New Osprey on US C-47/R4D Units

[DavidIsby]

C-47/R4D Units of the Pacific and China-Burma-India Theatres, Osprey Combat Aircraft volume 66, is a follow-on to my previous Osprey, C-47/R4D Units of the European and Mediterranean Theatres.

The book is in the standard Osprey format: a softcover of 100 or so pages total, including 30 color profiles, color illustrations of unit insignias, and over 100 black and white photographs and maps. It includes scale drawings, a listing (with histories) of all units to use the aircraft in these theatres, a bibliography and an index.

The historical narrative of the use of C-47/R4D series aircraft in these theatre includes a number of contemporaneous accounts, covering a range of experiences, from Guadalcanal, “the Hump”, and flying up the Aleutians chain to a C-47 crew’s reporting how a P-51 shot them down while on a final approach and that this saved their lives.

The cover illustration is of an incident over north Burma on 10 December, 1943 when Lieutenants Charles Lawton and George Laben of the 2nd Troop Carrier Squadron maneuvered an attacking Japanese ‘Oscar’ fighter into high ground.

This book is available from Amazon.com and Osprey retailers in both the US and UK (and, I presume, elsewhere as well).

Now, to persuade the publishers to let me do a volume on Dakota units and then continue the story of the Gooney Bird in US service, which is still (with turboprop-powered versions) going on today.