Douglas C-47A-65-DL “Skytrain,” 42-100533, Honeybun III, 80th TCS/436th TCG, 7D-B

Douglas C-47A-65-DL “Skytrain,” 42-100533, Honeybun III, 80th TCS/436th TCG, 7D-B, based at Membury, Berkshire, England, March 1944 to February 1945, and at “Airstrip A-55,” Villeroche, France, about 5 miles northeast of Melun and 23 miles south of Paris from February to May 1945.

Honeybun III at Melun. France in May 1945

This aircraft enjoyed a distinguished history with the 80th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 436th Troop Carrier Group in the ETO and the MTO during WWII. In January 1944 the Squadron deployed to England under the command of Major (later Lt. Col.) Clarence L. Schmid (pictured left) and after initial training at Bottesford was transferred to Membury on 3 March 1944, where it continued training for D-Day. Records indicate that Maj. Schmid led the 80th TCS in Honeybun III during the first parachute drops over Normandy, when the Squadron dropped a “stick” (1/502) of the 101st Airborne Division at 0102 on 6 June. “The Squadron maintained perfect formation for the entire trip and received a warm welcome from the ground personnel when they returned to Membury at 0255, 6 June.”

Honeybun III's fuselage mission board late in the war

The Squadron participated in the invasion of Southern France on 15 July 1944, flying from Voltone Airfield, Tarquinia Italy, about 90 kilometers north of Rome and towing twelve CG-4A gliders to the invasion area. It also participated in three paratroop and glider missions in the Eindhoven area during Operation Market Garden; re-supply of the surrounded 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge; and glider tows and paratrooper drops for the 17th Airborne Division near Wesel, Germany on 24 February 1945 during Operation Varsity, the crossing of the Rhine River. The Squadron also flew innumerable cargo and medical evacuation missions, which are reflected on Honeybun III’s impressive fuselage mission board. The 80th TCS was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its wartime operations. Honeybun III soldiered on after the War, taking part in the Berlin Airlift before being scrapped in 1950.

Vought OS2U-1 Kingfisher aboard USS Arizona, September 6, 1941

In the Autumn of 1941 USS Arizona (BB-39) based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had three Vought OS2U-1 Kingfishers assigned to it from the First Section of Observation Squadron One, VO-1. They were 1-O-1, BuNo. 1595, 1-O-2, BuNo. 1596, and 1-O-3, BuNo. 1597.

On September 6, 1941 two of the aircraft, 1-O-1 and 1-O-3, were photographed during a morning aircraft launch and recovery exercise.

1-O-1 taxies on Arizona's port side waiting for the recovery hook on the aircraft crane. The pilot was Lt.Crd. Welton D. Rowley, CO of VO-1. Rear-seat man, RM2 E.L. Higley, prepares to go out on the plane's wing to hook up the aircraft to the battleship's crane for recovery.

Some of the hazards in this "routine" seagoing evolution are evident as the rear seat man of 1-O-3 struggles to get the lifting hook from the shipboard crane steady before attaching it to the lifting ring on the aircraft behind the pilot's seat.

The pilot of 1-O-3 on September 6, 1941 was Ensign Lawrence A. Williams, (AV) USNR, who was killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The rear seat man was RM3 Glenn H. Land, USN, who survived Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War, and is one of 23 Arizona survivors still alive in 2009.

Fairey Firefly Mk I, FAA Squadron 1771, DK-438, No. 277 “Lucy Quipment,” HMS Implacable, Off Japan July 1945

In July 1945, the Fireflies of 1771 Sqdn., based on HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet, became the first Fleet Air Arm aircraft to fly over mainland Japan. The Fireflies rocketed airfields at Matsushima, Sendai, Masuda and Tokyo over a two day period and sought targets of opportunity along the coast. Afterwards they were decorated with a yellow map of Japan on the starboard fuselage near the pilot's cockpit. (See below Squadron personnel photo center left).

No. 277 with rockets

Bell P-63A-10 “Kingcobra,” Unknown Unit, Summer-Autumn, Siberia, 1945

Beginning in September 1944 the USA delivered 2421 lend-lease Bell P-63 Kingcobras (out of a total of 3,362) to the USSR. The aircraft, both P-63A and P-63C models, were flown across the Alaska-Siberian ferry route from Buffalo, NY to Russia; 2400 actually arrived.

USSR bound P-63As at the Bell Aircraft Factory in Buffalo, NY 1944



P-63As en route with a lend lease B-25 doing the navigating

Only a handful of P-63s joined VVS regiments in the West for the final assault on Nazi Germany; six were assigned to the 67th GIAP (Guards Fighter Regiment) in March 1945 and took part in the Battle of Berlin.

P-63Cs assigned to the 821st IAP (Fighter Aircraft Regiment),
which took part in the final battles against Nazi Germany in 1945

Many more P-63s went to the Far East in the buildup for "Operation August Storm," the brief Soviet war against Japan in August 1945. The 12th Air Army of the Transbaikal Front had four P-63A equipped fighter regiments, the 17th, 781st, 821st, and 940th, which participated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. P-63 equipped units also took part in the Soviet occupation of Japan’s Kurile Islands.

"No. 42," the P-63A-10 that is the aircraft modeled, is one of these, from an unknown unit photographed in Siberia in the summer/autumn of 1945.







The sole aerial kill credited to a P-63 occurred on August 15, 1945, the last day of WWII. The 17th IAP was operating out of Mongolia, and two of its pilots, Capt. Viacheslav Sirotin, (left) a Hero of the Soviet Union and 21-victory ace, and his wingman, Jr. Lt. Miroshnichenko, caught two Japanese fighters, either Ki-27 Nates or Ki-43 Oscars, and shot one down. It is unclear who was credited with the kill.

Dewoitine D.520, No. 277, A/C No. 6, GC III/6, Le Luc, France, June 1940

Pierre Le Gloan (second from left below) was the fourth highest scoring French ace of WWII (18 victories). He won fame by downing five aircraft in one sortie -- four Italian CR.42 biplane fighters and a Breda BR.20 bomber -- on June 15, 1940 during the the Battle of France.

Le Gloan's No. 277 with other D.520s of GC III/6, probably taken at the unit's home aerodrome at Lu Luc, France, shortly after the Armistice with Germany in late June 1940.

No. 277 with Le Gloan in the cockpit, on a post-Armistice June 1940 flight from Le Luc with full "armistice livery," i.e. white border to fuselage roundel and white fuselage arrow.



Le Gloan's later combat history was problematic. Flying for Vichy France, he also shot down six RAF Hurricanes and one Gloster Gladiator over Syria during heavy air combat in May-July 1941 between the Vichy French and the Allies.

No. 277 in the markings it carried during the fighting with the RAF and Free French Air Force over Syria in May-June 1941. No. 277 was written off in a crash-landing following one of these combats. Le Gloan is pictured, below right, with the wreck of No. 277.


Le Gloan switched sides again when his unit, GC III/6 joined the Free French Air Force and became GC 3/6 Roussillon in May 1943, at which time they converted to Bell P-39 Airacobras.

Pierre Le Gloan's life ended spectacularly on September 11, 1943, when he attempted to belly land a P-39 with a dead engine on the North African Coast near Algiers. Not realizing that his Airacobra still had its belly tank, he touched down with it attached. The fuel in the tank exploded and the entire aircraft blew up, killing him instantly. Le Gloan was 30 years old when he died.