SPEED FOR REAL

There are also reports in the pop histories about the speed of some of the aircraft during the drops These reports claim witness to odd altitudes and excessive speeds over the drop zones In the ways of war some of this may have happened but from USAAF archives and from readily available airborne records it appears far from the norm. Most Troop Carrier veterans who read the pop histories or who watch the pop TV reports are skeptical of these claims simply because there is no viable way for anyone in the back of a dark C 47 to read its altitude and airspeed Not even experienced crew chiefs and radio operators could do that It is even more difficult from the ground

THE ILLUSION OF SPEED

This is tricky not easy but here is why some paratroopers may have thought their C 47 gained speed as it approached the drop zone There are two main power settings for a C 47 the manifold pressure a measure of the power that propels the airplane through the air and the revolutions per minute of the engines And adjusting these together was a technique used during every landing to slow the airplane down before touchdown When some C 47 pilots wanted to reduce power and slow down to lose altitude quickly during a paradrop they reduced the manifold pressure the driving power and then increased the revolutions to about 2300 The windmilling effect of this faster rpm acted as an air brake Most of us have had a plastic toy windmill blade on a stick that we waved around or held out of a car window to make it turn The principle is the same The airflow required to keep the plastic blade turning without applying driving power to it acted as a brake while the toy turned faster and whizzed louder So it was with the engines Our formations were briefed to fly over the coast at 1,500 ft to stay above small arms fire and then to descended to 700 ft for the paradrop

The pilots reduced the manifold pressure and started to slow down although the sound of the advancing revolutions could have been misleading This sounded like more power but it was just more noise that led some paratroopers to think the speed was increasing when actually it was decreasing Also upon reaching drop altitude an increase in power throttle was usually applied to hold and maintain drop altitude and speed This had to be done very carefully to keep the airplanes slow and level without flaps and without raising the nose At slower speeds drop speed it's much harder to control a C 47 It can be a fight to just hold it straight and level while being buffeted by prop Wash This could have caused some paratroopers to believe the pilots were increasing their airspeed

THE PLUS SIDE

For almost every pop history story that might benefit from further checking Troop Carrier aircrews can document incidents where pilots made multiple passes at the DZs or held burning aircraft straight and level while the troopers jumped Several of these reports of dedication and heroism that troop carriers remember with pride are fully supported in this publication

THE 200 MPH C 47

In a recent 2001 History Channel report it was claimed that a unit of the 101st Airborne Division was flown across the drop zone in a C 47 at 200 mph This bears checking into most C 47s just won't go that fast in level flight This might have happened if the pilots were incapacitated dead wounded and no longer in control and the aircraft was in a power dive There could have been such cases

SCATTERIING

The Troop Carrier delivery formation of nine aircraft V of V's like a flock of geese was designed to put the aircraft in the closest proximity to each other and still avoid turbulence from the preceding aircraft This is called a serial and the only way to drop paratroopers close together is for the aircraft to fly close together and release them at nearly the same time On D Day when the aircraft suddenly found themselves in the clouds the integrity of much of the formation was lost This not bad navigation is the reason for some paratroopers being scattered around the Cherbourg Peninsula It was not lack of training in night formation or in combat experience And the many stories of flight crews making return passes over their DZs to drop their troops must be weighed against any conjecture of cowardice among the flight crews Trying to orient oneself after coming out of the clouds was all but impossible Pilotage navigating by visual means depends upon following landmarks one connecting to the other

Ground vision was lost while in the clouds thus disrupting this continuity The darkness of night the blackout conditions on the ground the loss of night vision compromised by explosions from enemy fire and the lack of functioning radio radar aids made things even harder Purely and simply once the formation went into the clouds some pilots lost their way Reestablishing themselves accurately was next to impossible and the scattering of paratroopers was inevitable Even today with the most modern equipment military paratroopers still need visual flying conditions if they are to drop their troops together

JOSTLING Much has been said over the years by the observers and pop historians about dodging flak and small arms fire and this needs to be addressed

Once you see the explosion of an anti aircraft shell flak it has done its potential damage and there is no further use in trying to avoid it If there was any dodging it most likely occurred when trying to get out of a lock on by German searchlights The odds for survival in this situation were very low Jostling the paratroopers could have been caused by nearby flak explosions turbulence from prop wash caused by the disrupted formations and or abrupt maneuvering control to avoid other aircraft Panic was possible but there has been very little of this documented either among the aircrew or among the paratroopers That is what one would expect of Americans

IX TROOP CARRIER COMMANDS FINAL AND FINEST EFFORTS
By George Pete Buckley 74 th TCS 434 th TCG

In the closing days of war in Europe in April of 1945 Troop carrier planes flew a total of 16,387 sorties many of them in the face of enemy flak and small arms fire By April 20th Troop Carrier Command had used 240 airfields from Cherbourg to Leipzig for these sorties The first 20 days of April 1945 saw 35,962 wounded evacuated from forward battle areas by Troop Carrier Crews For the First Time in History general hospitals were able to stay up to 300 miles in the rear because of the speed and efficiency of the Air Forces in evacuating casualties The most serious cases were flown directly to England

In the same time span IX Carrier planes during the German Campaign delivered 44,212,200 tons of freight and 7,727,075 gallons of gasoline to our rapidly moving ground forces On April 4th alone they deliveied to the front more tonnage in this single day than the entire tonnage for the first 3 months of 1945 From the airstrips all over Germany they flew 451000 American British French Russians Poles and Italians released prisoners of war back from the areas of their captivity in Germany This was truly a monumental effort and successful accomplishment on the part of all those C47 Squadrons and their supporting ground crews and all of this activity at this point in time surpassed the activities of both the Eighth and in the Ninth Air Forces

On the 9th of April 1945 one of Troop Carriers smoothest operations of the war was demonstrated in and around the town of Crailsheim in Germany A US Armored spearhead Combat Command A of the lOth Armored Division had advanced so far and so fast that they were pinched off and surrounded by units of an Alpine Regiment and a German battalion of SS training units

Short of gasoline and ammunition the Americans sent out an urgent SOS for aid Twenty two supply trucks rounded up from the VI Corps that attempted to break through to them were destroyed by a determinedly and desperate enemy intent on wiping out this American group that was just as a determined At this point Troop Carrier seemed to be the only answer

Thirty four C 47s of the 441st Group loaded with 160,00 pounds of gasoline 37,865 pounds of ammunitions and 5,400 pounds of K rations took off from Dreux France They hedgehopped and flew on the deck through heavy flak and small arms fire and landed in a small cow pasture just outside of Crailsheim The enemy only 1,500 yards away kept the field under consent shellfiredestroyed one plane One other plane was lost on the way in hitting a hill in the fog The remaining aircraft with 42 wounded on board made some very heavy take offs and arrived back at base with four planes heavily damaged from enemy fire The next day the same thing with 16 C 47s As a direct result of this Army Air Forces effort by the 441st Group the beleaguered armored unit was able to fight its way out of the pocket with over 2,000 prisoners This is only a small part of the overall picture of Troop Carriers at the end of the war and in the periods afterwards

With the ground transportation systems in Germany in such bad shape from attacks by the Army Air Forces the only way of getting around was by Air and the ever faithful C 47.