| | This aircraft was built as C-47A 42-100971 and delivered to USAAF on 1/11/44. It was first assigned to the U.S. 8th A.F. in the European Theater on 2/20/44, and later was transferred to the U.S. 9th A.F. It was assigned to the 36th Troop Carrier Sqdn, under the 316th Troop Carrier Group and 52nd Troop Carrier Wing of the 9th Troop Carrier Command, and coded “6E-S ’42’.” In Feb 1945 the plane was recoded as “6E-B” with “80TB” under the starboard wing. The plane became surplus on 2/6/46 in Europe.On 2/25/27 this plane was registered as PH-PBA with the RLVS (Netherlands Royal Flight) as the personal aircraft of Prince Bernhard. The registration was cancelled on 7/31/75 and the aircraft was donated to the Aviodome Museum at Schiphol AIrport in Amsterdam. It was then restored in the livery of KLM and registered PH-TCB. (information from Arthur Pearcy’s 1988 “Douglas DC-3 Survivors”) |
