Sitation Normal: All Fucked Up

February 1, 2008 12:58 PM

Back in July 1994, a patrol of French blue helmets discovered, to their utter bemusement, a derelict Douglas C-47 "Dakota" in the midst of MiG carcasses in the Rajlovac airfield in Bosnia. They were intrigued enough to write down its serial number: Serial Nr. 43/15073 turned out to be a veteran of Normandy, Provence, Market Garden, the Bulge, and the Rhine. Now SNAFU Special is back in Normandy, where it is being restored to become a centerpiece of the Merville Battery Museum.

After the war, SNAFU Special had been successively owned by the Czechoslovak airline CSA, the French Air Force, and the Yugoslav Air Force. Damaged on the ground by Serbian forces during the Bosnian war, it became after its rediscovery a bar for the French helicopter detachment.
In 2007, the Bosnian government handed it over as a gift to France. In a nice historical touch, German engineering troops from EUFOR assisted to its transport.

posted by Skeptic (8 comments total)

Side question: does "French blue helmets" refer to UN troops?
posted by mrnutty at 1:28 PM on February 1, 2008

And here's the story for those of us who don't speak French.

I'd first read about this last year when it was still up in the air if the plane was going to get moved in time or not. I'm glad that everything worked out after all.
posted by Atreides at 1:37 PM on February 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

mrnutty: I'd say so.
posted by pompomtom at 1:56 PM on February 1, 2008

pretty cool, using it as a watering hole has a certain je ne sais quoi as well
posted by edgeways at 2:38 PM on February 1, 2008

Man, I loves me some stories about the C-47. Those are incredible airplanes.
posted by DeWalt_Russ at 2:45 PM on February 1, 2008

I was trying to find images of these planes flying to teh the TAA in Australia, Can across this rather good resource. Pity there is no navigation past the files in the web directory

DC3

TAA Fleet

Parent folder
posted by mattoxic at 3:14 PM on February 1, 2008

I meant to mention, the DC3's all had past lives as US/Australian transports in the Pacific during WW2
posted by mattoxic at 3:15 PM on February 1, 2008

Remember, when they fly the last 777 and the last A380 to the boneyard, they'll fly the crew back in a DC-3.

I'm utterly stoked by this. Good on you, France!
posted by eriko at 6:02 PM on February 1, 2008