Posted on 06/08/2015 3:17:01 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Late on the night of June 5, 1944, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain commanded by Lt. Col. John M. Donalson launched with 15 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division on board. They were the very tip of the Allied invasion spear, leading a formation of hundreds of aircraft carrying thousands of troops. Just after midnight on June 6, That’s All, Brother navigated through intense German fire and low clouds to drop the first Allied troops to land in Normandy, France, on D-Day, commencing Operation Overlord.
Seven decades later, Staff Sgt. Matt Scales of the Alabama Air National Guard was researching Donalson’s story when he discovered the aircraft—serial number 42-92847—was in a boneyard, slated to be cut up and converted into a modern turboprop. Basler Turbo Conversions LLC of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, alerted to the historic significance of the aircraft, put the brakes on that conversion, and ultimately struck a deal with the Commemorative Air Force, which plans to purchase and restore That's All, Brother to airworthy condition, in detail just as it was on the day it led the Allied invasion.
“This is a modern miracle,” CAF President and CEO Stephan C. Brown said of the discovery, in a news release. “The aircraft was within weeks of being torn apart.”
The C-47 chosen to lead the invasion was named by Donalson as a message to Adolf Hitler, though its D-Day paint scheme would be covered by subsequent owners—16 of them in all. It is presently painted as a Vietnam-era gunship, though it never flew such a mission.
The CAF plans to meticulously restore the invasion stripes and other features in place when Donalson and his crew led the largest airborne assault in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at aopa.org ...
IMO, these planes need to be flying, not sitting in a museum gathering dust somewhere.
CAF volunteers used to walk the Flight Line at Oshkosh in jump suits that read:
“This is a CAF aviator.
If found lost or unconscious,
please hide him from Yankees,
revive with mint julep
and assist him in returning to friendly territory.
CONFEDERATE AIR FORCE”.
CAF does great work. They come to town and put on a show fairly regularly.
Why would anyone scrap a WW2 aircraft?
This is REALLY COOL! Good on the folks involved for helping to preserve a part of our history.
And I agree that changing the name was a mistake...PC run amok.
‘Looks to have been an airliner once with all those windows.
Great post and pic.
Thanks.
“Why would anyone scrap a WW2 aircraft?”
Scrap hell, they rebuild the aircraft completely, install turboprop engines, and set it up to fly another 60 years! Some version of the DC-3 will probably fly into the 2100’s.
Confederate Air Force bump!
Political Correctness seems to be unesacapeable.
I wonder if the collectors of the Confederate States Navy are going to do the same?
A fabulous aircraft...I have jumped out of many of them.
They were going to strip it down, install new engines and sell it as a Third World cargo hauler.
Awesome news! Thanks for sharing. Hats off to Staff Sgt. Matt Scales for finding the old girl.
Historically significant, in their own right, aircraft should be in museums. You wouldn’t fly the Memphis Belle, Enola Gay or Flak Bait.
This aircraft led the mass airborne assault on DDay. That puts it in the same class as those others, too valuable to be risked in flight. There are other C-47s out there (CAF has two, one of which, Black Sparrow, will being going to Baesler for TurboDak conversion as part of the deal to acquire “Brother”), and other DDay veterans that can and should be flown instead.
You can make that case, but then the only people that see it are those that trek to it.
IMHO they need to be flying, so they can be seen by future generations all over.
There is nothing like seeing the look in child’s eyes when those big radials start up, with the noise and blowback from those big props, then watching it soar off into the sun.
It can be a life-changing experience. I know it was for me.
Oh you know that they will get “encouraged” to do so...
It’s only a matter of time.
History is history.
Not liking it and forcing it to be rewritten because it’s considered undesireable or unpalatable to be reminded of something that could be considered a negative is idiotic.
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