David C Isby is an experienced author and pilot, and has written and edited numerous books and articles. His work on World War 2 military aviation includes 'Jane's at the Controls: How to Fly and Fight in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress' and the editing of two volumes of Luftwaffe accounts, 'The Luftwaffe Fighter Force: The View From the Cockpit' and 'Fighting the Bombers'. He is the son of a former USAAF C-47 navigator.
An airbrush artist with years of experience, Chris Davey has become Osprey's principal illustrator of RAF aircraft, having produced the profiles for over a dozen books since 1994. His most recent work includes Aircraft of the Aces 38 and Combat Aircraft 31. He is particularly adept at 'big' aircraft like the Halifax and Sunderland.

The C-47 units of the USAAF were an integral part of some of the most dramatic episodes of the European war: the airborne assaults in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, southern France, Operation Market Garden and the crossing of the Rhine. The mass fratricide off Sicily, the night drop for D-Day and the Bastogne supply missions are also covered, along with more typical accounts of training, formation flying, airdrops and casualty evacuation missions. This book details an aircraft that remains a popular favourite and an acknowledged design classic, carrying out missions every bit as strategically important and as dramatic for the aircrew as those of the fighters and bombers.