WoR: "Band of Comrades": the DC-3/C-47 SkyTrainski
Video from the channel dynmicpara about Douglas DC-3, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:16. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
An excerpt from the Russian documentary series "Wings of Russia" about Soviet transport aviation. It focuses on the PS-84, later the Li-2, a licensed derivative of the Douglas DC-3, and on the C-47s received during the war.
Historical background
The USSR began building the PS-84 under license from Douglas just before the war with Finland. In that conflict it was used to supply surrounded units by air, in snow, ice and fog. From September 1942 it was renamed Li-2, after Boris Lisunov, chief engineer at the factory that built it. During the Great Patriotic War it moved troops, ammunition, supplies and the wounded. It supplied besieged Leningrad flying low over Lake Ladoga and supported partisans with night landings on poorly lit fields. From 1943 it was joined by Lend-Lease C-47s, whose large cargo door could take Willys-type vehicles.
Key facts
The PS-84 carried 21 paratroopers or up to two tons of cargo. The war's first airborne drop took place on 29 June 1941 near Slutsk, with 64 paratroopers. In January 1942, near Vyazma, 7,000 were dropped over eleven nights. In August 1945, during the offensive against Japan, it carried fuel and ammunition to the tanks. A third of the war's flights were transport flights. Afterward the USSR continued adapting other aircraft to this role, and in 1948 it received the Il-12D.