In this article:
Adapted from the Douglas DC-3
Few aircraft are as well known, were so widely used or used as long as the C-47. Affectionately nicknamed the “Gooney Bird,” this aircraft was adapted from the Douglas DC-3 commercial airliner. The US Army Air Corps ordered its first C-47s in 1940, and by the end of World War II, procured a total of 9,348.
A C-47 could carry 28 passengers, 18-22 fully equipped paratroopers, about 6,000 lbs. of cargo or 18 stretchers and three medical personnel. The C-47 carried personnel and cargo around the globe. It dropped paratroops into enemy territory, air evacuated sick or wounded patients and towed troop-carrying gliders such as the CG-4A and Horsa.
C-47 with fuselage windows melted by fire on D-Day
As told by Scott McGaugh in his book Into the Firestorm The Allied Heroes Who Flew World War II’s Most Daring Missions, war can become unimaginably small and intimate in foxholes, trenches, and at the end of a tow rope. After returning from Operation Detroit (a pre-dawn glider-borne combat assault in the American airborne landings in Normandy, made by elements of the US 82nd Airborne Division) on D-Day, an officer cut Captain Louis Emerson’s nap short. “You’re flying another mission today. Get up.” He would be towing Flight Officer Glen McPherren in a glider carrying a 105mm howitzer at 1600 hours. McPherren had served as best man in Emerson’s wedding.
A few hours later as they approached the French coast, McPherren watched an artillery shell explode almost next to Emerson’s right engine, killing it. The engine’s fire extinguisher failed as the engine’s fire burned so fiercely that the C-47’s fuselage windows began to melt.
Every combat pilot had trained for one-engine fight. Emerson and his co-pilot first triaged the dead engine by throttling it back, adjusting the fuel mixture, and pushing the overhead switch to feather (stop) the propeller. Then shutting down relevant engine systems. Almost at the same time, turning their attention to their remaining good engine by applying any necessary power and aileron and rudder pressure to keep the C-47 steady and straight.
The “six pack” in the cockpit would dictate the odds of their survival: airspeed, heading, altitude, oil pressure, temperature, and manifold pressure. Even if they had suffered damage to their hydraulic and electrical systems.
Flying on one engine
Flying on one engine miles from his LZ, Emerson faced a decision every pilot dreaded. If we cut [McPherren] loose too soon, he would land in the water and sink like a rock. We can probably make it to the LZ and still have about 300 feet altitude. With a little luck we could then get back to the coast, ditch beside a ship, and if I do a good ditching job, we might not even get our feet wet.
Emerson cut his best man loose over land and then turned hard toward his good engine to head back over the English Channel. Straight toward two German machine gunners whose aim was uncanny. One burst peeled away an engine’s cowling. The next knocked the cylinder heads of and a third destroyed the propeller’s dome. Now uncontrolled by the cockpit, the engine “ran away,” broke down, and stopped, as if committing suicide. Emerson now sat at the controls of a critically wounded nine-ton glider. With only one chance at survival. Trees.
“Flaps! Landing gear!”
Neither functioned. He dropped below the treetops, hoping his wings shattering limbs would slow him. Not much.
Crash Landing
“Prepare for crash landing!”
Emerson bounced the C-47 hard of the ground, dragged the right-wing tip to “steer” toward a gap in the trees ahead and plowed through, the trees and wings taking the brunt of the impact. The nose reared like a wild horse and the sounds of crushing metal sucked the breath out of Emerson. Ten silence. Emerson had broken his ribs and his co-pilot was knocked unconscious while suffering a compound fracture of his left arm.
Fire engulfed the right side of an aircraft that had been broken in half, the tail askew from the fuselage. Emerson and his crew managed to pull themselves clear, hunker down in a ditch, and wait for darkness. At about 0300 hours, they crossed paths with a paratrooper standing sentry duty and were taken to a nearby barn where a group of paratroopers and a medic hid. They would survive.
Into the Firestorm The Allied Heroes Who Flew World War II’s Most Daring Missions is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
