The Spitfire Mk. XIV, which entered service at the end of 1943, was originally built with a “high back” rear fuselage which restricted visibility to the rear of the plane. To rectify this problem, development of the Mk. XIV with a cut-down rear fuselage and tear-drop canopy began to be developed and built at the end of 1944.

These improved Spitfire Mk. XIVs featured full-span wings and were equipped with 2x .50 cal. machine guns and 2x 20 mm Hispano cannons; they could also be fitted with bomb racks to carry 250 lb. and 500 lb. bombs. An additional 64-gallon fuel tank was also fitted in the rear fuselage, which increased the range of the Mk. XIV to over 610 miles on internal fuel. The same Griffon engine that powered the original Mk. XIVs also powered this new model. For reconnaissance work, a camera could be fitted behind the canopy; such planes were known as Fighter Reconnaissance Mk. XIVs and were fitted with clipped wingtips as standard.

Spitfire Mk. XIVs with the cut-down rear fuselage and tear-drop canopy started entering service with the Royal Air Force’s 2nd Tactical Air Force in March 1945 and continued in operational service after the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. These improved Mk. XIVs also began to be sent to the South-East Asian Theater in June 1945 but arrived too late to see any combat against the Japanese.

The Sopwith Snipe was a late-war entry into combat and represented the pinnacle of British Great War fighter aircraft. It began replacing Sopwith Camels in the autumn of 1918 and went on to server post-war after the Armistice was signed in November 1918. The Snipe was the last British fighter to come equipped with a rotary engine – the Bentley BR2. The BR.2 made 230 hp which allowed the Snipe to be a little faster than the Camel. Although not blistering fast by 1918 standards, it was a very maneuverable fighter. The Snipe had a faster rate of climb than the Camel and it could fight superior German machines more effectively at higher altitudes. The Snipe came armed with two .303 machine guns and had improved visibility over its predecessor. It could also carry a small bomb load like the Camel. It’s combat life was short, but both British and Australian squadrons had success with it before the war ended.

The Siemens-Schuckert D.IV came very late to the Great War that was too late to change Germany’s fortunes, but what machines did make it to front-line squadrons acquitted themselves well. The SS.DIV was the end result of a robust line of Siemens-Schuckert aircraft that saw service in the war and it came with a unique feature. The 200-hp Siemens Haiske SH.IIIa rotary engine had a crankshaft that rotated opposite of the engine and the propeller ’s rotation in an attempt to reduce the torque. The four-bladed propeller gave it a fast rate of climb and a high speed. The SS.DIV was even faster than Germany’s mainstay front-line fighter, the very successful Fokker D.VII. It was also very maneuverable, but reportedly had nasty stall behavior when pushed too far. The SS.DIV was armed with two 2 × 7.92mm machine guns.

The IAR-80 was a Romanian low-wing monoplane originally designed in the late 1930s by Industria Aeronautică Română (IAR, or Romanian Aeronautic Industry in English). First flown in 1939, the IAR-80 was comparable to other fighter aircraft designs of the late 1930s and would remain in service with the Royal Romanian Air Force throughout World War II until the end of the war in May 1945.

Work on the prototype IAR-80 began in 1937, and it was first flown two years later in April 1939. This prototype incorporated the wing design of the IAR-23 and IAR-24, featured an open cockpit, and was initially powered by an 870 horsepower IAR K14 radial engine. Later that year, the prototype was upgraded with a more powerful K14 engine of 930 horsepower and fitted with a bubble canopy. This engine was progressively upgraded throughout the service life of the aircraft to more powerful models of the K14.

The armament of the IAR-80 initially consisted of Belgian-made Fabrique Nationale FN 7.92 mm light machine guns, which were a licensed version of the Browning M1919 machine gun. These machine guns would eventually be replaced by 13.2 mm FN heavy machine guns and German 20 mm MG FF/M and MG 151/20 cannons. In 1941, the IAR-80 was modified to become a dive bomber and thus became the IAR-81. This new model was fitted with a bomb cradle under the fuselage which would throw the bomb clear of the propeller when the bomb was released.

The first production IAR 80s were completed in January 1941, and they were in action against the Soviets from the first day of Operation Barbarossa on June 22,1941. IAR-80s and 81s both saw action during the Battle of Stalingrad and later took part in combat over the Kuban and the Crimea throughout 1943 and into 1944. Meanwhile, in August 1943 IAR-80s took part in the defense of the Romanian oil fields at Ploesti for the first time against US Army Air Force B-24 heavy bombers.

Further defensive missions would be flown over Romania through the summer of 1944 against American heavy bomber raids. After Romania switched sides in August 1944 and joined the Allies, IAR-80s and IAR-81s fought alongside the Soviets until the war ended in May 1945.

The C-47 Skytrain, which was a militarized version of the highly successful DC-3 civilian transport and airliner, was the workhorse cargo carrier of the USAAF during WWII. It also served with the U.S. Navy as the R4D-5 and with British forces where it was known as the Dakota. The C-47 was reliable, versatile and rugged. It could drop supplies to beleaguered ground forces, drop paratroopers during an invasion, tow gliders behind enemy lines and deliver desperately needed supplies to forward airfields all over the world.

The C-47 saw action in every WWII theater including both the Western and Eastern Fronts. The version specially designed to carry paratroopers was known as the C-53 Skytrooper, but were produced in much smaller numbers and generally also identified as a C-47 upon first glance. The C-47B had turbo-superchargers added so they could fly over the Himalaya Mountains or the ‘Hump’ as it was known into China from India to re-supply Allied troops there.

Over 5,300 C-47A models were built during the war. The C-47 was affectionally called the ‘Gooney Bird’ by soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allies. The RAF received over 2,000 aircraft as part of the Lend-Lease program and were used wherever British troops saw action.

So successful was the basic design that there was a Soviet license-built version called the Lisunov Li-2 which served not only as a transport, but also a bomber in emergency situations. There was even a Japanese built version called the L2D codenamed ‘Tabby’ by the Allies.

Much like our beloved and popular German Junkers Ju 52, you will be able to use our C-47A is just as the Allies did. You will be able to fly important supply missions and drop airborne troops behind enemy lines in Normandy, the Low Countries and even Germany itself near wars end.