Drag em oot C-47 Dakota Operation Market Garden Teuge Airport Holland 21-09-2014

Drag em oot C-47 Dakota Operation Market Garden Location Teuge Airport Holland 21-09-2014

for dropping round canopies in the netherlands

This Douglas C-47 was delivered to the USAAF on December 28th, 1943. as 42-100882
but transferred to the RAF as TS422 in Sep.1943.

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.