Sikorsky YR-4B Helicopter ( R-4 ) Arrives in Burma January 1945 Flys Missions

Sikorsky YR4B (Serial # 42-107237) helicopter arrives by C54 at North Strip, Myitkyina ??*, Burma (Myanmar), and is shown going on a couple of missions. The first is to mark a downed B25 and recover usable parts. The second mission shown was to evacuate a wounded man from a weather station atop a mountain. The film has the order/timing of these missions, and possibly the arrival date wrong as this second mission actually did take place on January 22-23, 1945. Additionally, this mission was a little more complicated than the narrator leads us to believe. According to the article on Wikipedia on the Sikorsky YR-4B, this mission " involved several legs for refueling and navigating through passes between mountains nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) tall, to reach a weather station located at an elevation of 4,700 feet (1,400 m). The higher than normal altitude required a downhill run of 20 ft (6.1 m) to get airborne."

Other designations for these Vought-Sikorsky helicopters include the VS-316, R-4 and HNS-1. This particular aircraft shown in the video (42-107237) was flown to Burma from Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio by order of General Henry "Hap" Arnold to rescue the crew of a downed B25. It later crashed in Burma on July 26, 1945.

I am not sure, but I believe this is the same helicopter shown in this footage of another jungle rescue mission that I have posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTjaRdcdb4w

*Not sure if I have the correct city here. It sounds like the narrator says, "Michinaw" and from what I have found I believe that is close to the pronunciation of "Myitkyina".

Public domain footage from Staff Film Reports #46 produced by the US Army Signal Corps' Army Pictorial Service.

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