An ex-512 Squadron Dakota which saw action during the Normandy, Arnhem and Rhine Crossing operations now sits quietly beside a country highway in the Western Cape, South Africa. Its eventful military career with the RAF as FZ647 was followed by forty-five years service with the national airlines in the notoriously demanding environments of Turkey and Ethiopia. In 1991 she moved to Southern Africa to fly with Scan Transportes on relief flights within Mozambique. Of the three C-47s bought by Scan from Ethiopia, only FZ647/ C9-STF survived. After moving to Germiston, South Africa, by 1996, the Dakota didn’t fly again but was arranged in a diorama at the Cape Town theme park, Ratanga Junction. After over twenty years in Century City, the eighty year old Dakota moved to its current home in 2019.
A brief history of the Dakota’s RAF service is given below along with a summary of the Dakota’s eventful civilian life. A more detailed record of FZ647’s military history is appended on a separate page.
FZ647 – THE MILITARY CAREER (condensed)
C47A-1-DK serial number 12205 was built at the Douglas Oklahoma City plant as part of a batch of 360 ordered by the USAAF. Many of these C-47s were supplied to Britain and Empire countries under the Lend/ Lease scheme. Delivered on 5th January 1944 with the USAAF serial 42-92405, this aircraft was flown north to RAF Dorval, Montreal, on January 27th. Designated a Dakota III and given the RAF identity FZ647, the C-47 was ferried across the North Atlantic to join 512 Squadron RAF on 9th February 1944. 512 Squadron moved from RAF Hendon to a newly-built airfield at Broadwell between 11th and 14th February. Day and night-time training for the impending Normandy landings began for all available aircraft and crews on February 15th.
While 512 Squadron’s role after the Normandy landings was to resupply the allied forces and evacuate wounded troops, FZ647 doesn’t feature in the Operations Logs until July 1st 1944. On this flight, F/O Chatfield was back in command for Operation Casualty E4 which saw fifteen 512 Squadron Dakotas delivering 161 personnel and 27,500 lbs of freight to Advanced Landing Grounds in Normandy, returning with a total of 55 evacuated casualties. FZ647’s regular crew comprised: F/O Chatfield, F/O Craske, F/O Munson and Flt.Sgt Carson and they were back in action on July 22nd, Operation Casualty E15, and August 13th, 28th and 30th. By now, the allies had broken-out of Normandy and were heading east towards Paris. For much of early September 1944, Chatfield and his crew operated FZ647 on morning supply flights to destinations in Northern France and Belgium.
Broadwell camp was sealed on September 16th 1944 prior to 512’s participation in the following day’s Operation Market Garden, the airborne operation at Arnhem. FZ647 didn’t take part in the initial lift, but was part of twenty-four 512 Squadron Dakotas flying on Operation Market II on September 18th. This time, F/O Chatfield and his crew were the last airborne at 11:15. However, the operation went smoothly for them and they were back home expeditiously at 17:30. The following week saw different crews flying FZ647 on logistics operations to Brussels. Towards the end of the month, the Chatfield crew were back in charge for missions to ALG A82/ Verdun on 27th, to B60/ Grimbergen on 28th and Brussels on 30th.
A succession of different crews flew FZ647, by now carrying the squadron code ‘AH’, on October logistics/ casualty evacuation missions to France and Belgium. The Chatfield crew were back with FZ647 for supply flights to Belgium and Holland during November. December 1944 was relatively quiet for the Dakota although the Nazi Christmas offensive through the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge, saw FZ647 flying as part of a 10-Dakota operation carrying US troops from RAF Beaulieu to Denain.
Logistics routes for 512 Squadron became more complex as the allied armies advanced towards the Rhine during early 1945. Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation is history, took place in March with 512 Squadron assigned to towing Horsa gliders carrying troops of the Oxford Bucks light infantry and the Royal Ulster Rifles. Prior to the mission, the Squadron moved from Broadwell to Gosfield in Essex in order to shorten the flying time to the German border. At 06:00 on March 24th 1945, 512’s Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Dutton, lifted-off from Gosfield in KG590 at the head of the Squadron’s twenty-four Dakotas. FZ647 was the eighth Dakota airborne, flown by Flying Officer Dight. The operation was successful with all but one glider released as planned over the Landing Zones to the east of the Rhine. One of 512’s Dakotas was hit by flak and crashed while many others were damaged by shrapnel. The Squadron landed at Brussels to refuel before returning to Broadwell on 26th March.
With the end of the war in sight, a detachment of 512 squadron was moved to Brussels to service allied logistical requirements. FZ647, along with F/O Chatfield’s crew was one of the nineteen Dakotas assigned to B56/ Brussels-Evere as from early April 1945. Much of the work involved shuttling petrol drums to the advancing allied army and returning with casualties destined for the RAF hospital in Brussels. Passenger flights were also common between Brussels and British bases such as Croydon plus french destinations such as Marseille and LeBourget. Increasingly, FZ647’s operations also included repatriating ex-POWs from Germany to Brussels and Britain. Upon the end of the War in May 1945, the Squadron detachment’s operations expanded and FZ647 visited numerous airfields across Northern Germany, Denmark and even Norway. Increasingly, the flights involved the repatriation of civilian internees and refugees as well as ex-POWs. Regular destinations were Wunsdorf and Luneburg in support of the British Army. F/O Chatfield’s crew continued to be the main occupants of FZ647’s flight deck.
The detachment to Brussels ended on July 6th 1945 and Pilot Officer Don Shedley RAAF flew FZ647 back to Broadwell. P/O Shedley and F/O Winser’s crews became the main operators of FZ647 for the next couple of weeks while 512 Squadron prepared for assignment to Operation Chancery, the transfer of troops to and from the Middle East and India. Five waves of aircraft, with four Dakotas in each, were due to fly 6th Airborne troops from the UK to Poona in India via stops in Sardinia, Palestine, Iraq and (present day) Pakistan. FZ647 departed Broadwell on July 23rd 1945 as part of the fourth wave, routing via Elmas in Sardinia to Lydda in present-day Israel. There is no further record of FZ647 in 512 Squadron service although she did remain on the Squadron’s books until 10th October 1946. There is some conjecture as to whether FZ647 remained in the Near East or whether she returned to 512’s new base at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor in August 1945. 512 Squadron themselves moved to Palestine in October 1945, then to Egypt and, finally, to Bari in Italy in December 1945.
The US Army and Navy Liquidation Commission depot at Payne Field, Egypt, is recorded as receiving FZ647 in July 1946. several of the Payne Field C-47s had served with the RAF and South African Air Force operating in the Middle East from airfields (such as Bari) also used by 512 Squadron. It seems likely that FZ647 went for local disposal either following the Operation Chancery flight in 1945 or during subsequent service in Italy in 1946.
On July 25th 1946, FZ647 was one of ten Payne Field C-47s which entered civilian life when sold to Turkey’s national airline, DHY.
FZ647’s CIVILIAN CAREER
Devlet Hava Yollari, Turkey’s national airline, had been formed in 1933 to fly domestic air services. Between the wars they had flown a mixed fleet including DH86 and Junkers G24 airliners. Remaining astutely neutral during most of WW2, Turkey had difficulties acquiring airliners from allied sources already strained to the limit building warplanes.
(1a). The Air Britain History ‘The DC-3: the first seventy years’ gives the initial fleet number with DHY as 37. However, by the time the airline was reorganised as THY, the fleet number was definitely 40.
DHY served between 20 and 25 cities across Turkey and, by 1947, had added international flights from Ankara to Athens and, subsequently, services to Cyprus, Cairo and Beirut. The nominal purchase of the Payne Field C-47s had been in July 1946 and, following civilianisation, the Dakotas were soon flying in DHY’s minimalist natural metal finish. The airline’s services took the form of multi-sector flights from major cities such as Ankara and Istanbul. Flying over Turkey’s rugged physical landscape brought challenges and several of the Dakotas were lost in air accidents. By 1955, it had been decided to reorganise DHY as Turk Hava Yollari (THY) with technical assistance provided by Pan American and BOAC. Within three years, THY had introduced turboprop airliners in the shape of five Viscounts and, subsequently, six Fokker F-27s. While it was expected that the new equipment would reduce the incidence of accidents experienced with the C-47s, there were still several serious crashes of turboprops during the early 1960s. However, the survivors of the Dakota fleet were phased-out during the mid-sixties with the last leaving service in 1967. TC-EKE was sold to Ethiopian Airlines on 11th August 1966 after twenty years service in Turkey and duly departed for Bole Airport, Addis Ababa where she was registered ET-ABY.
Ethiopian had followed a similar post-war path to Turkish Airlines: starting services in April 1946 with an ex-military C-47, a further four Dakotas had been refurbished by Scottish Aviation in Prestwick and added to the fleet with technical expertise supplied by TWA. The airline developed quite an extensive international network with services to Nairobi, Port Sudan, Jeddah and Bombay. Pressurised equipment had followed in the 1950s, jets in the early sixties. The C-47s continued to be useful given the short grass and dirt airstrips served by the airline on many domestic routes. There were numerous crashes and the complement of Dakotas was frequently supplemented with replacements. In February 1965, two C-47s were added from Alitalia and, in the summer of the following year, Ethiopian bought the two Dakotas from THY. ET-ABX joined on July 14th 1966: it had previously been registered TC-APA when acquired from Payne Field by DHY. FZ647/ TC-EKE joined as ET-ABY the following month. Both were sprayed in Ethiopian’s colourful scheme and carried the stylised ‘Lion of Judah’ on the fuselage.
As well as regular multi-stop passenger and freight routes around Ethiopia, ET-ABY was also allocated to the US-sponsored Mapping Mission to Ethiopia and Djibouti in 1969. The project ran from 1963 to 1970 with some of the logistical support provided by Ethiopian C-47s.
ET-ABY’s operations from Addis continued during the seventies and eighties but, by the early nineties, the C-47s were largely redundant and the last was phased-out by 1992. ET-ABY was noted as being withdrawn from use in 1991.
The Dakota continued to move down Africa with its 1991 sale to the southern African concern Scan Air Charter. Also known as STASA or Scan Transportes Aereos, Scan had been formed by Swede Oscar Hermansson and operated in both Swaziland and Mozambique. The owner was a colourful character with a lifestyle embellished by a good deal of aviation folklore. Born in Troxhammar near Stockholm, the young Oscar Yngve Hermansson is reputed to have worked at Bromma Airport, initially for SAS in the early sixties and, subsequently, with Ulf Engelbrecht and Kurt Hansson. The latter two, in turn, became associated with both the Swedish Red Cross and Hank Warton’s notorious Arco (Bermuda) during relief/ ‘logistics’ operations in Biafra during the late sixties. By August 1969, Engelbrecht and Hansson had formed Air Trader Sweden at Bromma and flew relief missions to Peru during 1970 before selling their DC-7s to Arco and purchasing Vickers Vanguards for a further brief operational spell between November 1971 and March 1972. Oscar Hermansson may well have worked with Arco in Africa and legend has him driving to southern Africa with his family in a Morris (2). Work may have followed in the Congo before he transferred to Zambia and followed aviation interests there and (possibly) with the Rhodesian Air Force prior to the end of UDI in 1980. Meanwhile, his family had returned to Sweden and, by the late eighties, he had moved to Swaziland and formed the air taxi operator Scan Air Charter with an ex-RAF pilot and his second wife, Felicity. It was a time when the civil war in Mozambique had been ongoing for over ten years. In the desperate last days of Rhodesia, that country’s intelligence organisation had sponsored the growth of resistance to Mozambique’s Marxist government. Renamo had been fighting Frelimo since 1977 and Mozambique, especially in the rural areas away from Maputo, was suffering from terrible famine conditions. The United Nations had been sponsoring a food distribution programme with the national airline, LAM, chartering aircraft and expertise from the South African bush operator Interocean Airways and Scan Air Charter.
(2) www.lae.blogg.se
In the first years of the nineties, Interocean operated an interesting fleet of three ex-USAF Caribou, two ex-Royal Danish Air Force DC-4s and three old (one very old) Dakotas -two of which had served with the RAF. Scan had a fleet more suited to air taxi work and a proprietor who, allegedly, preferred not to enter Mozambique for political/ security reasons ! Nonetheless, Scan added three Cessnas to the Mozambique register during 1990: 402Bs C9-STA and STB plus 310R C9-STC. Participation on the relief missions would, however, require aircraft with a bigger payload – in the hands of their ex-Vietnam veteran pilots, Interocean’s Caribou generally lifted 4-ton payloads and the 10-ton DC-4 payload was essential for flights between cities (3). Oscar Hermansson was therefore very excited to discover that Ethiopian had three bush-ready C-47s for sale in Addis Ababa. Scan Transportes Aereos added the three to the register as C9-STD, C9-STE and C9-STF (FZ647). The red/ green/ gold Ethiopian colours were overpainted in white and the Scan titles added in full in red. The airline couldn’t quite say goodbye to Ethiopian’s Lion of Judah though and a small Lion symbol was substituted for the original Lion rampant. The Dakotas were delivered as from early 1991 and operated from Beira. The destruction of roads and bridges in the countryside meant that air freight was the only practicable way to distribute life saving food, such as maize and soya, and medicines. The airstrips served were generally graded gravel and freight off-loading was manual. The C-47s were faster and more robust than the Caribou and preferred by the pilots but emptying of the tail-loading Canadian was easier. Indeed, in areas where a hail of bullets might accompany cargo discharge, Interocean kept the engines running and offloading could be accomplished in under four minutes! Scan also followed standard procedures for bush landings under fire: the Dakotas would make a low pass searching for trenches cut across the landing strips and checking to see if they were likely to draw any hostile fire. They would then land and de-plane as quickly as possible. The process, however, remained hazardous and Scan lost their first C-47, C9-STD, on a cargo flight from Beira on 25th November 1991. The Dak hit trees near Vila da Senna, Sofala Province, possibly following ground fire and, probably, while on approach to Mutarare airstrip. The aircraft’s crash landing path ended in the Zambezi River, one of the three crew was killed and Oscar Hermansson’s son, Lyndon, injured.
The civil war nominally ended in August 1992 but there were frequent outbursts of fighting and ground fire remained a problem for the Scan pilots (indeed, sporadic violence has continued until the present day). Famine remained a major issue and the two Southern African contractors remained busy throughout the early nineties. Tragedy struck again in November 1993 when the second Scan Dakota, C9-STE, crashed in hilly territory on the short flight from Mutarare airstrip to Chemba airstrip. Power was lost on (at least) one engine when the aircraft was at 500′ on final approach. Oscar Hermansson was one of the three on board and he and another crew member were killed.
Scan has continued to operate but, by 1996, C9-STF/ FZ647 was the only surviving Dakota and it had been flown out of Mozambique to Rand Airport, Germiston, South Africa.
(3) Details of Mozambique operations of Interocean from Peter Gunti’s article ‘Lifeline’ in March 1993 edition of Flypast.
The original Johannesburg Airport, Rand in the late nineties hosted an interesting selection of propliners. Phoebus Apollo owned both DC-3 and a DC-4 and, subsequently, added its well know Carvair. Another company, Aero Air, planned to acquire C9-STF and the South African registration ZS-NZF was reserved for the old Dakota in October 1996. However, there was a change of plan and C9-STF was basically stripped for spares. Aero Air did own one C-47, ex-SAAF 6862 (ex-RAF FL527), registered ZS-NZA in August 1996. Their plans to move down the alphabet to add FZ647 as ZS-NZF involved the addition of the three ex-Malagasy Air Force C-47s which were sitting semi-derelict in Antanarivo as ZS-NZB/C and D. Although it was reported in 1998 that they had two Dakotas (4), their original aircraft was sold to Air Katanga as 9Q-CJJ and departed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo around 1999.
(4) Keith Gaskell’s article, ‘South African Safari’ appeared in Propliner magazine #76, Autumn 1998.
Meanwhile, the remnants of C9-STF survived and were sold for use in a Cape Town theme park called Ratanga Junction. The hulk of the Dakota was trucked south-west to Cape Town and mounted in a game park-type tableau at Ratanga. The amusement park was constructed adjacent to Cape Town’s biggest shopping mall, Canal Walk, and opened in December 1998. The C-47 was originally painted yellow overall with a shark-teeth emblem and a ‘Ratanga Air Transport Service’ badge on the tail. The overall effect was rather sad for those interested in aviation history and effectively divorced the Dakota’s skeleton from its auspicious past. Although initially popular, Ratanga Junction’s appeal to Capetonian’s began to fade over the years and, in 2005, the park was bought by the Rabie Property Group. Amid a general reorganisation, the C-47 was moved to a new site atop ‘Black Mountain’ in 2013 and repainted in a slightly more fetching colour scheme. Moving the old aircraft presented some concerns and Rabie’s management sought assistance from SAAF experts from the nearby Ysterplaat Air Base.
The illustrious history of FZ647 seems to have been promoted more by the Rabie Group with reference to the Dakota’s participation in D-Day’s Operation Tonga, the Arnhem landings and the Rhine Crossing. The current blue and yellow ‘Ukranian flag’ colours were also applied to the airframe along with ‘Ratanga Junction Air’ titles and the new name ‘Ihlati Sky’.
The park’s facelift proved insufficient to ensure its survival and, in 2017 it was announced that it would close on May 1st 2018. The park initially seemed keen to find a good home for FZ647 and garnered interest from as far afield as the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeck, Holland, the scene of Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The cost of transport to Europe proved too high for a charitable concern and, ultimately, the aircraft was sold via sealed bids. Initial indications were that the Dakota would be relocated to an animal park at Gaansbaai or to Hermanus (possibly the two reports referred to the same destination). However, it transpired that the owner of Die Plaasmol Farm Stall, Burger van den Berg, was determined to display the veteran airliner at Kleine Hopefield. He reputedly made the previously successful bidder an offer that simply couldn’t be refused. On June 29th 2019, the old Dakota was craned onto a low loader and departed Century City, home for the last twenty years, bound north to a new residence at Hopefield.
Die Plaasmol is a three-part attraction on the R27 north of Malmesbury in the Western Cape. It combines a successful plant nursery with a restaurant complex and an eclectic series of displays of historic items and memorabilia. It is reminiscent of the kinds of Bric-a-Brac stores found alongside highways in France during the 1970s.
The C-47 was destined to become part of Kleine Hopefield’s Groot Vyf: the ‘Big Five’ comprising the C-47, the World’s largest Shopping Trolley, the World’s largest shopping trolley, the Highest Chair in South Africa and a giant blade from one of the turbines at the nearby Umoya Wind Farm. There is also a train of historic railway carriages, originally scheduled to become ‘glamping’ pods, plus a real ale bar a couple of Zebras and Chester the donkey. Altogether a site that must be visited and it is host to numerous events during the year.
FZ647 has proved to be the great survivor. She successfully completed an RAF career which included taking part in the ‘big three’ airborne operations: the Normandy Landings, Operation Market Garden and Operation Varsity/ The Rhine Crossing. There may have been an unfortunate incident in Summer 1945 which left the 512 Squadron Dakota far from home at a Cairo disposal centre, but a successful transition to civilian life was made the following year. Twenty demanding years with Turkish Airlines ended with the 1966 sale to Ethiopian Airlines, another hard task master. Amazingly, the Dakota survived twenty-five years with the Company – the majority of Ethiopian’s Dakotas didn’t last nearly that long! Moving to Mozambique with two Ethiopian compatriots, FZ647 was back flying in what was effectively a war zone. This time, the Dakota operated for under five years before departing for South Africa. Neither of the other two Scan Dakotas survived more than a couple of years. Perhaps too worn-out to fly again, FZ647/ C9-STF obtained a long-term static gig at the Ratanga Junction theme park in temperate Cape Town. After another twenty years there, she made the move to retirement in the rural Western Cape…..now exactly eighty years old, who is to say this will be her final move?
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