Umm, they didn't "pull out" of NATO. They very conveniently stayed in
just
enough to whine about stuff but far enough out to never actually do any
work.

Actually, they did pull out of NATO. By March 1966, deGaulle had
withdrawn
France from NATO and its command structure because he felt that France
needed to
be independent of joint security considerations, which would not have been
possible had they remained in NATO. As an example, they would have been
unable
to bar the presence of missiles from their soil that were under foreign
(to
them) control, which was a step that de Gaulle actually took. They
remained out
of NATO until Mitterand brought them back in during the early '90s,
although I
am not sure of that date or time period.

George Z.

As I remember they pulled out at least partly due to the Cuban missile
crisis. It became apparent to them, and everyone else, that Europe could not
depend on the US not to sell them out in a crisis. As happened. The US were
willing to do a secret deal with the Soviets to pull out the missiles from
Turkey in exchange for the Soviets pulling their missiles out of Cuba. The
US would not be willing to commit to full scale war for Europe. The French
felt that they needed an independent nuclear capability to deter the
Soviets, rather than relying on the US, who had demonstrated a willingness
to sacrifice NATO security for their own.

Not that I blame the US. The whole massive retaliation thing wasn't a really
practical proposition. In may sound good in theory, but when things come to
a crunch, the US really couldn't be expected to make the supreme sacrifice
for Europe. The Europeans knew this and were always wary of US efforts to
distance themselves, or to restrict nuclear war just to Europe. I guess if
the French nuked Moscow, the Soviets wouldn't have worried who they nuked in
retaliation. Share the pain.

As for the Transall, my 1968 Observors says crew of 4, 81 troops or 62
casualty stretchers and 4 medical attendants. Other (vehicle) loads not
exceeding 35,270 lb. weight.Military Transports and Training Aircraft of the
World add cross section of the cabin is 9ft, 7in by 10 ft 2 1/2 in for a
length of 42 ft.