The War in View #15: American Air Power

Flight Cadets waiting for their planes, North American BT-9s, Randolph Field, 1942.

 

North American BT-9.

 

North American Y1BT-10 (37-383) US Army Air Corps.

 

North American BT-10A (37-383 c/n 29-353) US Army Air Corps, the first production NA-29 BT-9C which was completed as the Y1BT-10 with a nose gun and a 600 hp R-1340-41 to lure the US Navy.

 

Vultee BT-13 Valiant.

 

Vultee BT-13 Valiant, circa 1942.

 

USAAC 1st Lieutenant standing in front of Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic training aircraft on the ground, at an unidentified flying school somewhere in the United States, circa 1943.

 

Vultee BT-13 Valiant (40-1190), the 300th BT-13 built, last of the first batch.

 

Vultee BT-13B Valiant (42-90645), surplus at Hayward Airport, California, March 1946.

 

North American BT-14 US Army Air Corps.

 

North American BT-14 ("BS47") US Army Air Corps, Oakland, California, ca. 1940, in the markings of the 32nd Bomb Squadron/19th Bomb Group, while based at Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

 

Vultee BT-15 in flight over Laredo AAF, Laredo, Texas, 2 November 1943.

 

American C-24 (32-287), Oakland Airport, 1936. From Gray Field, Washington.

 

American/Fairchild Y1C-24 (Fairchild Model 100) of the U.S. Army Air Corps on the ramp, 1931.

 

American Y1C-24.

 

C-46 rolls out of the factory. The Curtiss C-46 Commando was a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III", but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company publicity. It was used as a military transport during World War II by the United States Army Air Forces and also the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps, which used the designation R5C. The C-46 served in a similar role to its Douglas-built counterpart, the C-47 Skytrain, but it was not as extensively produced as the latter.

 

The Curtiss  CW-20 with the original twin fin tail. Flight tests quickly showed that the twin fin tail left much to be desired, and it was replaced by a conventional tail arrangement with a single tailfin.

 

Curtiss C-46A Commando (41-5160).

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando (44-78109) in flight.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando (44-78018) parked on apron.

 

C-46, 44-77??, “X624,” being loaded with equipment for a flight to Ie Shima, 29 July 1945.

 

Curtiss C-46A Commando, 41-24719, Fairbanks / Fort Wainwright-Ladd Army Airfield, Alaska, 12 February 1944.

 

The Commandos’ stock in trade was the ability to transport large quantities of supplies to remote unprepared airfields like this one, “somewhere in China.”

 

Rear view of a Curtiss C-46 Commando through a gate somewhere in China, probably at Yangkai.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando (41-5163) loading troops.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando (43-46953). A veteran pilot called it “the Flying Turd” because “it had the shape of one and could hold a hell of a lot of shit inside”.

 

Refueling C-46 at Waller Field, Trinidad, British West Indies. April 1943.

 

C-46, “Ant Virgie, 443rd Troop Carrier Group, Burma, 1945.

 

C-46A, 42-101211, “Smiley’s Airlines” on fuselage above windows, 4th Combat Cargo Group, forward landing field, Andaw, Burma, 11 March 1945.

 

Chinese troops loading into a C-46 for a flight over the “Hump.”

 

Chinese troops loading into a C-46 for a flight over the “Hump.”

 

C-46 landing at a Chinese airfield bringing supplies from India.

 

C-46 being loaded with cargo, Burma, 18 January 1945.

 

“Hump Haven” was a bar built in 1944 by members of the Air Transport Command (ATC) using the roomy fuselage of a crashed Commando (41-24743) in Yunnanyi, China.

 

Discussion on how to get an ambulance body into a C-46.

 

C-46, Morotai.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando.

 

Elephants were found to be faster and more efficient than men for loading and unloading the transports that flew the "Hump", like this C-46 (42-81022). The elephant is loading 55 gallon drums of gasoline from a truck to the transport in India.

 

A C-46 (41-5159) accompanied in flight by a P-40.

 

Curtiss CW-20A C-55 Commando (41-21041) US Army Air Corps.

 

Curtiss CW-20B C-46 Commando US Army Air Forces.

 

Japanese “giretsu” commando killed on runway of Yontan Airfield, Okinawa. Destroyed C-46 Commando in background.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando over the first ridge of the Hump en route to China, 1944.

 

Soldiers of the Chinese 22nd Division in a Curtiss C-46 Commando prior to takeoff from Nansin, Burma, 22 December 1944.

 

A weapons carrier is loaded aboard a C-46 transport which will fly it over the “Hump” to China.

 

Curtiss C-46 Commando engine maintenance, 1333rd AAF Base Unit, Air Transport Command, India.

 

C-46, “Back Breaker,” 443rd Troop Carrier Group, Burma, 1945. What looks like an unusual camouflage pattern may in fact be stain on original photograph.

 

Paratroopers getting ready to load into a C-47 for the Normandy invasion.

 

Paratrooper climbs up the steps into a C-47 for the invasion of Normandy.

 

Paratroopers in a C-47 for the invasion of Normandy.

 

C-47 dropping supplies in Burma.

 

C-47 in China with Chinese soldiers examining Blood Chit on the jacket back of an American flier.

 

C-47's dropping supplies for Bastogne.

 

After the defeat of Axis forces in Northern Africa, Allied troops prepared to use the territory to launch attacks on Italy and other parts of southern Europe. Here, a U.S. Air Transport Command plane, loaded with war supplies, flies over the pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, Egypt, in 1943.

Douglas C-47 Skytrains in flight during training at Sedalia Army Air Field, Warrensburg, Missouri, 1944.

Douglas C-47 Skytrains in flight during training at Sedalia Army Air Field, Warrensburg, Missouri, 1944.

A wounded U.S. Marine is given a plasma transfusion by nurse Mae Olson aboard an aerial evacuation unit, over Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. June 4, 1943.

American paratroopers, heavily armed, sit inside a military plane as they soar over the English Channel en route to the Normandy French coast for the Allied D-Day invasion of the German stronghold during World War II, June 6, 1944.

U.S. paratroopers fix their static lines before a jump before dawn over Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944, in France. The decision to launch the airborne attack in darkness instead of waiting for first light was probably one of the few Allied missteps on June 6, and there was much to criticize both in the training and equipment given to paratroopers and glider-borne troops of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. Improvements were called for after the invasion; the hard-won knowledge would be used to advantage later.

Douglas C-47 cargo plane on airstrip at Waller Field, Trinidad, British West Indies. April 1943.

Douglas C-47s on the maintenance line at Waller Field, Trinidad, where Air Transport Command planes that fly the Caribbean Division route are checked and double-checked after every round trip. More than 40 repair docks line the mile and a half runway, where work goes on 24 hours of the day and night.

Air Transport Command Douglas C-47s of the Caribbean Division get the once-over from nose to tail to keep them in perfect condition for the run from Natal, Brazil, to Miami, Florida.

Members of the 2nd Service Group load a transport plane at an air base somewhere in Iceland. 23 February 1944.

Wreck of Douglas C-47 (41-18514), 2nd Service Group, which crashed somewhere in Iceland. 11 August 1944.

Another view of wreck of Douglas C-47 (41-18514), 2nd Service Group, which crashed somewhere in Iceland. 11 August 1944.

A Douglas Dakota and a North American Mitchell parked on the hard standing at Luqa while staging through Malta to the Far East. Two airmen in the foreground are squatting against the end of one of the aircraft revetments built of sand-filled fuel tins during the siege.

Douglas C-47 taking off towing a Waco CG-4A glider. The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front-line service with various military operators for many years.

Chinese Army troops preparing to board a Douglas C-47 transport, 43-15053, “15”, for the trip back over the “Hump” to China, after being trained by the U.S. Army in India.

USAAF Douglas C-47 at an Air Transport Command air base in China.

Female inspectors at the Long Beach, California, plant of the Douglas Aircraft Company make a careful check of center wings for Douglas C-47 transport planes.

Douglas C-47's drop supplies on Bastogne, mid-December 1944.

Douglas C-47 tow planes and Waco CG-4A gliders over the mountains of Burma.

Unloading an airborne pack mule from a Douglas C-47 as the 22nd and 14th Divisions move from Burma to China, late 1944.

Riveting team working on the cockpit shell of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain heavy transport at North American Aviation. Inglewood, California. September 1942.

The 503rd Parachute Infantry Battalion landing at Nadzab, New Guinea, behind a cover of smoke.

En route to England, the men of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry found and rescued this pup, Smokey, seen here in Iceland.

Two Douglas C-47 Skytrains. Nearest the camera is C-47A-90-DL 43-15661. The further airplane is C-47A-65-DL 42-100550.

A group of new Douglas C-47 Skytrains. The airplane closest to the camera is C-47-DL 41-18415.

U.S. Army paratroopers jump from Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain 41-7805, over England, May 1944.

Standing in front of a VMJ-252 Douglas R4D-1 (Bureau # 3143) at Ewa Mooring Mast Field, Oahu, 22 June 1942. All but one are members of Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221). They are (from left to right): Captain Marion E. Carl; Captain Kirk Armistead; Major Raymond Scollin, of Marine Air Group 22; Captain Herbert T. Merrill; Second Lieutenant Charles M. Kunz; Second Lieutenant Charles S. Hughes; Second Lieutenant Hyde Phillips; Captain Philip R. White and Second Lieutenant Roy A. Corry, Jr.

Aerial view over wing of formation of Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo and troop transport planes leaves Saidor, New Guinea (present day Papua New Guinea). 25 August 1944.

Three soldiers working on the engine of C-47 "Yank's Delight" at an airbase near Port Moresby, New Guinea. 4 February 1944.

A pilot peers out of the window of C-47 "Open Date" at an airbase near Port Moresby, New Guinea. 4 February 1944.

C-47 "Gone" at an airbase near Port Moresby, New Guinea. 4 February 1944.

A soldier sits in a bulldozer parked under the nose of C-47 "Hot-to-go" at an airbase near Port Moresby, New Guinea. 4 February 1944.

Nose art on a C-47 at an airbase near Port Moresby, New Guinea. 4 February 1944.

Indigenous men stand by the tail section of C-47 (VHCGK) as they watch planes take off and land at the Kiriwina Airfield on Kiriwina Island in the Solomon Sea, New Guinea. 15 August 1943.

Paratroopers at a Drome (airfield) near Port Moresby gathered behind a C-47, preparing to take off for a landing at Nadzab near Lae. Lae is a Japanese-held airfield in New Guinea. 5 September 1943.

`Wisconsin military personnel load a patient covered with a blanket on a stretcher onto a Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo plane during an air evacuation in Normandy, France. They are (left to right) Lieutenant Josephine Sansone Russo, Captain K.W. Covell, a physician, and Private James Dietrich. Robert Doyle, war correspondent for the Milwaukee Journal, made the trip from England with a load of large containers of blood. After the supplies were unloaded, they filled the plane with wounded and flew back to an English hospital. Doyle wrote a caption for this image although it was not published at that time, "Wisconsin nurse and medical soldiers put wounded men aboard an ambulance plane at an airfield on the Normandy beachhead. Russo is stationed in England and flies with planes taking wounded from France. Captain Covell and Private Dietrich are based in Normandy." 27 July 1944.

War Correspondent Robert Doyle interviews a group of nine soldiers at an airfield. They are standing in front of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain (42-92029) passenger and cargo aircraft with the side door open and the loading ramp down. From the various uniforms and hats, they may be from several branches of the service. On the reverse of the print is written, "From Myron H. Davis." Davis was a photographer for Life Magazine. Circa 1944.

Military trucks, jeeps and planes (including C-47s) at the Lae Airstrip, New Guinea (present day Papua New Guinea). Lae was a Japanese occupied airstrip until 16 September 1943, when it was liberated by the Allied Forces. 13 January 1944.

DC-5 VHCXA (left) was destroyed by fire when strafed at Wards Strip, Port Moresby, New Guinea during a Japanese air raid, 17 August 1942. The aircraft at right was a former Dutch DC-3 (VHCXD) in USAAF service and was damaged in the attack.

Colonel James M. Gavin, United States Army, commanding officer, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, with his men before Operation Husky, 9 July 1943.

New Guinea natives drag away a Thirteenth Air Force C-47 after it crash landed in the nearby hills.

Douglas C-47 Skytrain at a base in North Africa showing damage to wing and port engine.

The ATC carried stars around the globe to entertain American troops. In this photo, legendary singer Frank Sinatra boards an ATC C-47 to return home from performing for the troops in the Mediterranean theatre.

Douglas C-53 Skytrooper.

Douglas C-54 of the 2nd Service Group on the line at Meeks Field, Iceland, 23 April 1943.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with General George C. Marshall at an airfield in Paris, France. The man behind Marshall's elbow is Senior Advisor to President Roosevelt, Justice James F. Byrnes. Several photographers are on the left. Robert Doyle notes: "Arrival of first plane US ATC (United States Air Transport Command) to fly direct from America today." The airplane is a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (42-107451) and was the first US ATC (United States Air Transport Command) aircraft to fly direct from America. 6 October 1944.