Overseas Saga of C-47A,
"Army 452,"
ASN #42-93452 - #A010
- Leg #3 Canton, Island
By: "John R. Joseph"
Stop #3 - CANTON, Island. Located in what was then known as the Phoenix Is. - now incorporated into the Kiribati Group, with Christmas Is. and others.
This leg of our overseas tour, took us about 5 hours of uneventful flying time. One most notable happening did occur. Halfway on this leg, most of us for the first time in our lives, crossed that famous imaginary line - The Equator.
Canton Is. in no way could touch Christmas Is. for beauty, but it did have one thing no other Island had. Monstrous black piles of empty gas tanks- here was where the remaining four auxiliary fuel tanks were removed from our planes.
We spent one extra day at Canton, awaiting the arrival of the two C-47's that had to remain in Hawaii for maintenance. C-47, ARMY 452, our plane, never seemed to have any maintenance problems -must have been blessed by Almighty GOD.
Considering we had to stay an extra day, our stay on Canton Is. was considered boring. One recollection was the abundance of Coconut trees, and we recall trying to open a fresh Coconut. There was not much else to do, and it was entertaining at first, but at the end of the second day, it became most frustrating. We still did not get our first one open yet, despite hammers, screwdrivers, chisels and what not. Thank Heavens for nightfall, as we had the good old faithful movies, including the US Army Signal Corps documenary, "The Marines at Tarawa."
When we finally left Canton Is., our Squadron was split up - half of us taking the Southern Route via Naudi Vita Lavis, Ton Ta Ton, New Caledonia, and Guadalcanal, enroute to Nadzab, New Guinea.
The other half taking the Northern Route via Tarawa and Guadalcanal, enroute to Nadzab, New Guinea. I was never sorry that our C-47 was one included in the Northern route.
Contents:
Home Page
Feedback