Ammuniton resupply Dakota(s) RAAF Tarakan 1945

[CDF]

[jdvoss]

These wartime Dakota photos are great!! Keep them coming. BTW, like the Lancastrian photo you posted a few days ago these Dakotas also display a civil registration on the tail. Were these civil aircraft 'on-loan' to the RAAF for the duration of the conflict ?

[Invader26]

Great Dak pics of RAAF No 34 Sqn [currently flying Boeing BBJ and CL604 VIP jets] . Also, I've never seen RAAF camo before like FD-D in last pic.

Last edited by Invader26 on Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:25 am, edited 4 times in total.

[ErrolC]

Via Twitter, the PAO for RAAF Air Lift Group says nice pics!, but they are 34SQN RAAF.

[Mark_Pilkington]

These wartime Dakota photos are great!! Keep them coming. BTW, like the Lancastrian photo you posted a few days ago these Dakotas also display a civil registration on the tail. Were these civil aircraft 'on-loan' to the RAAF for the duration of the conflict ?

The Lancastrian was a civil QANTAS post WW2 airliner carrying Australian civil registration, but marked with RAAF/SEAC Roundels as it was travelling in Military airspace during the Allied occupation of Japan.

These wartime C-47s are military aircraft carrying RAAF Serials, and using "VHXXX" callsigns that resemble Australian civil registration marks, but are not. These therefore are not civil aircraft on loan to the RAAF, but some of the 124 C-47's owned and operated by the RAAF during WW2.

American transports operating in Australia also carried "VHXXX" callsigns and it was probably done to simplify tower communications into Australian civilian airfields.


Here is a former USAAF C-50 (impressed pre-Pearl Harbour DC-3),41-7698, that flew in Australia with callsign "VHCDJ", was later loaned to the RAAF prior to delivery of the C-47s and eventually de-mobbed into the Australian civil register post WW2 as VH-ANH.

http://aarg.com.au/DC3.htm

Regards

Mark Pilkington

[CDF]

Great Dak pics of RAAF No 38 Sqn [currently flying B350 King Airs supporting mainly Army needs] . Also, I've never seen RAAF camo before like FD-D in last pic.

Not a problem

Ask any 7th Div AIF Veteran and likely to a man they'll say it was a sideshow (the Tarakan invasion) - Blamey wanted his set piece battle to justify his seat at the peace talks, considering the island hopping campaign by that stage of the war had headed north to the home islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa