C-47 question

[HGabor]

Hi Folks,
In which unit did A.A.F. C-47, S/N: 43-15083 '4J-D' serve during WWII? When was she built?
Thanks,
Gabor

[udf_00]

US air force colours 1942-1945 By Dana Bell

442nd TCG
303rd TCS J7
304th TCS V4
305th TCS 4J
306th TCS 7H

[Revi16]

http://joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html

15083 (MSN 19549) to USAAF 01Feb44. 8th AF 11Mar44. 9th AF. FLC 14Jan46. TO PH-TBM KLM 14Jan46 Reregistered PH-DAM 23Feb54. JZ-PDD DE US Kroonduif 31Aug57. PK-GDN Garuda Indonesian 19Feb63 P N Merpati Nusantara. Reregistered PK·NDD "Djaja Widjaja" 1969

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

According to the late Jennifer Gradidge, in her, The Douglas DC-1/DC-2/DC-3 The First Seventy Years - Vol.1/Air-Britain,2006 (p.99), the following C-47s were allocated to 305 TCS (Code: 4J):

42-93042
43-93087
43-93093
43-93732
43-15064
43-15120
43-15121
43-15122
43-15123
43-15124
43-15125
43-15126
43-15128
43-15129
43-15130
43-15131
43-15158
43-15263
43-15354

C-47A-80-DL, 43-15083, was allocated to: 9 AF/440th TCG/98 TCS (Code:8Y) - Gradidge Vol.2/Air-Britain,2006 (p.473).

Col.

[HGabor]

Gents, thank you. Col, there is film evidence, that code of 43-15083 was 4J-D, so then it was in 305th TCS.
Thanks,
Gabor

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by HGabor

Gents, thank you. Col, there is film evidence, that code of 43-15083 was 4J-D, so then it was in 305th TCS.
Thanks,
Gabor

Anything on the internet?

Cheers
Stig

[HGabor]

Sure. Date: October 3, 1945.
https://filmhiradokonline.hu/watch.php?id=6037
Gabor

[Stig Jarlevik]

Thanks Gabor

May I ask what we are looking at? A documentary? Looks a bit odd to me if it is.

Are all the film sequences shot in October 1945?

Cheers
Stig

[HGabor]

Yep, pretty much documentary and/or a Communist propaganda newsreel. Americans hand over former leaders of the Hungarian Arrowcross Party to the new -soviet supported- regime in October 1945, who fell in U.S. captivity still in Austria at the end of the war. (Most of them were hanged in 1946.) The judge/interrogator, Peter Gabor, later became the much feared chief of the secret police (butcher) of the Communist Regime. Sadly after war criminals they started to persecute basically everything (Churches, etc.) and everybody who was not loyal and supporter of their Communist regime. (The 1956 uprising tried to put an end to this Communist terror.)

Gabor

[Stig Jarlevik]

Aha

Thanks for the explanation. That means the date October 1945 can be established very accurately.

The USAAF unit was based in Italy at the time and must have been tasked with the transport job.

With regard to the Air Britain DC-1 to DC-3 books, the USAAF units were not completely researched. I never corresponded with Jennifer myself, but gave all the known Swedish details to a go-between. But I know it is very problematic to get correct unit details out of the USA since everything outside US territory is not listed on the saved record cards. These record cards, by the way, are simply terrible to read....

Cheers
Stig