The origins of glider technology
The history of gliders in military applications dates back to the end of the First World War. Following the Treaty of Versailles, which, among other things, prohibited Germany from building certain heavy motorized aircraft, German aeronautical engineers decided, in order to circumvent this stipulation and continue innovating, to focus on the creation of motorless aircraft. By 1922, glider competitions were already taking place in Germany. The Soviet Union soon launched its own parallel glider-building program in the 1920s. By the end of the decade, Germany and the USSR were moving away from the purely sporting applications of these machines to the military field.
The early 1930s saw the USSR considerably accelerate its airborne technology, outpacing Germany. By 1934, the Soviet Union already had 10 glider training schools, and over 57,000 pilots were licensed. The following year, an 18-seat glider was developed at the Leningrad Military Institute. As part of the military cooperation program between the two countries, German colonel Kurt Student had the opportunity to visit Moscow, witness the country’s military advances and report back to his superiors on a drop of 1,500 paratroopers and the large gliders he had seen, a report that set the wheels in motion and prompted Germany to open a parachuting school in 1937. It was at this time that the idea of using these gliders to provide paratroopers with heavy armaments, such as cannons, emerged in Student’s mind, after some edifying field exercises, but the idea was initially not well received. It was not until the following year, in October 1938, that Student, now a major-general and inspector of German airborne forces, succeeded in imposing the idea. The development of troop-carrying gliders was assigned to Hans Jacobs of the DFS (an organization created in 1933 to centralize all glider-related activities). The DFS-230, with its capacity for 9 to 10 fully-equipped soldiers or 1200kg of equipment, would soon see the light of day.
Despite initially lagging behind the Soviets, it was Germany that was to become the forerunner in the use of gliders in wartime. One of the first feats of arms of German paratroopers (fallschirmjäger) and gliders was the capture of the Belgian fort of Eben Emael on May 10, 1940, a place reputed to be impregnable, but seized in just 30 minutes. The assault force consisted of 85 paratroopers and 41 DFS-230s, each carrying around ten men. Hitler, in a bid to publicize this dazzling victory, brought in several foreign press attachés to take them on a tour of the fortress, but in so doing, the methods used to capture it were soon to be echoed by armies the world over, notably in Great Britain, Japan and the USA.
Launch of the American glider program
Following this, Major-General Henry Arnold, Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air, commissioned a study to develop a glider in March 1941, with the aim of obtaining plans for the construction of 2-, 8- and 15-seat machines. 11 aeronautical companies were approached, but only 4 responded and supplied plans: the Frankfort Sailplane Company, the Weaver Aircraft Company (WACO), the Saint Louis Aircraft Company, and Bowlus Sailplane. Of these 4, it was WACO’s plans for the 8-place (CG-3) and 15-place (CG-4) gliders that were chosen, as they alone met the requirements of Materiel Command. As a result, in October 1941, Lewin B. Barringer was appointed Glider Specialist, Air Staff, HQ of the Army Air Forces, reporting to the now General Arnold, in charge of the U.S. glider program. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, things accelerated. The number of glider pilots required was set at 1,000, rising to 6,000 by June 1942. After Barringer’s death during a flight to Africa in January 1943, the glider program was handed over to Richard C. Du Pont.
The most widely used American glider during the war was the WACO CG-4A, first used in real-life situations during Operation Husky in Sicily. However, it wasn’t American soldiers who used them, but the British, some of whose glider units used WACO gliders in addition to their own Horsa gliders. But following the tragic accident of July 10, during the assault by American paratroopers of the 504th PIR over Sicily, in which 23 of the 144 C-47 aircraft were shot down by Allied warships anchored in Sicily which had mistaken them for enemy aircraft (a raid by Axis aircraft had just taken place), the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division decided not to mobilize his glidermen of the 325th GIR. The latter were waiting in North Africa at the time, and were originally scheduled to land in Sicily on the night of July 10-11.
The British 1st Airlanding Brigade inaugurated WACO gliders during Operation Ladbroke, part of Husky, on July 9. 136 WACOs and 8 Horsa carrying 2075 British troops, 7 jeeps, 6 anti-tank guns and 10 mortars, towed by American C47 aircraft, took off from Tunisia at 6pm. Between high winds, poor visibility and occasional enemy anti-aircraft gunfire, the glider pilots had to take evasive action, and in the confusion caused by such conditions, some gliders were released too soon, and 65 of them crashed into the sea, killing around 252 soldiers. Only 12 gliders landed in the right place, while a further 59 landed some 40km from the target. The rest of the contingent were either shot down or were unable to find a release window, and returned to Tunisia.
D-Day
The second occasion on which WACO gliders were used during the war was the D-Day landings. Following the landing of the 13,500 American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions on the night of June 5-6, 1944, a total of 6 glider missions took place from the morning of June 6 to the morning of June 7. The first two of these 6 missions, Chicago for the 101st, and Detroit for the 82nd Airborne, saw their respective 52 gliders land at 4am in the early hours of June 6.
Chicago carried 155 men, a bulldozer, 16 57mm anti-tank guns and 11 tons of equipment, and was due to land on Drop Zone E, between Les Forges, south of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, and Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. But due to poor visibility, only 6 landed there, while 15 others landed within a 750m radius. A further 10 landed in a field near Les Forges, and the remainder landed within a 3km radius. The mission’s lead glider, nicknamed Fighting Falcon, carried Brigadier-General Don C. Pratt, second-in-command of the 101st Airborne. He had strongly insisted on being part of this first assault, despite the reluctance of HQ, which eventually relented, albeit with some precautions. The glider carrying Pratt had been reinforced with armor plates on the floor of the aircraft and a protective hoop over the cockpit, which improved its strength but also increased its weight. In addition, the best pilot in the US Airborne, Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Murphy, was assigned to the glider. He managed to land the glider as planned at 4 a.m. near Hiesville, but, weighed down by its protection, the machine slid across the grass without slowing down, before crashing into a hedge. Murphy suffered 2 broken legs, the co-pilot was killed instantly, and General Pratt, seated in the passenger seat of his jeep, suffered a broken neck. General Pratt was the first American general to die during the Battle of Normandy on June 6, 1944. For the Chicago mission, a total of 5 dead, 17 wounded and 7 missing were recorded.
The Detroit mission was assigned to DZ O, northwest of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. It carried batteries A and B of the 80th Airborne Antiaircraft Battalion, elements of the divisional HQ, elements of the 82nd Division Artillery, and elements of the 82nd Signal Battalion, for a total of 220 men, 27 light vehicles including 22 Jeeps, 16 57mm anti-tank guns and 10 tons of equipment. Unlike the Chicago mission, the German Flak caused damage to the Detroit air formation: 38 C47s were damaged, and one was shot down. But this did not prevent the mission from going ahead on schedule. At 4:07 a.m., the first gliders landed. 23 of them landed on the LZ O, while the rest landed in the surrounding area, with varying degrees of success. 3 soldiers died in the landings, and 23 were wounded. What’s more, only half of the equipment is operational. Indeed, only 11 of the 23 Jeeps are in working order, the others having been damaged or disabled during the landings. 8 of the 16 57mm guns were recovered, two of them by Lieutenant-Colonel Vandervoort and his men in the early hours of June 6, while they were reinforcing the defense of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, recently recaptured from the Germans. The support provided by these guns would prove decisive in resisting the violent enemy counter-attack and holding the village.
The next two missions, Keokuk for the 101st and Elmira for the 82nd Airborne, took place on the evening of D-Day. The Keokuk mission saw 32 C47s and their gliders take off at 6.30pm, arriving at 8.53pm over Utah Beach. The LZ E on which they were to land had German forces in the vicinity of Turqueville and Saint-Côme-du-Mont. The enemy fired on the formation, but although they managed to inflict some damage, the range was too great to cause critical damage. 5 gliders landed on the LZ, the others scattered around it, and 2 landed within the German lines. Keokuk went down in history as the first daytime glider mission, but it was not essential to the 101st Airborne’s operational success.
For Elmira, 176 C47s towing 36 WACO gliders and 140 Horsa were assigned to LZ W, 3km southeast of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. They carried the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery, the C/HQ Battery of the 80th Airborne Antiaircraft Battalion, the 82nd Signal Company, the 82nd Airborne Reconnaissance Platoon, the 307th Airborne Medical Company, the 319th GFAB, Company A of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, and the 320th GFAB. Due to the large number of aircraft, it was split into 4 series: one of 26 and 3 of 50. The first wave, with a total of 76 aircraft, came under heavy enemy fire before they could free their gliders. 2 C47s were eventually shot down, but not before they had time to free their gliders. LZ W was partly occupied by soldiers of the 795th Georgian Battalion of the German Army, so the American Eureka beacons had been moved to LZ O, but the air formation was not informed. The gliders were therefore released with LZ W as their target, and most of them landed within a 3.2km radius of it. The gliders touched down in Normandy between 9.10pm and 9.20pm. 3 WACOs and 21 Horsa were destroyed, either by mortars or enemy artillery, after landing.
To find out more about the history of the 319th GFAB, visit 319gliderman.com, which provides a complete history of this battalion during the Second World War.
The second wave arrived at 10.55pm, in the dark of night, in the direction of LZ O. Here again, enemy fire greeted the formation. Again, enemy fire greeted the formation, but as with the previous wave, little damage was done. 3 C47s returned to HQ before their gliders could be released. The first series landed close to or within the German lines, while the second landed mostly on the LZ O, with only 5 gliders landing on the LZ W. All in all, just about all the men in this second wave managed to reach the 82nd Airborne lines in the early hours of the morning, and 15 of the 24 guns were in position by the evening of June 8. All in all, the Elmira mission counted 15 dead, 17 wounded and 4 pilots missing, as well as 33 dead and 124 wounded on the passenger side.
Finally, the last two glider missions, Galveston and Hackensack, took place at dawn on June 7, carrying the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment. Following heavy fire during Elmira, the route of these missions was changed, and the 101st’s LZ E was assigned to them. Galveston had 100 gliders in two series, carrying the 1st Battalion of the 325th and the rest of the artillery, for a total of almost 1,000 men, 20 guns and 40 vehicles. It was released at 6.55 a.m., came under light enemy fire, and due to the very low altitude of the release, several accidents occurred during landings, wounding 100 soldiers, 17 of them fatally. The second series reached LZ W precisely and without too many casualties. The remainder of the 325th arrived with the Hackensack mission, which was released at 8.51 a.m. The first of the two series, carrying the 2nd Battalion of the 325th and a large part of the 2nd Battalion of the 401st GIR, landed on 4 different fields on either side of LZ W. One of the squadrons came under heavy enemy fire, killing 15 soldiers and wounding 60 others. The second made a near-perfect, precision landing on the LZ W. The 3 battalions had assembled by 10.15 a.m., with 90% of their strength. The 325th became the reserve division at Chef-du-Pont, and was to be a decisive reinforcement for the 82nd Airborne during the battle for La Fière. On June 7, the regiment came to the aid of their parachute colleagues in the small hamlet, which had been heavily bombed by the Germans since the previous day. Its soldiers distinguished themselves by their bravery during the assaults on June 9, the most terrible illustration of which was the sacrifice of Charles N. DeGlopper, who blocked the way for the Germans. DeGlopper, who blocked off the enemy on his own at the western end of the causeway, allowing his comrades to escape death. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for this heroic action.
Finally, 5 WACO gliders landed on June 11 at the temporary La Londe-Beuzeville-au-Plain airfield, built between June 7 and 10 by the 819th Engineer Battalion. Filled with ammunition and reinforcements for the 82nd Airborne, these were the last gliders to be used in the Battle of Normandy.
Operation Dragoon
As part of Operation Dragoon, American gliders from the 550th GIB were mobilized in conjunction with American paratroopers from the 509th PIB, 551st PIB and 517th PRCT. The glider assault phase, split between the Dove and Bluebird missions, took place on August 15, after the arrival of the 396 aircraft carrying the 5,600 paratroopers and 150 guns via the Albatross mission. The Albatross mission took place on the night of the 14th/15th, and its men landed just before 5am.
The men of the Bluebird mission opened the ball on the morning of August 15th. The 435th TCG carried the British troops: 35 Horsas gliders carrying 233 soldiers from the 300th Antitank Air Landing Battery, the 64th British Light Artillery Battery, and 30 guns, 30 Jeeps and 31,300 shells. It took off between 05:18 and 05:50 from Tarquinia airfield, but ended up returning there mid-morning after being prevented from landing by thick fog on the LZ O, not without dropping two gliders in Corsica following damage to their C47s. The mission was rescheduled for the same day at 5:50 p.m., just before the Canary and Dove missions.
The 436th TCG carries British and American elements, and is supposed to launch 40 WACO gliders. However, 3 of them were grounded due to technical problems. The 37 gliders carried the remainder of the 64th British Light Artillery Battery, part of the 1st Airborne Task Force staff and elements of the 512th Airborne Signal Company. The 436th TCG took off from Voltone at 05:58, eventually benefiting from the gradual dissipation of the fog. The machines were jettisoned at 09:26, an hour late. The landing success rate is satisfactory: 33 of the 37 gliders are on the LZ O. Of the 4 remaining gliders, one landed a long way from the LZ, another disintegrated over the waves after breaking up, the third had to ditch in the Mediterranean after the cable connecting it to its C47 broke, and the last saw its C47 return to Italy by inadvertently following the Horsa gliders of the 436th TCG returning to Italy.
The 35 Horsa gliders of the 435th TCG, with one Horsa recovered from Corsa following the morning’s accident, and the WACO returned to Italy in the morning, left Tarquinia at 3.04pm. At 5.49pm, the 37 aircraft landed on the LZ O. The second glider, which landed in Corsica, was recovered and released on the LZ the following day, August 16, at 11:01 am.
As for the Dove mission, it consists of 335 WACOs carrying a multitude of units: the 550th IAB, the 602nd GFAB, the 442nd AT Co., the 512th Abn. Signal Co. the A. 2nd Chem. Bn, 676th Medical Coll. Co, 887th Airborne Eng. Co, FABTF HQ, D. 83rd Chem. Bn. and the 3rd Ord. Co. The mission consisted of 3 series of 48, then 4 series of 47 gliders and their C47s. They take off from the Italian coast between 3 and 4 pm. Two LZs are designated: A, on the Valbourgès estate, and O, at Le Mitan. The 7 series arrive on site between 6.27pm and 7.05pm. With the exception of one glider and its C47, which were forced to ditch shortly before Corsica due to damage, and 4 gliders which ditched near the French coast due to premature release, and the delay of some series, the operation went smoothly overall. The 442nd TCG and the 441st TCG were 17 minutes late due to an itinerary error over Corsica.
