- 7/14/2025
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00:00It was born in 1935 as the revolutionary Douglas DC-3 airliner.
00:27To the American forces in World War II, it was the C-47 Gooney Bird.
00:32The British called it the Dakota.
00:40But whatever name you give it, this faithful workhorse helped fly the Allies to victory.
00:45From the Burmese jungle to the North African desert, it carried the load and delivered the goods.
00:54It hauled vital supplies, towed gliders, dropped paratroops and evacuated casualties.
01:01After the war, it helped the modern airline industry to take off.
01:08Even today, hundreds still fly throughout the world.
01:13Well, outside of the Model T-4, I think the C-47 was one of the great inventions of the millennium.
01:20Many times, I would pat the side of the airplane and I climbed in and I said,
01:25You're a good and faithful servant. And I meant it.
01:29Using archive film and color reconstruction, Battle Stations tells the story of the most important aircraft design in the history of aviation.
01:38And of its finest hour, the night parachute drop that launched the liberation of Europe.
01:44Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
01:51They're busy praying. And I mean praying.
01:55And when they hit the ground, I can tell you they're ready to fight.
02:06The story of the DC-3 begins in the early 1930s.
02:10Aircraft then were mostly built of wood and canvas.
02:13Air travel was an expensive luxury.
02:16It was also noisy, bumpy, cramped and dangerous.
02:21Some designers believed that the future of air travel lay with giant aircraft,
02:26like this fantastic flying wing.
02:34Or the even larger, dornier flying boat.
02:40Most preferred to play safe and stick to traditional, medium-sized machines,
02:45usually powered by three engines.
02:48But things were about to change.
02:52In 1931, the all-metal Boeing 247 revolutionized passenger airplane design.
02:58With only ten seats, it was more like a flying limousine than an airliner.
03:03But everybody wanted to fly in it.
03:05And Boeing soon had a long list of would-be customers.
03:17TWA were not prepared to wait a night.
03:21They asked Boeing's rival, Donald Douglas, to design them something bigger and, if possible, better.
03:26It was an historic decision.
03:29Their letter of August 2, 1932, represents a landmark in the history of flight.
03:35Douglas later called it the birth certificate of the modern airliner.
03:40In record time, the Douglas engineers produced a design which not only outperformed the Boeing,
03:49but had a far more spacious cabin as well.
03:52The prototype was named the Douglas Commercial, or DC-1.
03:56It entered service as the DC-2, and was soon outselling its rival.
04:01But the real breakthrough came in 1935, with a completely redesigned and enlarged version for American airlines.
04:16The DC-3, or Douglas Sleeper Transport.
04:20It was the last word in luxury travel, with 14 sleeping berths for its pampered passengers,
04:26and a hostess to tuck them in.
04:31American Airlines soon realized that it could earn more money by operating the DC-3 as a 21-seat dayplane,
04:38flying non-stop New York to Chicago in less than four hours.
04:42The train took 18.
04:44The modern airliner was born.
04:52By 1939, 90% of all the world's airline passengers were being flown in DC-3s.
04:59By 1940, Europe was locked in a war which threatened to engulf America as well.
05:16The US Army saw that a rugged transport aircraft could be useful.
05:20In December 1941, it suddenly became essential.
05:23When Japan attacked the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the United States was plunged into World War II.
05:37DC-3s were quickly commandeered by the government for use as military transports.
05:44The gleaming and luxurious airliners, the pride of America's passenger fleets, were stripped of their interior fittings.
05:54All signs of their previous ownership were obliterated with a coat of olive drab paint, and they were press-ganged into the service of Uncle Sam.
06:07But it was soon obvious that hundreds, if not thousands more, would be needed.
06:14President Roosevelt asked the American aircraft builders for an all-out effort to mass-produce huge fleets of fighters, bombers, and transports.
06:27I should like to see this nation geared up to the ability to turn out at least 50,000 planes a year.
06:40Donald Douglas confidently responded to the challenge.
06:44We can do it. I know that the American aircraft manufacture is functioning under a free democratic system in the American way,
06:53and unhappened by politics and partisanship can and will help the President and the Congress to meet the challenge to everything that this nation holds dear.
07:09Now he would have to deliver the goods.
07:12This is Detroit, Michigan, in case you don't know.
07:15They call it the automobile center of the world.
07:18I've worked here all my life.
07:21If America was to win the war, its huge industrial capacity would have to be harnessed.
07:27The mass-production techniques of the motor industry, affected by Henry Ford,
07:31would now produce trucks, tanks, ships, planes, and their engines.
07:38Pretty soon it's going to look like this.
07:42And then like this.
07:46And lots more coming.
07:48The Douglas Company was given a contract to mass-produce a military version of the DC-3 to be called the C-47 Transport.
07:58It had no passenger seats and was fitted with a strengthened floor to handle heavy loads, with wide double doors at the rear.
08:04The Douglas Transport was the ideal machine for mass production.
08:12With a big enough labor force, it was simple and quick to build.
08:16Hundreds of lightweight aluminum sheets were folded and drilled, overlapped and secured by 500,000 rivets to form the structure.
08:24The fuselage was little more than a metal tube, pointed at the tail and rounded at the nose.
08:37Inside the wings, partitions of sheet metal formed a series of compartments.
08:42There were no conventional wing spars, yet they were incredibly strong.
08:49If damaged, they could be changed with nothing more than a few basic hand tools,
08:54and the patience needed to undo the 328 securing bolts.
08:59The two air-cooled engines were reliable and easy to service.
09:09From three giant factories in California and Oklahoma,
09:13Douglas began to turn out these flying trucks at an astonishing rate.
09:18By mid-1944, finished aircraft were rolling off the production lines at the rate of one every 34 minutes.
09:24They were built by an army of workers, many of them women getting their first taste of factory life.
09:34Rosie the Riveter became an American icon.
09:38Like G.I. Joe, she was helping her Uncle Sam to win the war.
09:45Rosie the Riveter was a name given to all the women that were working in aircraft plans forever.
09:50When we were maintaining the aircraft, we often wondered,
09:55I wonder what Rosie's name actually was that worked on this airplane.
10:01And Rosie the Riveter kept with us all through the war.
10:07Like the Model T Ford, which put America on wheels,
10:11the C-47 gave the GI his wings.
10:15That was our airplane.
10:17And all I can tell you is that it was never a better work horse.
10:23Very plain.
10:25Very plain.
10:27But it turned out to be a terrific instrument of war.
10:32An instrument that was destined to play the lead in some of the most crucial
10:36and the most dangerous missions of World War II.
10:40Paratroops, airborne forces, and freight, they're all part of the job for the Dakota.
11:00Developed from the famous American peacetime airliner, the Douglas DC-3,
11:04she's now in extensive use with the British and American forces.
11:10It was agreed that the C-47 should become the standard transport aircraft for the Allies.
11:17Soon its outline became familiar in every theatre of the war.
11:21It's hard to overstate the importance of the transport aircraft in the Second World War.
11:29It towed gliders.
11:31It flew in.
11:33Bullets and bayonets and blankets.
11:35It reached out to remote airstrips, sometimes where there was no road.
11:38It enabled armies to be effectively supported in the field, probably for the first time in history.
11:46All of this accomplished by an undramatic flying truck.
11:51To the British, it was the Dakota.
11:55To the Americans, it was the C-47 Gooney Bird.
11:59But it had plenty of unofficial names as well.
12:01I named my aircraft Y, W-H-Y question mark.
12:06Why do we have to wake up at four o'clock in the morning?
12:10Why do we have to haul gasoline?
12:12Why do we have to fly through all types of weather?
12:15But you just carry out the mission.
12:17It was just a flying truck.
12:31Anything that had to be hauled to get to where it was destined to go in a hurry, the C-47 did it.
12:37It's a good and well designed airplane.
12:56And structurally, it is very, very strong.
13:00The flexibility of the wings is such that it creates very little stress when you're flying with a heavy load.
13:09And it gives you the maneuverability and the feeling of safety.
13:15The unarmed C-47 transport became the most versatile aircraft of the war,
13:21with a growing reputation for reliability on the battlefield.
13:25It was the ship that would get you home.
13:27As it mastered each new task, the missions became more demanding and more dangerous.
13:35Its side door made it the ideal aircraft for parachute drops.
13:40It dropped stores and equipment, providing a lifeline for isolated forces,
13:46like the British troops fighting deep in the jungles of Burma.
13:49And it dropped men.
13:50The elite paratroop units that played a key role in the Allied invasions, from North Africa to Normandy.
14:00When America entered the war, two airborne divisions were formed.
14:05The 82nd, known as the All-American, and the 101st, or Screaming Eagles.
14:09When combined with the C-47 transports of the 9th Troop Carrier Command,
14:15they quickly established a reputation as an elite force.
14:18Well, the first time that I ever saw a paratrooper with his parachute wings and his polished boots,
14:31I just knew that that was for me.
14:34I always wanted to be an army officer.
14:36I always wanted to leave men in combat.
14:37And I knew right away I wanted to go to jump school.
14:41I'm Jewish and I had a vendetta to fight.
14:45Oh, man.
14:47I would say at least 50%, 60%, the men are weeded out.
14:53You must be in extremely good physical condition.
14:58You go through seven days and all it is is physical running and drill and push-ups and exercise, rope climbing.
15:05And a lot of the people can't do it.
15:08And they're out on day one.
15:10And they just don't want to do it.
15:12Because they don't have the mental aggressiveness that,
15:15I want to be a paratrooper.
15:21The C-47 became an indispensable part of the airborne operation.
15:26The paratroopers adopted it enthusiastically.
15:29The former airliner was proving to be as tough as they were.
15:33It was exciting.
15:36It's a very exciting thing to be with men to jump out of airplanes.
15:42You're dealing with men that like to fly.
15:45They like to fly at night.
15:48Low altitude.
15:50They jump out of airplanes with 150 pounds.
15:53With everybody shooting at them in a strange land.
15:55And when they hit the ground, I can tell you they're ready to fight.
16:00And if they have to, they fight each other.
16:03And those men that have that mental attitude that I want to be a paratrooper and I am going to be a paratrooper,
16:12then those are the men that make their five jumps and they get their wings.
16:19And a great day.
16:21I know it was for me.
16:22And then, once you're on the ground, there's such exhilaration that you made the jump and you shoot open.
16:30And I think that may be why the paratroopers do so well in combat, even though the enemy is all around us.
16:40It's such an exhilaration that we can do about anything.
16:45There's a special something about airborne units.
16:50That almost tangible esprit de corps that helps define elite organizations.
16:57It comes from a number of things.
16:59In part, it's because of the need for physical fitness and mental toughness.
17:04In part, it's because of the need for airborne initiative.
17:06That need to really move fast and think fast once you get on the ground.
17:11And in part, too, it's because being a parachutist means that everybody in the unit, regardless of rank, shares a common experience.
17:22So these folk are very tightly bonded, members of a really effective team.
17:28Toughened, skilled, easy under discipline, our men knew they were ready.
17:33I had my vendetta to fight.
17:37I went with them because I wanted to get in the middle of it.
17:40Because to me, if I could get back there, I had people who were in concentration camps, people who died, et cetera, et cetera.
17:48And I was very angry. I was an angry kid.
17:50So what Uncle Sam did for me was he trains me, he gives me the weapons, he gives me the transportation to go over there and find my own vendetta.
18:05In the late spring of 1944, the build-up began for the D-Day invasion of Hitler's Europe.
18:11The exact date and location of the invasion were top secret information given to only a few people.
18:25Among them was C-47 pilot Adam Parsons.
18:29He would be one of the first to fly into Normandy.
18:31I was put in a compound so that I couldn't speak to anyone because of the knowledge that I had of where the drop zones were.
18:42I never knew there were that many boats, landing craft, ships, barges, trucks and jeeps anywhere in the world.
18:50But they seemed to all be drawn as a magnet right to southern England.
18:54The prospect was both terrifying and exhilarating.
18:59The C-47s and their crews were about to play a leading role in one of the most dramatic events of the 20th century.
19:06They were about to make history.
19:10Being young and gung-ho, you know, I wanted part of the action.
19:15We knew that nothing like this had ever happened.
19:18I was glad that I was part of it. If I had to be somewhere, I was glad I was there.
19:22They took us to a sealed airport where nobody was allowed in and none of us allowed out.
19:31We knew there was something cooking now. Something big.
19:35Invasion markings painted on every ship and glider brought the whole thing even closer to us.
19:41We'd soon be on our way.
19:46The objective of the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions
19:50was to protect the right flank of the invasion and prevent German forces from reaching Utah Beach.
19:57Flying in from the west, the paratroops would jump on drop zones located around the small town of Saint-Mer-Eglise, south of Cherbourg.
20:0517,000 paratroops were to be dropped at night ahead of the seaborne invasion force.
20:13It was to be the largest airborne operation ever undertaken.
20:18Once on the ground, the paratroops had to be entirely self-sufficient.
20:23Each man was festooned with a mountain of special equipment. It was a formidable list.
20:30One jumpsuit, boots, gloves, May West, main parachute, reserve parachute, rifle, 45 automatic pistol, trench knife, jump knife, hunting knife, machete.
20:46One cartridge belt, two bandoliers, two cans of machine gun ammunition, one Hawkins mine capable of blowing off the track of a tank, four blocks of TNT,
21:01one entrenching tool, three first aid kits, two morphine needles, one gas mask, a canteen of water, three days supply of K-rations, two days supply of D-rations, six fragmentation grenades, one gammon grenade, one orange and one red smoke grenade,
21:22one blanket, one raincoat, one change of socks and underwear, two cartons of cigarettes, one helmet.
21:31Total weight, 120 to 130 pounds.
21:37When we jumped in combat, what we had on us was our only things that we owned in the entire world. That was our gear. And now we have a job to do.
21:48Now we were really ready. General Ike nearly tore his pants stepping over the barbed wire, but he didn't care. He wanted to talk to us. Ike had a lot of questions to ask.
22:01What's your name soldier, he says. Where's your hometown?
22:05Eisenhower's decision to spend the final moments before the invasion with the paratruths reflected the importance of their mission.
22:12He knew that they had the toughest assignment of all, to be first into action. His advisors were predicting casualty rates as high as 80%.
22:23He inspected a few of the boys who really have to be tough. The Pathfinders. They go in ahead of all of us and plant signal markers so we can find a way. They live on a steady diet of danger.
22:38They took three men out of each company. And we were trained as Pathfinders. And we would do the jumping together. We'd go in ahead of everybody. When we arrived like at St. Mariglis, there was nobody there.
22:51A few of the outfits got the idea they ought to show the Germans we had Indians in America. Here they are. Indians from the Loop, from Back Bay, and the Bronx.
23:06On June the 5th, 1944, as the long summer evening began to fade, the paratroops prepared to board their C-47 transports. Each man knew only too well how dangerous their mission was.
23:23They would be jumping at night into heavily defended enemy territory. Their chief weapon was surprised. But if they failed to regroup quickly enough, they could easily be overpowered by the German forces.
23:37We had pictures taken in front of the C-47. In fact, I had my helmet in my hand like so, like they did in the 1875s when they were taking a picture. And we were all happy.
23:55I did not envy them to go into battle with all the equipment that they had to carry. If a paratrooper weighed 170 pounds, he had another 120 or 30 pounds of equipment on him.
24:17I mean, it was so bad, tied up with this stuff, that to get on your C-47 with the little steps, I went up on my knees. I couldn't raise my leg enough to get up to the first step. And most of the guys went up on their knees.
24:38I went back and shook hands with everyone on board. And I was wondering, what are they going to meet when they land? At least we were coming back home.
24:51We knew our job. We were good at it. We were well trained. We knew the pilots of the C-47. Very good pilots. Knew we'd get where we were going.
25:05So let's go.
25:36We heard the roar of engines as the Pathfinder ships began hopping off.
25:49We knew we'd be following soon after.
25:55The invasion was on.
25:57As darkness fell on June the 5th, 1944, the main force of the Airborne Infantry took off to launch the D-Day invasion of Europe.
26:10Talk about making trains run on time. You could have really set your watch by the split-second way those guys took us off.
26:18After all, they were going to have to fly it again and again, all night and the next day, only under fire.
26:24And that's no fun when you figure that these C-47s have many armor, no guns, and have to fly low over the drop-in zones, straight as on a bombing run.
26:37Flying there, I felt very, very uneasy that something might happen that would foul everything up.
26:49The D-Day airborne assault was incredibly dangerous.
26:52Paratroops and glider troops had to be dropped behind Hitler's Atlantic Wall, into a French landscape laced with rivers and floods and marshes, towns and villages.
27:03They had to get there through anti-aircraft fire and, of course, there were Germans already on the ground.
27:09The weather was patchy. There was a lot of cloud, actually, over the objective.
27:13And, of course, all this was being done at night.
27:15I think a lot of us realized that this was going to be by far the toughest combat mission we ever had.
27:27And we knew the Germans were waiting for us.
27:29We had all kind of photos of how the drop zones were laced with barbed wire, machine gun positions, minefields, and you name it.
27:39So I think we were apprehensive that a lot of us weren't going to get back.
27:48I think that anybody who tells you they were not scared is a liar, a big liar.
27:58But if he's really not scared, he has no heart. He wants to die.
28:03It's just something that a combat soldier has, and it's in there.
28:11You don't want to talk about it to your friend and say,
28:14Look, I'm scared. I'm really frightened. I wonder if I'm going out the door.
28:23As they reached the Channel Coast and the friendly lights of England slipped away into the darkness,
28:28each man struggled to cope with his own emotions.
28:34I read a book. I get my mind off it.
28:37I read a book, a book of funny jokes.
28:42Got to get your mind off.
28:43And I was actually able to read it and comprehend it.
28:47Despite the fact that I was scared it's dead.
28:50I carried a little harmonica in my jump pocket up here where you kept a knife.
28:54I had a ten-note harmonica.
28:57And the guys around me, we just blew our heads off playing that harmonica and singing.
29:02It was a lot of nervous energy.
29:05A lot of it.
29:09As they approached the French coast, the Pathfinders prepared for the jump into enemy territory.
29:15They were about to launch the biggest combined operation in history.
29:19The accuracy of the entire airborne drop would depend on their marker beacons being placed in exactly the right locations.
29:28Now, the German anti-aircraft batteries were in rage.
29:32It sounded like, you know, all kind of drums were beating around.
29:42And the pilots that flew in, taking all the flack, holding the course at low altitude, to give us a chance to get down.
29:52They're really heroes.
29:53I was standing in the door all the way, from the coast, all the way into San Marais-Glees.
30:04The Mercury River was our last signal that we were getting close to the drop zone.
30:10Normally, on all pair, drops were about 700 feet.
30:16And as you gave an alert that we were approaching the drop zone, we had a series of lights.
30:22And the red light was a warning light that they were approaching the drop zone.
30:28And the green light was the exit.
30:31When the green light came on, they all jumped.
30:32Stand up! Hook up!
30:37Hook up!
30:44Sound off for equipment check!
30:47It ain't okay!
30:49So we knew exactly what we were doing, and to stand up, hook up, and then check equipment.
30:54And we'd check the equipment of the man in front of me, and check my own equipment.
30:57We're okay!
30:58Stick ready, jumpmaster!
30:59Stand in the door!
31:01The idea was to get out of that plane.
31:04We were like, what's it called, an airborne shuffle.
31:07You had your knee, and the next guy's behind, and you were shuffling out, so that when you landed, you were close together.
31:12It was the responsibility of the crew of the C-47 to make certain that the paratroopers were dropped as close to target as possible.
31:28And even a delay of three or four seconds in turning on the green light would have thrown them off their designated target zone.
31:38Go!
31:41Go!
31:44Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
31:54The idea was to go less half a second apart.
32:00It was really going fast out of there.
32:04Out we went, and the war was on.
32:16Bob Murphy and his pathfinders had a good drop, right on target.
32:24But as the main force approached the drop zone, things began to go seriously wrong.
32:29The German anti-aircraft batteries started to open up.
32:33Then the C-47s hit a bank of thick cloud.
32:37The tight formations were forced to spread out to avoid collisions.
32:42Many of the less experienced pilots overreacted and climbed too high.
32:46Others speeded up.
32:48Some just hit the green light and turned for home.
32:52The paratroops from these aircraft were scattered over a wide area.
32:56Some landed in flooded marshes miles from their drop zone.
33:00Weighed down by their equipment, they struggled to get free of their shoots.
33:05Many failed and drowned without ever firing a shot.
33:17I was dropped, I would guess, of somewhere in the neighborhood of about 9 kilometers east-north-east of the drop zone.
33:31When I went out of the door, everything I had attached to my harness just broke loose, including my father's World War I .45 caliber pistol.
33:40And I landed unconsciously.
33:44And the minute I hit the ground, I hear thump, thump.
33:47It sounded like at least a platoon of Krauss or jackboots, you know.
33:52And here I am, completely helpless.
33:54He had, you know, three buckles to get the shoot off.
33:58My gun is folded in half.
34:01So there was this tiny little ditch over here.
34:04I go in the ditch and I pull the shoot over my head.
34:07I must have hit the ground pretty hard, didn't break any bones.
34:10And I came to and heard these French voices.
34:13And then I realized I had lost all my kit, my father's revolver.
34:17All the ammunition in my pockets had gone right through the cloth.
34:21You know, and so I'm not too well equipped.
34:24And all of a sudden, there's an outline of a guy coming in from the other side.
34:30And I didn't want to give my position away, so instead of yelling, I said, Halt, who's there?
34:36And he said, I'm a yank, I'm a yank, don't shoot.
34:40Now they had to regroup and face a well equipped and determined enemy.
34:45For those who survived, it would be the longest night of their lives.
34:54As June the 6th dawned, an extraordinary sight greeted the people of St. Mary Gliese.
35:04The hated Germans had gone, and the town was full of Americans.
35:09Many of the scattered paratroopers were still hopelessly lost.
35:13But enough of them had reached their objectives, and the town was secure.
35:20But the 3rd battalion had a pretty good job, they got St. Mary Gliese, and the 1st battalion
35:25was scattered, but they were able to get down the Lafayette Bridge.
35:29And they stopped the Germans just in time.
35:34Four men stopped two tanks, plus disabled the third one, with bazookas, which was awe-inspiring.
35:43We could see them coming at us, but we never let them by.
35:46They never got across that bridge, which is exactly what they wanted to do, to come into
35:51St. Mary Gliese, go through St. Mary Gliese with their tanks and all their infantry, and
35:56down to Utah Beach.
35:58They never get over that bridge, not a one.
36:01D-Day, which was the greatest amphibious assault in history, was a triumphant success.
36:11And by evening, the Allies were firmly ashore in Fortress Europe.
36:19But a great deal of this success had depended on the work done by the airborne divisions.
36:24They'd helped prevent German reinforcements from getting through to attack the troops on
36:29the beaches.
36:30All those acts of individual heroism, all those bitter skirmishes in the hedgerows, they'd
36:37all added up to victory, but victory at a cost.
36:42These are American dead on the beachhead awaiting burial.
36:46Medical officers search for identification tags.
36:49It's all sort of talk about you fight for freedom, you fight for the flag.
36:58It really comes down to fighting with your buddies to stay alive.
37:03I think that's true.
37:05When you say mama and apple pie, that's long forgotten.
37:09Your closest friend is your comrade who's in the slit trench of the foxhole next to you,
37:15taking the same shells and mortars and 88 artillery that you're getting, and under the same fear,
37:23you're in that hole praying or sweating, and he's doing the same thing.
37:28And when you come out of it and you're together, you have a bond that's like children and brothers
37:33and sisters, and it remains forever.
37:36And when they're killed on the battlefield, there's just no way to express how deep that loss is.
37:48For every man who was killed, you got three seriously wounded and evacuated.
37:54Rough airstrips were hastily improvised, and once again, the rugged C-47 earned its battle on us.
38:01The same aircraft that delivered the paratroops and towed the gliders into Normandy now became
38:06flying ambulances.
38:09Many a wounded soldier owed his life to the C-47 crews and the medics who carried him back
38:14to the safety of an English hospital.
38:17It was a non-stop two-way shuttle.
38:19Fresh troops and supplies coming in, casualties going out.
38:32As the invading troops pressed inland from the beachheads, they were kept supplied by airdrops.
38:38Wherever a large enough field could be found, the C-47s would land to deliver the precious
38:43fuel supplies that kept the tanks rolling as the big breakout began.
38:55Our command lost 27 airplanes hauling gasoline.
38:59But we hauled several million gallons, so I guess when you balance it out, it was well
39:04worth the effort.
39:06With the narrow roads heavily congested, gliders were often used to deliver troops and supplies
39:12quickly to the battlefront.
39:13The C-47 could tug one or even two gliders.
39:19Can you imagine?
39:22Run down the runway, one glider takes off, the other glider takes off, and finally the
39:26airplane takes off.
39:29That's quite an airplane.
39:31It seemed as if for the C-47 pilots, no mission was impossible.
39:36They could actually pick up gliders and evacuate the wounded without landing.
39:42Casualties were loaded into the glider and a tow rope was attached.
39:46Its looped end was suspended between two poles.
39:49A low-flying C-47 trailing a long hook would then catch the loop and simply snatch the glider
39:56off the ground.
39:56It was a risky but highly effective technique.
40:06As the Allied forces steadily closed in on Germany, the C-47s remained in the thick of
40:11the action.
40:13Most of their missions were flown at low altitude and the cost in human life was high.
40:18And at that altitude, every type of imaginable gunfire was thrown up at us.
40:26We had nothing to defend ourselves with, just our flag jackets, and we sat on them because
40:32all the fire was coming up from underneath.
40:39We went into Germany hauling two gliders.
40:43The fellow on my right got shot down and then on my left, that aircraft was shot, the right
40:52engine was burning and he just went forward, pulled in his gliders, but crashed killing
40:57all the crew.
41:04So I was hemmed in between them and I did not have one hole in my airplane.
41:08So you sometimes wonder who's looking down on us.
41:16On May the 7th, 1945, the war in Europe finally ended and it was time to celebrate.
41:23In August, Japan surrendered and peace returned at last.
41:30Most warplanes became redundant overnight, but for the C-47, a new life was just beginning.
41:37A post-war boom in air transport was about to take off.
41:53With thousands of trained pilots leaving the armed forces and thousands of war surplus C-47s
41:59coming onto the market at bargain prices, a host of small independent airlines began to
42:05spring up.
42:06They were a far cry from the pre-war luxury of the DC-3 fleets, but they helped to launch
42:11a new revolution, worldwide low-cost air travel.
42:18And they never stopped.
42:20Even today, hundreds of wartime C-47s are still in service, still flying safely and economically,
42:27which is why their owners prefer not to trade them in.
42:35People will buy a car and they love that new car smell.
42:41I have yet to get in the C-47 that didn't have the smell, which is a little different from
42:53any other airplane.
42:54I think that once you start the engines and the gasoline starts flowing through, there's
42:59that nostalgic feeling that you get, you immediately know if it's a C-47 by the sound of the engines.
43:08It takes you right back and it just makes you fall in love with it all over again.
43:19The story of this machine spans more than two-thirds of the entire history of powered flight.
43:30The livery may change, but the Gooney Bird flies on.
43:35Before his death in 1981, Donald Douglas summed up its place in history.
43:42I do not believe that any of us who worked on the design and development quite realized
43:46we were building an airplane that would outlast the careers of all of us.
43:51Perhaps she will fly on forever.
43:54I hope she does.
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