one less c54

Very sad to see the loss of life and a venerable aircraft.

The C-54 was used to fly The Hump in WW2.

My Dad's fraternity brother & lifelong best friend from the U. Of Missouri flew a C-54 over The Hump to China in WW2.
He later became the President of the CBI (China, Burma, India) veterans association.
Like the gentleman in the video above, he lived to the age of 97 before passing away at his home in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
He was a fine man, true gentleman, and a straight shooter.
My brother owns the service 1911 & shoulder holster he carried it in throughout the war.

Whenever I see one, I am put in mind of the Berlin Airlift and Lt. Halvorsen. America at its best.

are you guys getting the 2 engine C47 confused with the 4 engine C54?

I know the C-54 is a four engine DC-4

^^^^ President Roosevelt directed that the Presidential Unit Citation be awarded to the India-China Wing in recognition of their service. Hardin was given a month's leave in the United States, promoted to brigadier general, and as the representative of the wing received the award from General Arnold on 29 January 1944, the first awarded to a non-combat unit.[7][8] Hardin returned to the India China Wing in February 1944, just as the first of a trickle of four-engined Douglas C-54 Skymaster transports arrived in theater (see Operations on the low hump and in China below). With a maximum load ceiling of only 12,000 feet the C-54s were unable to hurdle the high Hump. Japanese interceptors blocked use of eastbound routes at lower altitudes and the C-54s were limited for the time being to freight movement within India or flights between the CBI and the continental United States.

Hardin advanced to command of the ICW on 21 March 1944 when Hoag was transferred to head ATC's European Wing.[88][ag] A month later, to give Hardin closer personal contact with his growing number of airbases,[89] ICW changed its headquarters from New Delhi to Rishra, north of Calcutta. There, on the 40-acre (160,000 m2) site of the Hastings Jute Mill, Stratemeyer, now a lieutenant general and commander of all USAAF forces in the CBI, established Hastings Army Air Base as the headquarters of the Army Air Forces India-Burma Theater, using a converted 8.5-acre (34,000 m2) mill building to house his headquarters, that of CBI Air Service Command, and ICWATC.[90][91][92] Under Hardin, tonnages increased, but so did expectations and frustrations; morale and safety concerns continued to plague the operation.[3] In the first 54 days of 1944, 47 transports were lost.[93] One transport was being lost for every 218 flights, an accident rate of 1.968 planes lost per thousand hours, of one life for every 162 trips flown or 340 tons delivered.[94][95]

In June 1944, after the capture of the Japanese fighter base at Myitkyina and at the behest of Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner, Col. Andrew B. Cannon was assigned to command the Assam Wing when it was activated the next month. Tunner, who was to become airlift commander following Hardin, anticipated that the end of the fighter threat would see a massive influx of C-54s into the India-China operation. Like Haynes, Alexander, and Tunner, Cannon had been a pioneer in the Air Transport Command, where as a protege of Tunner's he was base commander of Long Beach Army Air Field, where Tunner made his headquarters as commander of ATC's Ferry Division, and commanding officer of the 6th Ferrying Group.[96] On 1 July, ATC reorganized its nine wings worldwide into air divisions, and sectors into wings. The ICW-ATC became the India China Division ATC (ICD-ATC), while the Eastern Sector, carrying out the India-China airlift, was re-designated the Assam Wing, and the Western Sector support organization became the India Wing. The India China Division also had an operational training unit at Gaya[97] and used the service depots of the China-Burma-India Air Service Command at Panagarh, Agra, and Bangalore.[98]

Systems for identifying units and organizations assigned to the airlift changed several times between 1942 and 1945. The final change occurred on 1 August 1944 when the Air Transport Command discontinued the use of station numbers to identify its units and designated them as numbered "USAAF Base Units" with parenthetical modifiers describing their function. USAAF base units collectively identified all permanent party organizations, including flying units, at any particular non-combat base. The flying units were commonly denoted as lettered squadrons, i.e. "Squadron B", within the Base Unit.[92] To illustrate the various organizational changes affecting the India-China airlift, the unit at Chabua under 10AF deployed overseas as the 1st Ferrying Group. It was redesignated the 1st Transport Group on 1 December 1942 to denote that it was an ATC unit. Next it became Station No. 6 (APO 629 New York) on 1 December 1943 when for flexibility ATC no longer fielded groups or squadrons as units. Finally it became the 1333rd USAAF Base Unit (Foreign Transport Station) on 1 August 1944 in conformance with USAAF policy service-wide. Similarly, Headquarters Squadron, Eastern Sector, India-China Wing, established at Chabua on 16 September 1943 to administer the headquarters of the airlift, was redesignated the Headquarters Squadron, Assam Wing on 1 July 1944 when ATC reorganized itself into "divisions" and "wings"; and Squadron A, 1325th USAAF Base Unit (HQ Assam Wing) on 1 August 1944.[92][99]

good. the link to the video didnt show any c54's, thus my confusion and question to you.

My Dad's Brother flew the Hump while Dad flew in B-17s with the 97th Bomb Group at Amendola, Italy.
Both could kill you just as dead

I usually associate a view of an olive drab C-46 Commando flying overthe Hump as a typical scene of the CBI.

And the comic strip "Terry and the Pirates" comes to my mind as Milt Caniff used actual persons as the basis for his characters. His characters were all CBI characters.

Bob Wright

As to the C-46 and C-47, C-46s were more commonly used in the CBI and Pacific theaters, while the C-47 was the one most used in the ETO/MTO. In fact, the C-47 was one of the weapons Gen. Eisenhower named as most important to winning the War in Europe.

I flew on a C-46 from Korea to Tokyo, Japan in 1959.

Bob Wright

46-47....what was the difference?

bobski said:

46-47....what was the difference?

Click to expand...

Google is your friend

I flew on a C-46 from Lackland AFB to Chanute AFB IL. in 1960
Flew in a C-53,/DC3 round trip from Lakeland FL to Key West.
Both great old planes

C-46/47... both performed similar missions. In the period, often one manufacturer could not fulfill the need, so another manufacture would fill the voids with the same product, and sometimes their own product.

In the day too, sometimes variations would receive a dash and letter to identify the different changes of the same aircraft, and sometimes they would receive a whole new designation.

In the case of the C-46 and C-47, they were similar but different airplanes, and made by two competing companies, Curtiss-Wright and Douglas, respectively.

The C-47 got the most attention, and is more recognizable, but they were both great birds. I see C-47's/DC-3's flying locally, regularly. I can't tell you the last time I saw a C-46 in person. But, there were nearly four times as many C-47's (bottom) made as there were C-46's (top).

Another thing... the C-46 was originally designed as a pressurized airliner, allowing the crew and passengers to fly at higher altitudes without requiring oxygen. The C-46 was arguably the better bird.

if all we needed was google, why do we have forums?
thanks wayno.

I know the C-54 is a four engine DC-4

Wyandot Jim said:

Google is your friend

I flew on a C-46 from Lackland AFB to Chanute AFB IL. in 1960
Flew in a C-53,/DC3 round trip from Lakeland FL to Key West.
Both great old planes

Click to expand...

I & my family flew from Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong on a C-46 in 1958.
It was interesting to land at the old Kai Tak airport that jutted out into the harbor.

A friend of mine at my church was a pilot with the Tennessee Air National Guard, retired as Major General. He once mentioned to me the figure eight cross section of the C-46 (and the C-97) as being stronger than a typical smooth sided fuselage. The "crease" down the side added to rigidity.

Bob Wright

WAYNO said:

C-46/47... both performed similar missions. In the period, often one manufacturer could not fulfill the need, so another manufacture would fill the voids with the same product, and sometimes their own product.

In the day too, sometimes variations would receive a dash and letter to identify the different changes of the same aircraft, and sometimes they would receive a whole new designation.

In the case of the C-46 and C-47, they were similar but different airplanes, and made by two competing companies, Curtiss-Wright and Douglas, respectively.

The C-47 got the most attention, and is more recognizable, but they were both great birds. I see C-47's/DC-3's flying locally, regularly. I can't tell you the last time I saw a C-46 in person. But, there were nearly four times as many C-47's (bottom) made as there were C-46's (top).

Another thing... the C-46 was originally designed as a pressurized airliner, allowing the crew and passengers to fly at higher altitudes without requiring oxygen. The C-46 was arguably the better bird.
View attachment 44879View attachment 44880

Click to expand...

One more difference- to my mind at least, the Gooney Bird is beautiful. The C-46, not so much.

sfhogman said:

One more difference- to my mind at least, the Gooney Bird is beautiful. The C-46, not so much.

Click to expand...

I believe that, too.

Goonies flew our bi-weekly re-supply missions - from their base at Clark AFB on Luzon to our seismic detachment in the jungle highlands of N/W Mindanao, almost 500 miles south of Clark. Whenever we weren't working our shifts, we'd help offload/reload the C-47s. We were always glad to see them land with our precious cargo - whiskey, beer, cigs, food and mail. We'd also fly in those C-47s whenever we'd TDY to Clark (to get our test equipment repaired/re-calibrated, etc.).

I once watched a crew chief open an engine cowling and pull out a 3' spanner wrench that someone (at Clark) had accidentally left in the engine compartment. I was also amazed to learn that the wing skins on our C-47s were canvas. When I asked why, the crew chief said canvas was much easier and quicker to repair/patch than sheet metal. The birds which flew to Mindanao were built in the early/mid 1940s, making them 25+ years old - not particularly old for military aircraft. Still, our Goonies repeatedly landed on rough ground (i.e. not true landing strips), and their landing gear took a pounding.

Funniest thing was watching those Goonies get loaded up with wicker baskets full of snakes, lizards, birds, monkeys, etc. - critters bound for the confines of the Jungle Survival School on Luzon. This event happened every three months or so. It seems the many JSS participants kept eating up all of the indigenous critters - prompting the re-population efforts. The flight crews did NOT enjoy ferrying those critters. (I often wondered if this prompted the "Snakes on a Plane" movie.)