Word: congos
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Instead of flying back empty, the airlift planes made short runs to Portuguese Angola and French Congo, and to such Congolese cities as Stanleyville and Co-quilhatville, loaded up with Belgian, British and American refugees and flew them back to Europe...
Other nations contributed. Britain's R.A.F. flew in 850 troops: Ethiopia airlifted some 600 of its 1,000 troops in its own air transports. Even Russia got in on the act, sent three turboprop Ilyushin transports to ferry Ghanian troops from Accra to the Congo.* But overall, it was overwhelmingly a U.S. show. U.S. planes brought in 75% of the troops, 19 of every 20 tons of supplies...
...passengers, takes less runway than even a DC-4 and, at a pinch, can get in and out of airstrips only 2,000 ft. long. It has self-contained air starters for its turboprop engines and therefore does not need ground power-a vital factor in equipment-short Congo. Merritt's men sleep when and where they can-in hangars, machine shops, the planes themselves. They have been joyfully received in the Congo, and ground personnel as well as Congolese volunteers help in the unloading without pay. There have been no accidents and no real flying hazards...
Another problem is the density of the air in the equatorial Congo, which forced the choppers to use more fuel per mile than at their Seventh Army base in Stuttgart, West Germany. Several choppers were shot at by Congolese soldiers who mistook them for Belgian craft. Pilot Captain James Sanders of Nashville, Tenn. had his helicopter holed eight times by machine-gun bullets while on a search mission near Inkisi. But, says Captain Sanders philosophically, "the Congolese are right friendly when they find out you're not Belgian. They come up and shake your hand. I was impressed...
...flight of Czechoslovak turbojets, carrying relief supplies to the Congo, took advantage of the opportunity to try a bit of espionage. Straying from their original flight plan over the Mediterranean, they swung over Spain on a course that would take them over U.S. airbases near the cities of Saragossa, Madrid and Seville, presumably to make a radar survey for possible future use. The Czech planes were intercepted by Spanish F-86 fighters and herded back across the border...