Date:	Tuesday 19 September 1944
Time:
Type:	Douglas Dakota III (DC-3)
Owner/operator:	Royal Air Force - RAF
Registration:	KG401
MSN:	12436
Year of manufacture:	1944
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	UI
Location:	near Kessel -   Belgium
Phase:	Unknown
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Down Ampney RAF Station
Destination airport:	Down Ampney RAF Station

Narrative:
The Douglas Dakota III aircraft had just dropped its supplies from 700 feet during Operation Market Garden when it was met with intense anti-aircraft fire near Arnhem, the Netherlands. The tail unit, rudder, port aileron and engine, the starboard auxiliary fuel tank and all the gyro instruments were either damaged or put out of action, and one of the Army dispatchers was mortally wounded. The crew flew the crippled aircraft back to the British lines, through three more areas of enemy flak, where they sustained further serious damage, including a five foot hole in the starboard wing which caught fire, and complete electrical and communications failure. Once over the British lines, the pilots then made a successful belly-landing in the field.

The Douglas DC-1/DC-2/DC-3 - the first seventy years / J.M. Gradidge
Imperial War Musuem collection
The Pegasus Archive

photo (c) Royal Air Force; near Kessel; September 1944; (publicdomain)

Date/time	Contributor	Updates