Another day, another mission. The sun comes up over ONUC C-47 and C-119 transports during the organisation’s four-year tenure in the Congo.
INSET The sign outside the United Nations’ C-47 Squadron office at N’Djili Airport, showing the flags of all participating nations. By the time it was put up, Yugoslavia had already left ONUC.

Curious locals line the fence at N’Dolo Airport in Leopoldville in late July 1960 to take a look at the newly arrived C-47s for ONUC. One aircraft (furthest left) has already been repainted in the organisation’s overall white colour scheme, but the majority still retain the standard USAF colours they were wearing on arrival in Congo.

One of the ONUC C-47 Squadron’s ten original aircraft at N’Dolo Airport, showing the plain standard finish of the aircraft and simple light blue “ONU" titles on the rear fuselage and serial number on the fin. By 1960 the UN had used C-47s for more than a decade, but the ONUC operation required a massive influx of additional aircraft.

Officers of a joint ONUC - Katangese ceasefire commission pause for a group photo before boarding ONU 214, which has been adorned with a UN emblem on its rear fuselage. It is perhaps ironic that the four somewhat decrepit former Avianca machines that had arrived in March 1961 were used for VIP duties with their new operator.

Doing it the old-fashioned way - if one of the C-47’s starter motors failed, the crew got the engine started by winding a rope around the propeller hub and pulling it with a Jeep, as seen in this photograph of ONU 208 (c/n 26122) at a typical remote strip.

The end of the C-47 Squadron came in February 1964, when the remaining aircraft were gathered at N’Djili. Representatives of each country contingent parade in front of ONU 215, which was retained by ONUC for “special missions”. The antenna on the nose is for the SARAH receiver, used to locate aircrews’ emergency transmitters.

When necessary, the C-47 could transport reasonably large items, such as this Wright R-1300 engine, used by ONUC’s fleet of H-19D helicopters.

ONUC hired several Congolese mechanics who had been trained by the Belgians before Congo gained its independence. Here a C-47’s Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine is being serviced in the main hangar at N’Djili in 1961.

The C-47 Squadron would often send detachments “up country”, one of which was based at the old airfield at Albertville (now Kalemie) on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. Here, one of the squadron’s C-47s makes a dusty take-off run while one of ONUC’s many Sikorsky H-19D helicopters awaits its next mission.

Local labourers at N’Dolo mask the control surfaces of C-47D serial 44-76757 before it is repainted in the ONUC overal white scheme as ONU 204. Still just about visible on the aircraft’s fin are the blue, yellow, green and red stripes of the C-47’s previous operator, the USAF’s 50th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Hahn in West Germany.

In 1961 a second batch of aircraft arrived to bolster the strength of the C-47 Squadron, including two genuine DC-3s - ONU 215 (c/n 2205) and ONU 216 (c/n 1947) - without cargo doors in the rear fuselage. The former, seen here, was assembled by Fokker in the Netherlands in 1937, later serving in Sweden as SE-BWD.

The C-47 Squadron’s duties often took the unit’s aircraft to the many dirt airfields in the Congo. Here ONU 208 departs a typically primitive 1,000m (3,300ft) strip "up country”.

Two ONUC C-47s were temporarily leased to the Congolese Air Force in mid-1964 and given temporary registrations; 9T-PDX, seen here, was the former ONU 204. The men facing the camera are exiled Cubans hired by the CIA for its Congo air operations, the exiles flying missions against rebels supported by communist countries.

A detachment of Indian soldiers unloads its equipment from ONU 205 (c/n 18983), a former USAF C-47A, which was put into “active storage" from February 1964. Indian Prime Minister Nehru’s support for the UN in Congo was significant, the nation sending more troops than any other country involved in ONUC operations.

Kindu in eastern central Congo was one of the regular stops for the C-47 Squadron on its scheduled flights in 1962. Seen here at Kindu, ONU 218 (c/n 19781) was one of the last batch of C-47s received from the USAF in 1961. Kindu later became the main air base for the UN’s MONUC stabilisation operation from the year 2000.

ONU 218 drones across the Congolese skies in December 1962, photographed by a Flygvapnet Saab S 29C Tunnan reconnaissance jet.

Luckily the C-47 was tough! Although former USAF C-47A ONU 203 (c/n 20010) was badly damaged during a forced landing as a result of engine failure after take-off from Tshikapa in June 1961, as seen here, nobody aboard was injured. A later summary of ONUC accidents drew a discreet veil over this incident’s rather odd circumstances.

On September 20, 1962, former USAF C-47D ONU 202 (c/n 32532) was shot down by groundfire while on a reconnaissance mission from Kamina. The crew managed to get the aircraft down, but two passengers were killed and the aircraft burned out.

After suffering shrapnel damage during Katangese air attacks at Elisabethville in September 1961, the hulk of ONU 209 was used for accommodation by ONUC aircrews. One officer used the stripped cockpit as his personal cabin.