Operation Ball & Air Transport Command

I’m looking some info about planes & crews used in the Operation Ball in 1944.

10 C-47s were flown to Kallax, Sweden in December 1944. Their mission was to flown Norwegian polices to Northern Norway to keep order in the towns. In 16th January 1945 eight of these C-47s flew over Kemi airfield (which was occupied by FiAF’s Ju-88s) and one Ju-88 was send to intercept these planes. After a while it caught the C-47s and fired few warning shots. The C-47s just kept going and Ju-88 had to turn back to base.

The C-47s belonged to Air Transport Command, base units 1409 and 1415. One C-47A-30-DK (41-348243) was photographed in Kemi, Finland in 1th February 1945. Also C-87s (transport version of B-24) were used.

According to Hannu Valtonen’s book “Pohjoinen ilmasota” (Northern Air War) when the Operation Ball ended in 8th August 1945 1442 men were transported from Kallax to Kirkenes along with 355 tons of supplies.