May 2009



May 2009

Volume 17 Number 9

Published by WW II History Roundtable

Edited by Jim Gerber (current issue by Joe Fitzharris and Jim Johns)

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Welcome to the May meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War II History Roundtable. Today we will discuss the role of gliders and glider forces.

During the 1930s, the theory of “vertical envelopment” became popular in many armed forces. Germany and the USSR were early adopters. The Germans trained military pilots as glider pilots, and conducted pilot training in the Soviet Union. They also trained Soviet pilots, and in turn, the Soviets helped train German paratroopers. These were in violation of the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I.

In May 1940, the Germans took the Belgian fort of Eban Emael with eight DFS 230 gliders carrying 85 Pioneers who used shaped charges to breach the roof of the fort. In May, 1941, The Germans used gliders to invade Crete with 13,000 troops. These operations impressed the Allies, who began developing glider and air-borne forces, without realizing Crete cost the Germans 30 percent casualties, reportedly causing Hitler to vow never to use glider borne troops in large scale operations again. On 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued by SS commandos led by Otto Skorzeny, and on 3 March 1944, glider troops made a failed attack on Marshal Tito’s partisan group headquarters.

By 1940, the United States was training the first paratroopers, and discovered the problems of delivering a compact force ready to fight. Jumpers and equipment were dispersed for miles. Following the Germans and the British, we too looked at glider borne troops and

equipment - in theory the squad and it equipment came down together, ready to fight.

The Allies used glider forces in the invasion of Sicily in 1943, and in the Normandy landings (e.g., Pegasus Bridge). After the landings in the south of France, gliders were used in all the major airborne operations in northern Europe. They were also used in both the Chine-Burma-India and Pacific Theaters – notably in operations on Luzon.

In every operation, glider forces served their purpose. They often suffered serious losses in landings, and were targeted by enemy fire. Glider forces were still too dispersed to go into immediate action. After World War II, only the Soviets maintained glider formations.

The British developed glider forces using the wooden HORSA glider that carried 30 soldiers and their gear, and the larger HAMILCAR that carried 8 tons of cargo. Their glider crews were both aircrews and effective infantry. Glider infantry, as in the US Army, were line units with little if any added training.

The US developed its own line of gliders. To avoid over-taxing aircraft manufacturing firms and facilities, the bidding and contracts were reserved to firms that had no military aviation connections. The WACO aircraft company of Troy, Ohio, submitted the winning design for a 13 place combat glider, with a crew of two. The CG-4A had a fabric covered steel frame, plywood flooring, minimal instruments, fixed landing gear, low clearance, a nose that opened upward for loading, and a bad tendency to sink once the tether was released. Gliders were shipped crated into the theater where they were assembled before use.

The first flight of a CG-4Atook place in May of 1942, and within 3 months, 16 companies, notably piano makers and Michigan furniture firms, were awarded contracts to build the glider.

Only 3 of the 16 contractors had any civilian aircraft construction experience. They had to set the standard for assembly line techniques and training of personnel. One company, tasked with making the jigs, dies, and tools to ensure uniformity, was very slow in delivery, holding up the entire program. Lack of training, low morale, production problems, and inspection failures all tended to make meeting the required production delivery dates impossible.

Most companies had buildings that were not conducive to aircraft construction. Managers had no experience in this work. Labor was scarce, so the firms used large numbers of women war workers who had no prior aviation assembly experience.

Despite all the problems, in just two and a half years, these firms produced 13,900 CG-4 gliders, 400 improved CG-15s, and over 100 huge CG-13 gliders by war’s end. Only three powered aircraft models were made in greater numbers: the P-47, the P-51, and the B-24. Ford Motor Company made the most, about 4,300. Northwestern Aeronautical Corp., located in the old American Radiator factory near Prior and University Avenues in St. Paul, made about 1,600 CG-4As.

More Reading On Tonight’s Topic:

Roger Bilstein, The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II; vol. 10, Airlift and Airborne Operations in World War II (reprinted: University Press of the Pacific, 2005)

Gerard M. Devlin, Paratrooper! The Saga of Untied States Army and Marine Parachute and Glider Combat Troops during World War II (St. Martin’s Press, 1979)

James A. Huston, Out Of The Blue - U.S Army Airborne Operations In World War II. (Purdue. 1998).

George A. Larson, “The Glider in World War II: The Waco CG-4A Combat Glider,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal, 46:4 (Winter 2001): 270-279.

Kathleen McAuliffe, “Crossing the Lines in Silent Wings,” Smithsonian Magazine 25 (June 1994): 118–33.

Charles J. Masters, Glidermen of Neptune: The American D-Day Glider Attack (Southern Illinois University Press, 1995).

James, E. Mrazek, Fighting Gliders of World War II (St. Martin’s Press, 1977). 

Bill Norton, “Elephantine but Silent: U.S. Army Cargo Glider Development,” Part I, Part 2, American Aviation Historical Society Journal, 52:2 (Summer), 52:3 (Fall, 2007).

R.D. Van Wagner, Any Place, Any Time, Any Where: The 1st Air Commandos in WWII (Schiffer Publishing, 1998).

John C. Warren, Airborne Operations in World War II, European Theater. USAF Historical Studies: No. 97. (USAF Historical Division,1956).

Round Table Schedule 2009-2010

10 September 09 Sinking of the Leopoldville –

and the Brittany Campaign

8 October 09 History of the Hitler Youth

22 October Special Program on Nazi

Propaganda Art

12 November 09 Sorge Spy Ring in Japan

10 December 09 82nd AB Div. in Battle of the

Bulge

14 January 10 Russian Military Leadership

11 February 10 Role of Bombers in WW2

11 March 10 New Guinea Campaign

8 April 10 Invasion of Anzio

13 May 10 Flying the Hump

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