IX Troop Carrier Command - Overview

Overview

The mission of IX Troop Carrier Command was air transport for the Allied airborne divisions in the European Theater of Operations.

The primary aircraft of IX TCC was the C-47 Skytrain and its variant, the C-53 Skytrooper, but in 1945 IX Troop Carrier Command equipped one group with 117 C-46 Commando aircraft to determine their viability in the ETO. As a result of a 28% loss ratio during Operation Varsity resulting from the C-46's high inflammability, IX TCC did not convert to the Commando, even though its cargo-carrying capacity was twice that of the C-47. IX TCC also had 1,922 CG-4A Waco and 20 Waco CG-13 gliders just prior to its last major operation in March 1945.

IX Troop Carrier Command consisted of three troop carrier wings, 14 troop carrier groups, and one pathfinder group, totalling approximately 1380 operational aircraft including spares, and 2,000 gliders at its maximum strength in March 1945.

IX Troop Carrier Command conducted three multi-divisional combat air assaults:

• Operation Neptune: the invasion of France in June 1944,
• Operation Market: the airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944, and
• Operation Varsity: the airborne crossing of the Rhine River in March 1945.

It also conducted relief operations for isolated units during the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944.