The C-47 Dakota ZA947

The BBMF Dakota is currently in the colour scheme of No 233 Squadron 'Dak' FZ692 'Kwicherbichen', complete with black and white D-Day invasion stripes.  The interior has been returned to an original wartime 'Para interior'.   She was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in the USA in 1942.

The other Dakota in my shots is the one to be found at the Merville battery in Normandy.  This plane, 'The SNAFU Special' serial number 43-15073 actually took part in the D-Day invasion drop, taking and dropping paratroopers of the 501st parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne) south of Saint -Mere Eglise.  She also dropped the 82nd airborne at Nijmegan to capture the bridge that led to Arnhem. A true veteran of WW2.

Here's my shots...

Gracing the skies of Lincolnshire..Kwicherbichen

Rolling in after a sortie at Coningsby

Coming into land at Coningsby

With dull dreary skies as a backdrop, the BBNF Dakota makes a pass

Late in the evening, she arrives back in Lincolnshire

straight onto the main runway at Coningsby

A sunnier day and training sortie over she heads back to the Hangar

Kwicherbichen snakes her way past a Spitfire and the Lancaster of the BBMF

The true vet...the SNAFU SPECIAL in Normandy

looking skywards...

Her final resting place, the Merville battery Normandy.
The Merville Battery in Normandy was a gun Battery assaulted and took by an understrength
unit of British Para's early on the morning of 6th June 1944.