The article doesn’t explain what makes this the airplane that led the D-Day invasion, and not one of the.

Luckily, the airplane has its own site (https://thatsallbrother.org/), but even that is fairly limited in its explanation:

”June 5, 1944:

Lead aircraft of the main airborne invasion on the eve of D-Day. Led over 800 aircraft dropping over 13,000 paratroopers behind enemy lines in Normandy.”

https://commemorativeairforce.org/aircraft/165, similarly, is too succinct.

I would have hoped to find out how we know that (scans of logbook, etc, but alas).

Based on what I found, what’s on those sites wouldn’t stay up on Wikipedia. Anybody have better links?