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C-47/R4D Skytrain Units of the Pacific and CBI (Combat Aircraft)
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$20.95
Asia Trips Trips Price: $20.95
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.544973
EAN: 9781846030468
ISBN: 1846030463
Label: Osprey Publishing
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 96
Publication Date: 2007-02-27
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Release Date: 2007-02-27
Studio: Osprey Publishing
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Editorial Reviews:
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C-47 is an aircraft that remains a popular favourite and an acknowledged classic design, carrying out missions every bit as strategically important and as dramatic for the aircrew as those of the fighters and bombers. The C-47's wartime operations paved the way for post-war military air transport. It also demonstrated how the USAAF was able to invest in and carry out a mission that it had not devoted much time to preparing for in terms of pre-war doctrine (in contrast to strategic bombing). In addition to linking theatres (by flying across 'the Hump'), it showed how vital it was to operations within a theatre like New Guinea. Even if massed airborne invasions were not carried out in the PTO/CBI, all air arms need transports like the C-47.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: C-47s in WWII Action Part 2!
Comment: Osprey Combat Aircraft #66 wraps up David Isby's coverage of the C-47 in U.S. service in World War II. Dwight Eisenhower once ranked the C-47 as being one of the four most influential weapons that helped achieve victory in the Second World War. In reading Isby's book it's easy to agree with that assessment since the 'Gooney Bird' was absolutely crucial to American - and Allied - operations in the PTO and CBI.
The C-47's WWII involvement dated from Day One, several USAAF and USMC transports being destroyed or damaged at Pearl Harbor. In the Pacific the C-47 enabled the Americans to hold Guadalcanal and later advance up the island chains. In the CBI, C-47s kept the Flying Tigers and other units well supplied despite the difficulties of flying the Hump. Last but not least, C-47 crews braved atrocious weather conditions in the Aleutians, enabling the Americans to hold and develop this far-flung theater. Time and again the C-47's rugged design and ability to operate out of marginal fields and in marginal weather were instrumental in Allied victories.
Given the wide canvas he has to cover, Isby does a fair job of summarizing events in the PTO/CBI, jumping from New Guinea 1942-43 to the CBI 1942-44 then to events in the Pacific Theatres 1942-44 and so on. Isby's narrative takes up 67 of 96 pages. The book ends with a 9-page listing of PTO/CBI units. To be honest, the book would have befitted from dropping that list and devoting those pages to telling more of the C-47 story.
The text is supplemented by 11 pages of nicely done color profiles by Chris Davey and over 100 black & white photographs and maps.
As an introduction to the important role C-47s played in the Pacific and CBI Theatres, C-47/R4D SKYTRAIN UNITS OF THE PACIFIC AND CBI can't be beat. Recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: C-47/R4D Skytrain Units of the Pacific and CBI
Comment: Very interesting book that gives an overview of the operations of the C47 type in these theaters of the war, one glaring mistake is a cockpit shot that is clearly a four engined aircraft with a different windsheild (I think a B24) Would have been interesting to add some detail of any known Japanese L2D "Tabby" (Japanese DC3) operations in the area at the same time to give an interesting comparison. That said however I would recomend this book to anyone interested in the DC3/C47/R4D in general and their operation in this part of the war in particular.
Greg King
Customer Rating:
Summary: Osprey Treatment of US C-47/R4Ds in WW2 - v.2
Comment: 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.
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