April 2017

Text: Martin Nilsen

Over the winter, the Foundation has received exciting information about the history of the aircraft during World War II. This part of the aircraft's history has been somewhat uncertain since the foundation's inception. We can now present both pictures and an exciting story written by Martin Nilsen.

LITTLE EGYPT": Today's LN-WND as it appeared in France in the fall of 1944. We see that it was painted, probably in the olive green color of most of the machines, and with the white and black invasion stripes that were painted on all Allied aircraft so that the ground forces would not confuse them with German aircraft. Noseart: "Little Egypt" PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

Captain Wendell Buckhiester poses in front of "his" plane, a C-53 near Vittel in France in January 1945. And guess which plane? Back then it was called "Little Egypt". And now - yes, the plane is still flying - with the registration LN-WND.

This spring, Dakota Norway has received unique answers to a number of questions that are as old to the foundation as its ownership of 42-68823. This identity will be central in the following. We usually refer to the current Norwegian civil registration LN-WND when we refer to the aircraft.

For aviation historians it's different, they search for production numbers and military serial numbers. 42-68823 is the US Army Air Force's number for the now Norwegian-owned C-53 since the aircraft went into production in 1942.

In January this year, brothers Dan and Paul Buckhiester in South Carolina, USA, found out that the plane their father Wendell had flown during the war in Europe was still flying in Norway. There has been a very active exchange of information via email and telephone between Dan and several people in Dakota Norway this spring. The foundation is very excited that information about the plane's wartime history, which has been a big black hole for today's owners, is finally available.

NICE: Wendell Buckhiester flies a DC-3 again for the first time since 1962 on his 80th birthday in 1996. PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

But Dan Buckhiester is just as excited as we are that the plane is still flying. And that someone is taking good care of it. He has expressed great gratitude for that.
Wendell Buckhiester died on February 6, 2002. His last trip behind the controls of a DC-3 was on his 80th birthday, September 26, 1996. By then, the family had leased N-74589, a DC-3C, then owned by Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA Trustee in Salt Lake City.

Wendell hadn't flown a DC-3 since 1962, but he climbed into the right-hand seat, took off and flew his entire family on an hour-long trip.
- "But he handed over control to the skipper before we landed, and he would have been very upset if he'd made a bad landing," says his son Dan.

The general's own pilot

Wendell Buckhiester probably entered 42-68823 in September 1944. He had been stationed with the US 9th Air Force in England from March 8, 1944 to August 28 the same year.
In June he was promoted to captain and by August had flown six combat missions in support of the invasion of Normandy and the operations that followed the landing in Normandy on June 6.

He also flew nine-hour combat missions in several types of aircraft, including the C-53 at the end of August. Buckhiester was transferred to the European continent and in mid-September 1944 he began flying Major General Ralph Royce, then second in command of the US 9th Air Force under Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton. General Royce's "own plane" was 42-68823.

READY FOR ACTION: Captain Wendell in front of the plane with some of his crew in January 1945. PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

Better Interior

- My father specifically mentioned the airplane because it had a more lavish interior than the other C-53/C-47 variants he had flown. He called it more "plush."
- "He remarked on this when we entered N-74589 for his 80th birthday flight," Dan says.
He pointed out as he walked toward the cockpit in 1996 that the C-47s he'd flown had bracing ribs that were uncovered and single fold-down seats along the cabin walls on both sides.
- The plane I flew for the general was padded on the inside, he noted.
(In Dakota Norway it has always been believed that the plane got its
current interior while in passenger service for Finnair from June 14, 1948. Information from the United States may now indicate that the aircraft may have had - if not all - then parts of its current interior also during the war)
Dan Buckhiester continues to look into his father's past from 1944 and towards the end of the war. He now sees that there is considerable interest in the aircraft's history.

Got yelled at

On June 12, 1944, Wendell had landed a C-47 (not our machine, which is a C-53) at a field airfield near Omaha Beach in Normandy. A jeep was to be unloaded from the airplane and since Wendell was in charge of the plane, he wanted to back the jeep out himself to avoid damage. Major General Royce was present and scolded Wendell because the unloading was taking so long.
But eventually the two became better acquainted, and not many weeks later the general hired Wendell as his personal pilot on the C-53 "Little Egypt", and later wrote an appreciative and grateful greeting to Wendell on a picture of himself...

The Allied Task Force's headquarters for air operations was located at Vittel in France in the late fall of 1944. On January 14, 1945, General Royce's chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Russell Putmans, wrote some notes that Dan Buckhiester has searched for, about how Royce and his entourage flew from Cannes back to Vittel on December 22, 1944.

THANK YOU CARD: General Royce sent Captain Buckhiester a thank you card for a job well done, including a picture of himself... PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

Fear of sabotage

BIG CHECK: Passengers examine something on the ground before a departure from Cannes on December 22, 1944. This may be related to the thorough check made after German paratroopers were reported in the area. PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

"From Marseilles we flew to Cannes to spend a few days there. We were quite out of touch with detailed news there, but Stars and Stripes told us that the enemy had made significant progress. Then the rumors started to build up. Early the morning we were due to fly out of Cannes, we heard rumors that paratroopers had landed in the area. The rumors said that paratroopers in significant numbers had landed in the immediate vicinity between Marseilles and Cannes. There was no confirmation of this, but nonetheless, our crew spent an hour checking the aircraft for possible sabotage or booby traps.

Nothing was found and we took off and flew to Marseilles without further incident. There the same rumors circulated, still without any confirmation. We headed north, landed in Dijon for lunch, and were back at the base late in the afternoon," Putmans wrote.

Excerpts from Wendell's logbooks show that from September 1944 through January 1945 he logged 139 hours and 30 minutes, mostly in the C-53. Since he was Royce's own pilot, it is therefore likely that this is mostly flight time with 42-68823.

At this point, the new information about the aircraft stops here, as Wendell Buckhiester ended his service with this unit on January 25, 1945. From February 8, 1945, he was back in the United States and his duty station was Louisville, Kentucky.

THE BOSS AND THE MASCOT: Wendell Buckhiester, the man who flew the current LN-WND during the war, with his mascot Butch in the cockpit window. PHOTO: Via Dan Buckhiester

Briefly about Wendell's military career:

Born Sept 26, 1916.
Sept 17, 1941: Volunteered for pilot training with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He realized before Pearl Harbor that the U.S. would be drawn into the war, and wanted to avoid infantry duty. So he hitchhiked to Canada and became a pilot.
Feb 27, 1942: Went solo on the Tiger Moth.
Aug 14, 1942: NCO in RCAF.
April 3, 1943: Training on various types of aircraft at the Air Transport Auxiliary, Bristol, UK.
Sept 7, 1943: Lieutenant's rank at 9th Air Force, Grove, UK.
June 1944: Promoted to Captain.
Sept 1944: Started as a pilot for General Royce.
8 Feb 1945: Returned to the US
June 1968: Ended his military career
Wendell Buckhiester died Feb 6, 2002.

Little Egypt

According to Wikipedia, "Little Egypt" was the nickname of three named cabaret artists and belly dancers before World War II. However, they had so many imitators that the term is also used for belly dancers in general. "Little Egypt" is also a nickname for the southern part of the state of Illinois in the USA.

We have found at least one other example of the use of the name "Little Egypt" as nose art on aircraft. The B 24 Liberator bomber with military serial number 44-49569 bears the same name as the C-53 42-68823.

While the Dakota only had the name painted on it, the B-24 had a scantily clad woman illustrating the name, a not entirely uncommon phenomenon when it comes to nose art on World War II aircraft.
Was the plane Norwegian
for a short while?

The Aerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier website links the American pilot Wendell Buckhiester to the aircraft that today is LN-WND. In its review of the aircraft's history, the website refers to what we already know about the production date, when it arrived in England, which unit it flew for in England and Europe.
But BEFORE the aircraft's history is brought to Finland in July 1948, and which we know well from before, the website writes:
Circa December 1944: "Taken on Strength/Charge with the Royal Norwegian Air Force."
This may suggest that the aircraft, before being stored in Germany at the end of the war, was intended to be taken over by the Air Force. A new, and so far unknown, hypothesis about the prehistory of LN-WND.