try to find what was left of their squad, only to find Morton Chase, an Army photographer, hanging from a tree being surrounded by a German patrol of Waffen SS troopers. In an attempt to save him, Tibbet and Dawson opened fire on the Nazi patrol with his Springfield sniper rifle and Dawson's Browning Automatic Rifle. They successfully kill all of the Nazi's and help Chase cut free from his parachute.

## Reunited with the others

*"Hey, fellas!..Oh, sorry. I was afraid it was just gonna be us three."*―Dawson after rendezvoused with Ford and Boyce.
After the two save Chase, they continue to walk deeper into the woods, where they hear two people approaching, three taking cover from the bushes. Tibbet uses a cricket chirp from the darkness (so does Ford) and uses the callsign by saying "flash" and then "thunder" and surviving paratroopers reveal themselves, and all of them share a moment of joy in their reunion. Boyce asked the three if any sign of Rosenfeld. Dawson replied that he saw him and Grunauer about a mile east and the Nazi's had shoot him all to hell.

## Out of nowhere demise

*"Thanks, Eddy. And, Chase, I was thinking maybe me and you could team up, use some of your pictures in it. That way, you get a cut of the profits and we can get ourselves..."*―Dawson last before being killed instantly by a advanced land mine.

As the small group of paratroopers continue to advance across the field, hoping to find more paratroopers. Dawson shared with his comrades that he wanted to author a book about fighting on the front lines of the war and was thinking that when the war was over, he was going to be an author, Tibbet sarcastically said that he would sell a million copies and Boyce said he would buy one. Dawson shoots Boyce a smile and says thanks to his friend, lifts his again. asked Chase if they can team and he can show pictures in his book and that way both will have the profits before unfortunately Dawson stepped on an advanced land mine created by Deathshead and was set off killing him instantly and leaving but a cloud of dirt and blood over the paratroopers sending Chase flying in one direction and Tibbet another. Tibbet then rises to his knees, rubbing a bloody hand over his ear, searching for his own hearing. Ford yells at everyone who can hear and orders them to fix bayonets or use the barrel of their rifle and lay taps making sure they are close to a mine. Boyce on the other hand, disoriented, stands frozen in complete shock and realizes that even the mines that the Germans have are ten times deadlier and just staring at the black crater where Dawson was just what left was his leather journal Boyce found after the blast. As he gains consciousness Ford tells everybody to fix the bayonets and use their lay taps on the ground not so hard enough to set off a mine. Ford tells Chase to get right on Dawson's tracks and tells Tibbet to his Springfield to use light taps. Not hard enough to set off a mine. He starts tapping the ground ahead of him, easing across the field with Boyce, Tibbet, Chase right behind. Boyce throws a glance back to see what remains of Dawson.