File:Douglas C-47 "That’s All, Brother" 1944 (48233626686).jpg

C-47A-15-DK 42-92847 N47TB

-"This aircraft rolled of Douglas Aircraft’s production line in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during the tail end of February, 1944, being delivered to the U.S. military on March 6th. She arrived in the UK, initially for service with the 8th Air Force, on April 26th, 1944, before transfer to the 9th Air Force the following day for service with the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 438th Troop Carrier Group, based at RAF Greenham Common. Her crew nicknamed her That’s All, Brother. Donalson named his new plane That's All, Brother, as a personal message to Adolf Hitler that Nazi Germany's dominance of Europe would soon be ended

On the morning of June 6, That’s All, Brother led the main airborne invasion of Normandy. Piloted by Lt. Col John Donalson, the plane led 800 planes that dropped over 13,000 American paratroopers onto the French coast. It was chosen for the job because it had been equipped with radar that could find the beacons dropped as "pathfinders" to mark drop zones by an earlier group of paratroopers That’s All, Brother took off as the lead ship in Serial #7, the initial element for the main U.S. paratroop force to go into battle in Normandy. The C-47, flown by Lt.Col. John Donalson, was carrying members of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd PIR, 101st Airborne Division towards Drop Zone A near Ste-Mère-Église, releasing them at around 00:48 hrs on June 6th.

That’s All, Brother went on to serve, and survive, several further significant WWII combat missions including Operation Dragoon (the invasion of Southern France in July, 1944), Operation Market-Garden (Holland, September, 1944), the Siege of Bastogne (‘Battle of the Bulge’, Belgium in December, 1944) and Operation Varsity (the crossing of the Rhine into Germany during March, 1945). Following WWII, she was declared surplus to requirements and placed up for disposal at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas in October, 1945.

She went through a number of civilian owners in the following half century before ending up with the Randsburg Corporation in Wisconsin, who dressed the historic transport up as a Vietnam War era AC-47 Spooky gunship of all things, not realizing the history that lay hidden beneath her paint. After decades of use and abuse, the aircraft was very tired and in need of an expensive overhaul. Given the lack of knowledge about her history, it was really beyond economic sense to carry out the repairs, so she soon found her way into Basler Turbo Conversion’s bone yard, destined for conversion into a turbine-powered transport. Happily her true identity was discovered about ten years ago. After this, the Commemorative Air Force made a successful campaign to both acquire and restore the aircraft back into her pristine wartime condition. She is now based in San Marcos, Texas with the Central Texas Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. " For more information visit <a href="http://www.thatsallbrother.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.thatsallbrother.org</a>

-On 6 June 2019, for the 75th anniversary and as part of the commemorations of D-Day landings, a flight of 21 Dakotas carrying paratrooper re-enactors flew from Duxford in England to Sannerville in Normandy. This was one of the largest, perhaps the largest, gatherings of C-47/DC-3/Dakota aircraft for over 75 years. <a href="http://www.curbsideclassic.com/rampside-classic/runway-classic-the-c-47-skytrain-dakota-over-normandy-75-years-on/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.curbsideclassic.com/rampside-classic/runway-classic-t...</a>