C-47 Drag 'em oot - a D-Day veteran

jonesy · **Posted:** Fri Dec 07, 2012 2:50 pm

This years Abingdon Airshow was always going to be a very important time for me after Neil Porter had announced that C-47 Drag 'em oot was going to display. After getting permission from Neil and C-47 owner Paddy Green, I went on a search for a Yak-52 owner who'd be willing to fly me for an air to air shoot with the C-47 on its departure from Abingdon. The saviour came in the form of an Aussie named Colin Short who partly owns G-YAKI and readily agreed to fly me.

The night before the show was also an opportunity too good to miss when I delivered my 1942 jeep ready for show.

Anyway, C-47 Drag 'em oot 42-100882 is a true veteran of WWII. Assigned to the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron, 438th Troop Carrier Group, it was based at Greenham Common airfield. On the night of D-Day, Drag 'em oot was to drop paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne to drop zone A where it was aircraft No 2 in Serial 7. Serials 1 to 6 had dropped Pathfinder teams earlier in the night to guide the main body of aircraft to the correct drop zones.

She was also fitted with Model 80 Glider pickup equipment to retrieve assault gliders from the Normandy fields so that they could be re-used for further ops. The specialised pick-up was in great demand especially for the RAF and an agreement was made between the RAF and the USAAF for a straight swap of aircraft and from the 2nd of September 1944 she was in RAF hands. For the rest of the war she participated in Operation Market Garden and Operation Varsity (the largest single airborne operation of WWII where gaining a foothold across the river Rhine was the objective). It is most likely that during these operations, she received the battle damage from flak and ground fire which is still visible inside the aircraft today.

I have a huge interest in the airborne ops of WWII especially during D-Day and it was a privilege to spend some time with a true aviation legend.

Enjoy the photos. :smile:

DSC_0894-2forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

DSC_0911forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

DSC_0900forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

DSC_0915-2forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

DSC_0845forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

DSC_1010forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0515forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0500-2forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0544forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0425forum2 by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0545forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

IMG_0522forum by jonesy1275, on Flickr

A huge thank you to Neil Porter, Colin Short and Paddy Green for literally getting this off the ground and awesome flying from the C-47 crew, John Dodd and Mark Edwards.

Thanks for looking,
Neil.

C VEICH · **Joined:** Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:40 pm **Posts:** 1456

Magnificent!

gliderman1 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 08, 2012 12:18 pm

Neil,
I would like to correspond with whoever concerning history of this aircraft, especially concerning the glider snatches and glider tows. .

Some information from Glider Branch (Wright Field and Clinton County glider test base records and officer notes:
Final testing and approval of the model 80 winch system was completed at CCAAF in late 1943 with production deliveries in early 1944.
In April 1944 there were 108 model 80 equipped C-47s flown to England. A certain officer (I have his name someplace but I can't find either his name or someplace at this moment) of higher command in IX TCC in England ordered 54 of these units removed immediately "because the system did not work".. Of course, the man did not know what he was talking about and for this action had he not been in a combat zone, he would have been courts marshaled for this action. In addition, 12 of the 54 were traded to the Brits for 12 C-47 without the winch. Twenty of the remaining 42 winches were quickly ruined because the crew had not yet had instruction and had no idea what they were doing. More winches were removed by August 1944. Of the 40 CG-4A gliders prepared for recovery from Normandy, only 15 were recovered mainly for two reasons: Shortage of C-47s with winch and no airfield was prepared on the continent to facilitate normal glider tow back to England. That is, when snatched, the glider had to be towed back to England on the pickup system which took too much time round trip for the snatch aircraft.

Despite all this ill conceived nonsense concerning the use and practicality of the system by men who knew not, there were over 600 CG-4A gliders recovered world-wide using the model 80 system. Might be worth mentioning that one of the ruined winches occurred when a loaded 15,000+ Horsa was snatched, while the model 80 winch had a total, all up, capacity of only 8,000 pounds.

Questions on the mission markings on the aircraft: Three gliders have line up and three have line down. I have never seen these before. Does the up indicate a snatch and the down indicate a normal combat tow?

patelie · **Posted:** Sat Dec 08, 2012 12:24 pm

jonesy wrote:

On the night of D-Day, Drag 'em oot was to drop paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne to drop zone A where it was aircraft No 2 in Serial 7. Serials 1 to 6 had dropped Pathfinder teams earlier in the night to guide the main body of aircraft to the correct drop zones.

Hello Neil
These photographs are the best I have seen of this plane! Congratulations.

BTW i don't think (and Paddy Green too) that Drag Em Oot took part in D-day mission Albany. She was fitted with glider pick-up system and it's impossible to drop paratroopers with the system installed. Gary Allin, the usual pilot of Drag Em Oot flew mission Albany, but it was in co-pilot seat with William J. Beach as pilot. they were chalk #2 but it was Beach plane.

Drag Em Oot flew the glider tow mission Elmira on d-day afternoon

Warbird Information Exchange

C-47 Drag 'em oot - a D-Day veteran

Who is online