Placid Lassie

Zum 80. Jahrestag des D-Day in Frankreich und dem 75. Jahrestag der Berliner Luftbrücke in Deutschland 2024 kehrte die D-Day Squadron mit elf C-47/DC-3 nach Europa zurück. Bereits in 2019 flog man mit einer Flotte von 15x DC-3 von Amerika nach England, Frankreich und Deutschland. Im Rahmen der Tour stattete die Douglas C-47 „Placid Lassie“ vom 17. – 20. Juni 2024 auch dem kleinen Flugplatz Tannheim in Süddeutschland wieder einen Besuch ab. Über die drei Tage setzte sie dort Fallschirmspringer ab. Den zahlreichen Besuchern bot sich auch die Möglichkeit zum Blick ins innere und Cockpit der C-47. Betrieben wird die Lassie von der Tunison Founation um Eric Zipkin. Einige Infos zu Placid Lassie:

„Placid Lassie is the Tunison Foundation’s 1943 Douglas C-47 Skytrain. Unlike many warbirds operating today, she is a real war hero. She is not an replica, or a deep restoration based upon parts from multiple separate airplanes. These same rivets crossed the English Channel on June 6th, 1944 in service of our country. Placid Lassie was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, CA as a C-47 in July 1943 with S/N 42-24064. She cost $109,683 to build (just short of $2 million in 2023) before being assigned to the 74th Troop Carrier Squadron, 434th Troop Carrier Group, in August 1943. The 74th TCS was based in Alliance, NE, where Lassie trained with her crew, who named her and her engines: Idling Ada (L) for Apodaca’s wife and Eager Eileen (R) for Tunison’s. Placid Lassie made her way to Europe via the Southern Atlantic Route in late September 1943, and arrived in England on October 18th, 1943. Through the winter, the 434th TCG conducted parachutist training in Berkshire, England. On the morning of June 6th, 1944, Lassie and the rest of the 74th TCS took off at 0200 hours to invade Normandy. In total, they carried 155 men and equipment for the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division in assault gliders. At about 0400, they dropped their gliders. Lassie returned to Normandy at 2100 hours towing another glider. Radio Operator Ed Tunison remembered that the sky was full of aircraft, in contrast to the relative silence of morning. In the days following the D-Day Invasion, Lassie flew resupply missions into France in support of the 101st Airborne. 

After D-Day, the 74th TCS provided logistical support and evacuation services across France. By September 1944, though, airborne support was needed to secure key bridges in the liberation of the Netherlands, a mission that became Operation Market Garden. Placid Lassie and the 74th TCS flew four missions, a combination of parachute drops and glider missions, over four days, making a key contribution to freedom in Holland. Operation Varsity was the first crossing of the Rhine, taking place in March 1945. Placid Lassie and the 74th TCS dropped paratroopers from the 17th Airborne Division in Wesel, Germany.

After the end of the war, Lassie returned to the U.S. and was sold to the Reconstruction Finance Company, which handled the disposal of surplus military aircraft for the government. After a short stint with a soon-bankrupt airline, Lassie, now N74589, joined West Coast Airlines in 1949, flying passengers out of Boeing Field (Seattle, WA) to destinations across the West, until 1968. From 1968 until 2000, Lassie served a variety of cargo operators in Washington, South Carolina, and Georgia. Lassie was parked in 2000 with engine problems and soon became derelict. James Lyle, a British businessman based in New York, and Clive Edwards, a noted UK aircraft restoration specialist, teamed up in January 2010 to restore a DC-3 to airworthiness for the 75th anniversary of the type’s first flight in 1935, hoping to bring one to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. In May 2010, they completed the sale and the team raced to restore Lassie, then still in cargo colors, in just seven weeks. Working 17 hour days, 7 days a week, they ultimately succeeded, arriving in Oshkosh mid-week.

Historical research revealed that the DC-3 was actually a C-47, and, more importantly, a combat and D-Day veteran. Lyle had her repainted in D-Day colors in advance of bringing her to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day in 2014, where Dutch historian Hans de Brok told the team that Ed Tunison, the wartime radio operator, was still alive and well. Ed was quickly flown to Normandy to reconnect with his airplane, where he told the team that she was known as Placid Lassie during the war. After returning to the U.S. in the fall of 2014, James Lyle continued to operate Placid Lassie for personal and commemorative flying, now based in Florida. In the interest of Lassie’s continued preservation and airworthiness, he and Eric Zipkin, Lassie’s chief pilot, set up the Tunison Foundation in 2017, shortly after Ed Tunison’s passing in 2016. The Foundation began to operate Lassie regularly on the airshow circuit in 2018, and led the D-Day Squadron of 15 C-47s to return to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019. Lassie eventually found a permanent home in Poughkeepsie, NY in October 2022.“ ■

 

Bilder: Grägel
Text: Tunison Foundation & Mathias Grägel / GME-AirFoto GbR – June 2024