Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers .
210-552: The M22 Locust , officially Light Tank (Airborne), M22 , was an American-designed airborne light tank which was produced during World War II . The Locust began development in 1941 after the British War Office requested that the American government design a purpose-built airborne light tank which could be transported by glider into battle to support British airborne forces. The War Office had originally selected
420-461: A slave battery , sixteen motorcycles and a jeep. The four Hamilcars which were to land in support of 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades took off from Tarrant Rushton at 02:10 on 6 June and were due to land at approximately 03:30; however, only two landed successfully. One suffered a broken tow rope shortly after it took off, although it was able to land safely at an airfield in England; the other reached
630-520: A 17-pounder anti-tank gun, their towing vehicles and crews each, and the other four would carry eight Universal Carriers, which would once again act as transport for the airborne troops that were flown in. The final three were packed with ammunition and stores, as well as a number of sappers from the Royal Engineers ; these were experimental loads, as it was believed that the Hamilcar might be
840-403: A Hamilcar and then took off from an airfield; once airborne the normal Halifax would then detach its towrope and land, and the modified Halifax would tow the glider to its destination. However, this idea went no further than initial trials in England, as it was considered to be a high risk operation with a high probability of a serious accident occurring. As such, a powered version of the Hamilcar,
1050-638: A better ballistic shape; the two .30-06 machine-guns were removed from the bow of the tank and the suspension was altered to try and reduce the weight of the design. However, contrary to normal practice, the Ordnance Department had placed an order for the original T9 design in April 1942, before the T9E1 models were delivered in November 1942; 500 were ordered in April and this order rapidly increased to
1260-595: A committee—the Swing Board—composed of air force, parachute, glider infantry and artillery officers, whose arrangements for the maneuver would effectively decide the fate of divisional-sized airborne forces. As the 11th Airborne Division was in reserve in the United States and had not yet been earmarked for combat, the Swing Board selected it as the test formation. The maneuver would additionally provide
1470-408: A crew of three. The specification also called for a maximum speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) and an operational radius of 200 miles (320 km). The turret and front of the hull were to have an armor thickness of between 40 millimeters (1.6 in) and 50 millimeters (2.0 in), and the sides of the tank a thickness of 30 millimeters (1.2 in). The United States Ordnance Department was given
1680-837: A daring glider-based assault on the Gran Sasso Hotel , high in the Apennines mountains, and rescued Benito Mussolini from house arrest with very few shots being fired. On May 25, 1944, paratroopers were dropped as part of a failed attempt to capture Josip Broz Tito , the head of the Yugoslav Partisans and later postwar leader of Yugoslavia. Before the Pacific War began, the Imperial Japanese Army formed Teishin Dan ("Raiding Brigades") and
1890-481: A decision to decrease the amount of cargo it could carry under its own power, which in turn decreased its weight to 32,500 lb (14.7 t). Two Hamilcar Mark Is were converted for initial trials, and when these proved satisfactory a further eight Mark Is were converted and ten Mark Xs built from scratch; any further orders were cancelled when the conflict ended in August 1945, although further tests were conducted in
2100-597: A few units, such as seizing a bridge. After seeing success of other units and observing smokejumper training methods on how training can be done in June 1940, General William C. Lee of the U.S. Army established the Army's first airborne division. The 101st would be reorganized into the 101st Airborne Division . The Allies eventually formed two British and five American divisions: the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions, and
2310-415: A great deal of artillery and anti-tank fire. Although neither of the tanks were hit, a number of infantrymen were killed or wounded and after several hours the tanks were forced to withdraw. The four tanks and remaining infantry formed a small force that repelled several German attacks on their position, and were eventually relieved at 10:30 by a tank squadron from the 44th Royal Tank Regiment and elements of
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#17328018550062520-565: A jeep out of a crashed glider, although the crew remained with the tank and supported British airborne troops in the area. Of the four Locusts that reached the rendezvous point, only two were undamaged and fully fit for action; these two were immediately deployed to the high ground east of the Diersfordter Wald, while being covered by the two damaged tanks. Upon arrival they were engaged by German troops and had to be supported by an infantry company, and soon their presence began attracting
2730-574: A key bridge at Avellino , to disrupt German motorized movements, was badly dispersed and failed to destroy the bridge before the Germans withdrew to the north. In April 1945, Operation Herring , an Italian commando -style airborne drop aimed at disrupting German rear area communications and movement over key areas in Northern Italy , took place. However the Italian troops were not dropped as
2940-457: A lack of official priority and poor management at GAL also impeded production. Between March and August 1942 GAL had promised eighteen Hamilcars would be built and delivered, but by September only one had actually appeared; this slow rate of production so concerned the Ministry of Aircraft Production that it appointed an 'Industrial Panel' of three senior industrial experts to visit GAL and detail
3150-495: A more efficient way of transporting supplies rather than the Horsa due to its larger size. On 19 September, ten Hamilcars would transport American engineers who belonged to the American 878th Aviation Engineer Battalion and their equipment, which included bulldozers, cranes and graders ; they were to construct a forward airfield in landing zone 'W' after the gliders had been cleared away. All fifteen Hamilcars which participated in
3360-588: A number of different airfields, including the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment at RAF Beaulieu ; all flight trials appear to have been successful, and there were few differences between the prototypes and the production models. The number of Hamilcars that the War Office required frequently fluctuated. In May 1942 the War Office asked GAL for 360 Hamilcars to be used in two major airborne operations, but this
3570-488: A number of exercises intended to familiarize it with the duties it would perform, including reconnaissance of enemy positions and performing counter-attacks against enemy infantry and armor. In mid-July an American pilot was sent to Britain to illustrate that the tank could fit inside a Hamilcar and be landed, and then on 25 October the Light Tank Squadron received a shipment of seventeen Locusts. During November
3780-506: A number of faults and problems with the Locust. The AFV School noted that the process of loading the M22 into a C-54 transport aircraft took considerable time and involved the use of complex equipment. Overall the process took six untrained men 24 minutes, although it was believed this could be shortened with sufficient training. Unloading was also a long process, taking approximately ten minutes; it
3990-585: A number of gliders being damaged or destroyed. A powered variant of the Hamilcar was produced, the Hamilcar Mark X , to extend the range of the Hamilcar so it could serve in the Pacific War ; the conflict in the Pacific ended before the design could see combat. The British airborne establishment was formed in June 1940 under the orders of the Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , in response to
4200-618: A number of others to be used in the Far East . This placed further pressure on GAL and the Hamilcar Production Group, as the USAAF demands would require further production and new flight trials to see if the glider would operate effectively in a tropical climate. In late 1943 the USAAF required 140 Hamilcars, which would be used to transport bulldozers and other construction equipment for airfield building, and in November it
4410-648: A parachute drop. Men drawn from the Italian parachute forces were dropped in a special-forces operation in North Africa in 1943 in an attempt to destroy parked aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces . At about the same time, the Soviet Union was also experimenting with the idea, planning to drop entire units complete with vehicles and light tanks . To help train enough experienced jumpers, parachute clubs were organized with
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#17328018550064620-742: A paratrooper force to be known as the Fallschirmjäger . During the invasions of Norway and Denmark in Operation Weserübung , the Luftwaffe dropped paratroopers on several locations. In Denmark, a small unit dropped on the Masnedøfort on the small island of Masnedø to seize the Storstrøm Bridge linking the islands of Falster and Zealand . A paratroop detachment also dropped at the airfield of Aalborg which
4830-653: A planned airborne operation. A heavy transport aircraft, the Fairchild C-82 Packet , was developed to specifically carry the M22 inside its fuselage and unload it through a set of clam-shell doors, but it did not enter service until after the war had ended. The US Army Armored Board released a critical report on the Locust in September 1943, stating that it was inadequate in the areas of reliability and durability, and indicating that it would not be able to be successfully used during airborne operations. By 1944 it
5040-431: A process was begun to dispose of 'surplus' Hamilcars, with 44 moved to disposal facilities and twenty remaining. The remainder continued to be used for routine flying exercises until July, when six more were disposed of due to 'glue deterioration', and by February 1947 only twelve were left in operation. These last few Hamilcars appear to have remained in service until 1950, with several used in airshows and public displays by
5250-456: A reinforcement lift. Twenty of the Hamilcars would carry Tetrarch light tanks and their crews which belonged to 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, four more carried three Rota trailers without crews, and another three carried Universal Carriers with their crews. The last three carried two Universal Carriers converted to accommodate a 3-inch mortar, one Universal Carrier which carried
5460-559: A replacement for the Tetrarch and the first prototype Locust was shipped to Britain in May 1942 for testing, followed by the second prototype T9E1 in July 1943. Although they were of the opinion that the M22 possessed a number of faults, the War Office believed it would perform adequately as an airborne tank. Thus the tank received the official title of "Locust" and 260 were shipped to Britain under
5670-521: A similar number of Hamilcars were used to transport anti-tank guns, transport vehicles and supplies for airborne troops as part of Operation Market Garden . They were used a third and final time in March 1945 during Operation Varsity when they transported M22 Locust light tanks and other supplies. The gliders proved to be successful in all three operations, although their slow speed and large size made them easy targets for anti-aircraft fire, which resulted in
5880-615: A single Royal Engineers D4 bulldozer each, and finally 3rd Parachute Brigade and 5th Parachute Brigade were assigned three Hamilcars each; these would each carry a Universal Carrier for use as transport by the headquarters staff of the brigades. All of the gliders successfully took off at 07:20 on 24 March, but seven were lost en route to the landing zones, the majority being forced to cast off and land in Allied territory due to their tugs suffering engine failures; however, one Hamilcar which carried an M22 Locust broke up in mid-air as it approached
6090-470: A single landing; a small bottle not only saved weight, but gave a smaller chance of it being hit by enemy fire, thereby exploding and damaging the glider. Standard approach speed for the Hamilcar was 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), although for shorter landings this could be slowed to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h), and stalling speeds were 64 miles per hour (103 km/h) with flaps up or 52 miles per hour (84 km/h) with flaps deployed. The Hamilcar
6300-543: A small number of Locusts by transferring them to foreign militaries. Several had their main armaments removed and were used by the Belgian Army as command tanks for their M4 Sherman regiments, and a few Locusts even found their way back to the U.S., where they had their turrets removed and served as agricultural tractors. The 3 June 1946 issue of Life magazine has a five-photo article about Kamiel Dupre, an Illinois farmer who bought two surplus Locusts for $ 100 each from
6510-425: A steep descent to reduce time in the air and exposure to enemy fire. The glider also possessed large flaps which assisted in a steep and rapid descent, and through adjustments of their angle during landing a precise control over descent rate and point of landing could be achieved; they also allowed a slower touchdown speed to be attained. They were operated through a small bottle of compressed air large enough only for
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6720-491: A total of 1900, with deliveries to begin in November. However, production difficulties and design changes caused this date to be delayed several times, and it was not until April 1943 that production of the T9 actually began. Production of the T9 peaked at 100 tanks produced per month between August 1943 and January 1944; however, this number rapidly declined when the results of the British and American testing programs were reported to
6930-526: A total of 53 had been produced, but the rest were in storage awaiting parts to complete them or to be erected. Finding personnel to erect the gliders, and airfields to store them, continued to be a problem. By June, however, eighty of the gliders had been manufactured and erected and were ready for use in airborne operations, in time for a small number to be used during Operation Tonga , the British airborne landings in Normandy. Production continued throughout
7140-469: A tug to get it airborne, and was first flown in September 1941. However, it only flew once; the test pilot approached the landing area too low, attempted to raise the flaps for extra glide, and instead crashed the prototype and wrecked it. However, the trial was considered to be a success and the first full-scale prototype model was finished at GAL's works in Hanworth, Middlesex in March 1942. The Hamilcar
7350-565: A unit, but as a series of small (8–10 man) groups. Another operation, Operation Potato , was mounted by men drawn from the Folgore and Nembo divisions, operating with British equipment and under British command as No. 1 Italian Special Air Service Regiment. The men dropped in small groups from American C-47s and carried out a successful railway sabotage operation in northern Italy. The Allies had learned better tactics and logistics from their earlier airborne drops, and these lessons were applied for
7560-559: A unit. The Soviets mounted only one large-scale airborne operation in World War II, despite their early leadership in the field in the 1930s. Russia also pioneered the development of combat gliders, but used them only for cargo during the war. Axis air superiority early in the conflict limited the ability of the Soviets to mount such operations, whilst later in the conflict ongoing shortages of materiel, including silk for parachutes,
7770-416: A wingspan of 102 feet (31 m) and a length of 69 feet 6 inches (21.18 m), in contrast to modern sport gliders which possess a particularly large wingspan to enhance gliding performance. This was the result of a decision taken by the War Office in early 1940 on how military gliders would be used; the idea was for the glider to be released at a low altitude close to the landing zone and conduct
7980-599: The Battle of Kursk , the Guards Airborne defended the eastern shoulder of the southern penetration and was critical to holding back the German penetration. The Soviets sent at least one team of observers to the British and American airborne planning for D-Day, but did not reciprocate the liaison. Britain's first airborne assault took place on February 10, 1941, when 'X' Troop, No 11 Special Air Service Battalion (which
8190-558: The Battle of the Bulge in January 1945 where they, along with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were deployed as ground troops. The U.S. 11th and 13th Airborne Divisions were held in reserve in the United States until 1944 when the 11th Airborne Division was deployed to the Pacific, but mostly used as ground troops or for smaller airborne operations. The 13th Airborne Division was deployed to France in January 1945 but never saw combat as
8400-574: The Dakotas before they reached their target. Only 295 officers and men were dropped close enough to carry out the assault. They captured the bridge, but the German 4th Parachute Regiment recaptured it. They held the high ground until relieved by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division of the Eighth Army, which re-took the bridge at dawn on 16 July. The Allied commanders were forced to reassess
8610-535: The Egyptian Army used several company-sized units of Locusts during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The Light Tank (Airborne) M22, also known as the Locust, began development in late 1941 in response to a request by the British military earlier in the year for an airmobile light tank which could be transported onto a battlefield by glider . At the time the request was made, the War Office considered using
M22 Locust - Misplaced Pages Continue
8820-688: The General Aircraft Hamilcar , under development at the time, would be used to transport a single tank or two Universal Carriers . A decision had recently been made by the War Office that light tanks were no longer to be generally used in the British Army; on the whole they had performed poorly during the Battle of France and were considered to be a liability. As a result, the Vickers-Armstrong Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch light tank
9030-541: The Geneva Conventions protects parachutists in distress, but not airborne troops . Their necessarily-slow descent causes paratroopers to be vulnerable to anti-air fire from ground defenders, but combat jumps are at low altitude (400–500 ft) and normally carried out a short distance away (or directly on if lightly defended) from the target area at night. Airborne operations are also particularly sensitive to weather conditions, which can be dangerous to both
9240-571: The IJsselmeer . Market, the airborne element of the plan, would employ four of the six divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army . The US 101st Airborne Division ( Major General Maxwell D. Taylor ) would drop in two locations just north of XXX Corps to take the bridges north-west of Eindhoven at Son and Veghel . The 82nd Airborne Division (Brigadier General James M. Gavin ) would drop north-east of them to take
9450-729: The Imperial Japanese Navy trained marine ( Rikusentai ) paratroopers . They used paratroops in several battles in the Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942. Rikusentai airborne troops were first dropped at the Battle of Manado , Celebes in January 1942, and then near Usua , during the Timor campaign , in February 1942. Teishin made a jump at the Battle of Palembang , on Sumatra in February 1942. Japanese airborne units suffered heavy casualties during
9660-615: The Lend-Lease Act. The majority of the Locusts ended up placed in tank parks until they were scrapped at the end of the conflict, and only eight ever saw action with British airborne forces. Extensive testing of the M22 occurred in 1943 and 1944, and was conducted by both the Ordnance Department and the British Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) Gunnery School at Lulworth Ranges . These tests uncovered
9870-506: The Light Tank Mark VII Tetrarch light tank for use by the airborne forces, but it had not been designed with that exact purpose in mind so the War Office believed that a purpose-built tank would be required to replace it. The United States Army Ordnance Department was asked to produce this replacement, which in turn selected Marmon-Herrington to design and build a prototype airborne tank in May 1941. The prototype
10080-617: The River Rhine during Operation Plunder . On 24 March the division, in conjunction with the American United States 17th Airborne Division , would be dropped by parachute and glider near the city of Wesel , where it would capture the strategically important village of Hamminkeln , several important bridges over the River IJssel and the southern portion of a major forest, the Diersfordter Wald. Eight Locusts from
10290-710: The Royal Army Service Corps , and were loaded with twelve Universal Carriers, trailers and stores of ammunition and equipment. The company were to use the Universal Carriers and trailers, along with transport to be provided by 6th Airlanding Brigade, to collect, control and issue supplies dropped by aerial resupply drops to the airborne troops as they fought. Eight Hamilcars were to transport M22 Locust light tanks which belonged to 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, and another four were to carry panniers of supplies. Two more were to carry
10500-511: The U.S. 1st Division behind German lines near Metz . The operation was planned for February 1919 but the war ended before the attack could be seriously planned. Mitchell conceived that US troops could be rapidly trained to utilize parachutes and drop from converted bombers to land behind Metz in synchronisation with a planned infantry offensive. Following the war, the United States Army Air Service experimented with
10710-836: The War Office on the number of gliders it wanted and poor management by GAL, led to delays in the production of the Hamilcar and it was not until mid-1943 that the first production glider was assembled. These problems were only partially solved and production of the glider continued to be slow, hampered by difficulties in finding suitable locations to store and construct them once their parts were produced. A total of 344 Hamilcars had been built when production ended in 1946. Hamilcars were used on three occasions,and only in support of British airborne forces. They first saw action in June 1944, when approximately thirty were used to carry Ordnance QF 17 pounder anti-tank guns, transport vehicles and Tetrarch light tanks into Normandy in support of British airborne forces during Operation Tonga . In September 1944
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#173280185500610920-646: The "Broad Front Approach" laid out by General Dwight D. Eisenhower , the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force , it was decided to attempt to breach the Rhine in several areas. Montgomery, commanding the British 21st Army Group, devised a plan to allow the forces under his command to breach the Rhine, which he entitled Operation Plunder, and which was subsequently authorised by Eisenhower. Plunder envisioned
11130-442: The 11th Airborne Division then launched a coordinated ground attack against a reinforced infantry regiment and conducted several aerial resupply and casualty evacuation missions in coordination with United States Army Air Forces transport aircraft. The exercise was judged by observers to be a great success. McNair, pleased by its results, attributed this success to the great improvements in airborne training that had been implemented in
11340-468: The 11th Airborne and its individual units with further training, as had occurred several months previously in an earlier large-scale exercise conducted by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The 11th Airborne, as the attacking force, was assigned the objective of capturing Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield near Fort Bragg in North Carolina . The force defending the airfield and its environs
11550-462: The 17-pounder anti-tank guns on board the gliders were damaged beyond repair. The rest of the Hamilcars landed successfully, although one overran the landing zone and hit a railway embankment; this damaged the two Universal Carriers being carried by the glider, although both were later salvaged. The lift on 18 September was delayed for several hours due to poor weather conditions, and the glider force did not take off until approximately 11:00. En route to
11760-467: The 1st Airborne Division were glider infantry of the 1st Airlanding Brigade , commanded by Brigadier Philip Hicks , and they fared little better. Only 12 out of 137 gliders in Operation Ladbroke landed on target, with more than half landing in the sea. Nevertheless, the scattered airborne troops maximised their opportunities, attacking patrols and creating confusion wherever possible. On
11970-457: The 25-seater Airspeed Horsa ; and the last, X.27/40 was for a glider that could carry a light tank or other heavy loads. The number of aeronautical firms able to design and produce gliders was limited, especially since several were already committed to producing other prop-driven aircraft for the government; as such, contracts for the gliders were allocated to firms as the government saw fit, rather than through any competitive process. Slingsby
12180-432: The 3rd Battalion of the 504th PIR , Company 'B' of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion and the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion , with other supporting units), making their first combat jump. Strong winds encountered en route blew the dropping aircraft off course and scattered them widely. The result was that around half the paratroopers failed to make it to their rallying points. The British airborne troops from
12390-445: The 3rd Zouaves' regimental commander, and is worn today by all members of the 509th Infantry. As part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily, four airborne operations (two British and two American) were carried out, landing during the nights of July 9 and 10 1943. The American paratroopers were from the 82nd Airborne Division, mainly Colonel James Gavin 's 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (consisting of
12600-476: The 504th PIR were warming up for takeoff. With Giant II cancelled, Operation Giant I was reactivated to drop two battalions of the 504th PIR at Capua on September 13. However, significant German counterattacks, beginning on September 12, resulted in a shrinking of the American perimeter and threatened destruction of the Salerno beachhead . As a result, Giant I was cancelled and the 504th PIR instead dropped into
12810-409: The 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment complained that when a high-explosive shell was fired from the gun, the resulting shell-burst was so weak that observers had difficulty in seeing where it impacted. There were also mechanical problems with the design, which caused it to be unreliable; the engine was also found to be underpowered, possibly due to problems with the torque characteristics of
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#173280185500613020-402: The Allied military, resulted in the 82nd Airborne artillery commander, Brigadier General Maxwell Taylor (future commander of the 101st Airborne Division), being sent on a personal reconnaissance mission to Rome to assess the prospects of success. His report via radio on September 8 caused the operation to be postponed (and canceled the next day) as troop carriers loaded with two battalions of
13230-425: The British 6th Airborne Division and the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to land either side of the landing areas to secure their flanks and protect the landing troops from counterattack. The British airborne forces were to land in the east and the American airborne forces to land to the west of Bayeux in support of the infantry and armoured units advancing from the beachheads. The operation began on
13440-523: The British airborne establishment was formed in 1940 by the order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill it was decided to develop a large glider which would be able to transport heavy equipment in support of airborne troops. General Aircraft Limited were chosen in January 1941 to develop this glider, which they designated the GAL.49 'Hamilcar'. It was designed to transport a light tank or two Universal Carriers . A number of problems, which included vacillation by
13650-568: The Clouds, might not in many Places do an infinite deal of Mischief, before a Force could be brought together to repel them? An early modern operation was first envisioned by Winston Churchill who proposed the creation of an airborne force to assault behind the German lines in 1917 during the First World War . Later in late 1918. Major Lewis H. Brereton and his superior Brigadier General Billy Mitchell suggested dropping elements of
13860-481: The Dutch East Indies campaign, and were rarely used as parachute troops afterward. On 6 December 1944, a 750-strong detachment from Teishin Shudan ("Raiding Division") and the Takachiho special forces unit, attacked U.S. airbases in the Burauen area on Leyte , in the Philippines . The force destroyed some planes and inflicted casualties, but was eventually wiped out. Japan built a combat strike force of 825 gliders but never committed it to battle. Ironically,
14070-510: The Dutch government. From one of these airfields, they were driven out after the first wave of reinforcements, brought in by Ju 52s , was annihilated by anti-aircraft fire and fierce resistance by some remaining Dutch defenders. As a result, numerous crashed and burning aircraft blocked the runway, preventing further reinforcements from landing. This was one of the few occasions where an airfield captured by paratroops has been recaptured. The other two airfields were recaptured as well. Simultaneously,
14280-455: The Egyptians during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . Today 16 tanks are known to survive in various conditions: Background: British armoured fighting vehicle production during World War II , Tanks in the British Army Airborne forces The main advantage of airborne forces is their ability to be deployed into combat zones without a land passage, as long as the airspace is accessible. Formations of airborne forces are limited only by
14490-419: The German use of airborne forces during the Battle of France . When the equipment to be used by the airborne forces was being developed, it had been decided by officials at the War Office that gliders would be an integral component of such a force; these would be used to transport troops and heavy equipment, which by 1941 had been expanded to include artillery and some form of tank. By the beginning of 1941,
14700-467: The Germans dropped small packets of paratroopers to seize the crucial bridges that led directly across the Netherlands and into the heart of the country. They opened the way for the 9th Panzer Division. Within a day, the Dutch position became hopeless. Nevertheless, Dutch forces inflicted high losses on German transportation aircraft. Moreover, 1200 German elite troops from the Luftlandekorps taken prisoner around The Hague, were shipped to England just before
14910-426: The Halifax towing it and disintegrated, apparently as a result of structural failure, with the Locust inside it falling to the ground. Three more gliders came under heavy German anti-aircraft fire and crashed as they landed; one tank survived with a damaged machine gun, another crashed through a house which put its wireless radio set and main armament out of action, and the third broke loose of the glider as it landed and
15120-474: The Hamilcar appears to have taken place primarily at RAF Tarrant Rushton, and began sometime between the end of 1943 and the first months of 1944. Hamilcar training began with dual instruction, where an instructor accompanied the pilots for several hours, and then moved onto flying solo flights. Most of this training consisted of 'circuits and bumps', where the pilots practised controlling the glider as it took off from an airfield under tow, and then landing it after
15330-537: The Handley Page Halifax. Both wing and cockpit were set above the fuselage to provide the greatest amount of room for the cargo compartment, and to ensure that they did not interfere with the loading of vehicles; the compartment measured approximately 32 feet 31.5 inches (10.554 m), 7 feet 10.5 inches (2.400 m) inches wide and between 6 feet (1.8 m) and 7 feet 7 inches (2.31 m) inches in height. The nose of
15540-496: The Locusts appear to have been completely replaced. This seems to have been due to mechanical and gunnery problems with the Locusts, as well as specific problems with the design of the Locust's gearbox. The regiment took part in Operation Tonga as part of 6th Airlanding Brigade in June 1944, equipped with twenty Tetrarchs. However, due to their thin armor and underpowered armament they proved to be completely outclassed by
15750-504: The Mark X, was decided upon, as it offered the possibility of long-range airborne operations and the ability to retrieve the glider once it had been used. The decision was taken to start developing the Mark X in November 1943 when the potential for airborne operations against Japan itself began to be considered by the Allies; however, for some reason a relaxed view was taken to the development of
15960-560: The Ministry on 28 July in an attempt to speed up production, but senior GAL managers resented this and failed to co-operate fully with the Group. The panel also identified a 'piecemeal method of ordering' by the Ministry of Aircraft Production as a cause of further delays. Ultimately several senior managers and staff at GAL were replaced on the recommendation of the panel in an attempt to decrease internal conflicts and speed up production. The ten pre-production gliders were eventually delivered by
16170-456: The Normandy coast, but the tow rope was disconnected too early and it landed a considerable distance away from the landing zone. When dawn broke, it was discovered by German forces and attacked; four of the crew and passengers were killed and one captured, but the rest managed to escape. The remaining Hamilcars took off between 18:40 and 19:35 with the rest of the gliders which would transport 6th Airlanding Brigade and began their journey towards
16380-441: The Ordnance Department in January 1942 and were delivered by Marmon-Herrington in November 1942. They were both designated T9E1. The new tanks incorporated a number of requested changes. The turret was altered in shape; it was lightened by the removal of the power traverse mechanism and the gyro stabilizer for the main armament. The front of the hull was altered from a stepped appearance to a more sloped profile, which would provide for
16590-427: The Ordnance Department, and only 830 T9s were ever produced. The faults discovered with the design led to the Ordnance Department giving it the specification number M22, but classing it as ' limited standard '. No American combat units were equipped with the tank, although some of those produced were used for training purposes and two experimental units were formed and equipped with Locusts. The 151st Airborne Tank Company
16800-577: The RAF, and were ultimately phased out as obsolescent by the mid-1950s. Several variants on the Hamilcar Mark I were planned, although only one was actually produced. The Hamilcar Mark X , also known as the GAL.58 , was designed to specification X 4/44 in an attempt to allow Hamilcars to be used in the tropical climate of the Pacific, where high temperatures and the high altitudes of many airfields reduced
17010-523: The RASC personnel and supplies; eight landed successfully, but only three were sufficiently undamaged to allow the stores they carried to be recovered. Of the eight Hamilcars that transported the M22 Locusts of 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, seven reached the landing zones intact but had problems when they landed due to anti-aircraft fire and smoke obscuring the area. Four landed safely, but
17220-424: The Rhine, possibly due to structural failure, and all aboard were killed. Three more of the gliders were destroyed by German anti-aircraft fire as they approached the landing zones, as their slow speed made them easy targets. The thirty-eight that remained landed successfully between 10:46 and 11:00, although a number of them suffered damage from anti-aircraft fire. Particularly hard hit were the Hamilcars that carried
17430-413: The Rhine. However, during the earliest stages of planning, it became apparent to the planners that the 13th Airborne Division would be unable to participate in the operation, as there were only enough combat transport aircraft in the area to effectively transport two divisions. The plan for the operation was therefore altered to accommodate the two remaining airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne and
17640-638: The Rock Island arsenal. Intending to use one as a farm tractor and one for spare parts, Dupre found the vehicles to be in poor condition and difficult to use and maintain. A larger number of Locusts served with the Egyptian Army , replacing a number of older tank models, such as the Vickers-Armstrong Mark V light tank , that the Egyptian military had acquired during the interwar period . Several company-sized units of Locusts were used by
17850-490: The Royal Navy. However, the losses were so great that Adolf Hitler forbade their use in such operations in the future. He felt that the main strength of the paratroopers was novelty, and now that the British had clearly figured out how to defend against them, there was no real point to using them any more. One notable exception was the use of airborne forces in special operations. On September 12, 1943, Otto Skorzeny led
18060-702: The Second Army and the US Ninth Army ( Lieutenant General William Simpson ) crossing the Rhine on three fronts; at Rees , Wesel and in the area south of the Lippe Canal. To ensure success, Montgomery insisted that the amphibious assaults be supported by an airborne landing, which was code-named Operation Varsity. Varsity was initially planned with three airborne divisions in mind, with all three to be dropped behind German lines in support of 21st Army Group as it conducted its amphibious assaults to breach
18270-426: The Tetrarch effectively. The gunner or commander, in addition to his own duties, had to act as loader for the 2-pounder, which caused delays in combat; a report on the tank written in January 1941 stated that since the commander had both to fight and control the tank, controlling a troop of Tetrarchs during combat would be almost impossible. The War Office was also aware that the tank had a faulty cooling system that made
18480-539: The Tetrarch unsuitable for service in hotter climates, such as the Middle East and North Africa. A purpose-built airborne light tank was therefore required to replace the Tetrarch, but the decision was taken by the War Office not to produce the tank in Britain due to a lack of production capacity. Instead the American government was approached with a request that it produce a replacement for the Tetrarch. This request
18690-648: The U.S. 11th , 13th , 17th , 82nd , and 101st Airborne Divisions . By 1944, the British divisions were grouped into the 1st Airborne Corps under Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning , while the American divisions in the European Theatre (the 17th, 82nd, and 101st) were organized into the XVIII Airborne Corps under Major General Matthew Ridgway . Both corps fell under the First Allied Airborne Army under U.S. Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton. The first U.S. airborne operation
18900-587: The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division northwest of Rome, to assist four Italian divisions in seizing the Italian capital. An airborne assault plan to seize crossings of the Volturno river during the Allied invasion of Italy , called Operation Giant, was abandoned in favor of the Rome mission. However, doubts about the willingness and capability of Italian forces to cooperate, and the distance of the mission far beyond support by
19110-479: The US 17th Airborne Division . The two airborne divisions would be dropped behind German lines, with their objective to land around Wesel and disrupt enemy defences to aid the advance of the Second Army towards Wesel. 6th Airborne Division would be dropped in a single lift, unlike Operation Market Garden, and was to seize the high ground north of the town of Bergen, capture the town of Hamminkeln and several bridges over
19320-418: The United States. One other Hamilcar variant was proposed, although it never went into production or appeared to go further than the design stage. This was a proposal to mate a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter to the top of a Hamilcar, as the fighter would provide enough power to keep both aircraft in flight and relieve the glider pilots of the task of controlling the glider until it cast off to land. While
19530-623: The War Office had issued four specifications for military gliders to be used by the airborne forces. The first was Air Ministry specification X.10/40 , which called for an eight-seater glider similar to the German DFS 230, which eventually became the General Aircraft Hotspur I ; the second was specification X.25/40 which became the Slingsby Hengist , a fifteen-seat glider; the third was specification X.26/40 ,
19740-584: The aim of transferring into the armed forces if needed. Planning progressed to the point that Corps-size drops were demonstrated to foreign observers, including the British Military Attaché Archibald Wavell , in the Kiev military district maneuvers of 1935. One of the observing parties, Nazi Germany , was particularly interested. In 1936, Major F. W. Immans was ordered to set up a parachute school at Stendal (Borstel), and
19950-627: The airfield at Youk-les-Bains near the Tunisian border. From this base, the battalion conducted combined operations with various French forces against the German Afrika Korps in Tunisia. A unit of French Algerian infantry, the 3rd Regiment of Zouaves, was present at Youk-les-Bains and awarded the American paratroopers their own regimental crest as a gesture of respect. This badge was awarded to the battalion commander on 15 November 1942 by
20160-412: The airfield by Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers to join the rest of the gliders and transport aircraft carrying the two airborne divisions. Weather conditions for the operation were excellent, with clear visibility, and all eight gliders arrived in the vicinity of the landing zone without incident. During their attempts to land, however, the small force was severely depleted; one glider broke away from
20370-532: The assaults along the Western Front . One of the most famous of airborne operations was Operation Neptune, the assault of Normandy, part of Operation Overlord of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. The task of the airborne forces was to secure the flanks and approaches of the landing beaches in Normandy. The British glider transported troops and paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division, which secured
20580-487: The battle that ended Germany's paratrooper operations had the opposite effect on the Allies. Convinced of the effectiveness of airborne assaults after Crete, the Allies hurried to train and organize their own airborne units. The British established No.1 Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway near Manchester , which trained all 60,000 European paratroopers recruited by the Allies during World War II. An Airlanding School
20790-471: The beachhead on the night of September 13 using transponding radar beacons as a guide. The next night the 505th PIR was also dropped into the beachhead as reinforcement. In all, 3,500 paratroopers made the most concentrated mass night drop in history, providing the model for the American airborne landings in Normandy in June 1944. An additional drop on the night of September 14–15 of the 509th PIB to destroy
21000-417: The bow. The main gun and coaxial machine-gun were mounted in a powered turret, which also had a gun stabilizer installed to allow the gun to be fired when the tank was moving. The T9 was powered by a 162 horse-power six-cylinder, air-cooled Lycoming engine, and the thickness of the armor varied; the front, rear and sides of the hull had a thickness of 12.5 millimeters (0.49 in) while the sloped portions of
21210-590: The bridges at Grave and Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne Division (Major-General Roy Urquhart ) and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade would drop at the extreme north end of the route, to take the road bridge at Arnhem and the rail bridge at Oosterbeek . A lack of sufficient transport aircraft meant that 1st Airborne Division would be dropped in three separate lifts over three successive days. 1st Parachute Brigade and most of 1st Airlanding Brigade would land on 17 September, 4th Parachute Brigade and
21420-498: The bridges immediately to the south of the 10th Panzer Division 's route of march through the southern Ardennes . In Belgium, a small group of German glider-borne troops landed on top of the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael on the morning of May 10, 1940, and disabled the majority of its artillery. The fort held on for another day before surrendering. This opened up Belgium to attack by German Army Group B . The Dutch were exposed to
21630-610: The capitulation of the Dutch armed forces. The Fallschirmjägers' greatest victory and greatest losses occurred during the Battle of Crete . Signals intelligence, in the form of Ultra , enabled the British to wait on each German drop zone, yet despite compromised secrecy, surviving German paratroops and airlanded mountain troops pushed the Commonwealth forces off the island in part by unexpected fire support from their light 75 mm guns , though seaborne reinforcements were destroyed by
21840-420: The causes of the problems. The panel visited GAL in early September 1942 and issued a report on 24 September which stated that the root of the problems was that GAL appeared to have taken a bigger workload than it could handle, which was exacerbated by poor organisation and management skills. There were also conflicts between GAL and the Hamilcar Production Group which hurt production; the Group had been formed by
22050-406: The cockpit and duplicated in the two pilot positions, although space restrictions meant that the glider could only be started from the rear seat, and fuel tanks were added to the wings, with the possibility of a third being carried in the fuselage. These additions increased the glider's weight to 47,000 lb (21 t), but its other dimensions remained unchanged, including the carrying capacity in
22260-429: The company had already been in the process of developing designs for a glider which would carry a single Mk VII 'Tetrarch' light tank . The design was a low-wing aircraft designed so that the tank driver also functioned as the glider pilot, and flew the glider from his seat in the tank through a series of internal modifications to the tank. The idea behind the design was to save on specially-trained glider pilots and allow
22470-474: The company produce a prototype tank, which was completed in late 1941; it was designated the Light Tank T9 (Airborne) by the company and the Ordnance Department. The T9 had a crew of three and weighed 6.7 metric tons (7.4 short tons). It was armed with a 37-millimeter (1.5 in) main gun and a coaxial .30-06 Browning M1919A4 machine-gun, as well as two further machine-guns on the right-hand side of
22680-475: The company's chief designer, and had been designated the GAL.49 with the service name 'Hamilcar'; the name came from the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca . Such a large glider had never been constructed before by the British military, and to test the design, a half-scale prototype model was first designed; designated GAL.50 it still required an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley medium bomber to act as
22890-489: The concept of carrying troops on the wings of aircraft, with them pulled off by the opening of their parachutes. The first true paratroop drop was by Italy in November 1927. Within a few years, several battalions were raised and eventually formed into two 185th Infantry Division "Folgore" and 184th Infantry Division "Nembo" divisions. Although they later fought with distinction in World War II , they were never used in
23100-399: The conflict and finally ended in 1946, with a total of 344 being produced. The Hamilcar was constructed primarily from wood, mainly birch and spruce, with fabric-covered plywood forming the skin, and high grade steel reinforcement beams in critical areas. It had a wingspan of 110 feet (34 m), a length of 68 feet (21 m) and a height of 20 feet (6.1 m) to the top of the fin with
23310-519: The construction of further gliders. Operation Varsity was the last time that the Hamilcar would be used in combat, but the model did remain in service for a number of years after the end of the Second World War; they were particularly useful for transporting large and heavy loads. On 31 December 1945 64 Hamilcars were recorded as being present at RAF Tarrant Rushton, where they were used for routine training exercises. However, in January 1946
23520-498: The crew escaped without injury. Another Hamilcar rammed several of the wooden poles that had been driven into the ground by the Germans to damage gliders, which resulted in one of its wings being completely torn off as it landed. However, there were few casualties and actual German opposition to the gliders as they landed was minimal. Of those gliders that survived the journey and made a successful landing, many later suffered heavy damage from German artillery and mortar fire, as well as
23730-538: The division returned to Britain and in the first week of October 1944, the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment underwent an extensive reorganization. The regiment was completely restructured and retired all the remaining Tetrarch tanks it was equipped with, replacing them with Locusts. In March 1945, the 6th Airborne Division was informed that it would be participating in Operation Varsity , an airborne operation in support of 21st Army Group crossing
23940-578: The division was transported to the Middle East, where it would eventually participate in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily . 'C' Squadron remained in Britain however, as not enough Hamilcar gliders had yet been built to transport and deploy all of their Tetrarchs. The squadron was transferred to the division with which it would spend the rest of the war; the 6th Airborne Division , raised in April 1943. The squadron continued to train as an air-portable unit and participated in
24150-428: The driver would then drive the tank forward, which automatically pulled a line that operated the swing door release. Universal Carriers and other vehicles relied on one of the pilots operating the door line manually. This was achieved by the pilot sliding down the fuselage and then dropping to the ground. They would then go to each undercarriage leg and release the valves there, which would expel hydraulic fluid and allow
24360-527: The eastern flank during Operation Tonga . This operation included the capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges , and the attack on the Merville gun battery . The American glider and parachute infantry of the 82nd (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne Divisions (Operation Chicago), though widely scattered by poor weather and poorly marked landing zones in the American airborne landings in Normandy, secured
24570-434: The efficiency of piston-engined aircraft. This meant that Halifax bombers could not tow Hamilcars without a drastically reduced fuel load, which in turn narrowed the range of the Hamilcar. Two initial solutions were proposed to correct this problem; the first was to convert a Hamilcar into a rocket-assisted take off (RATO) aircraft. Two steel cylinders filled with twenty-four three-inch rockets were attached to either side of
24780-429: The end of 1942, and the first production glider was put together between March and April 1943. Production of parts and the building of complete gliders continued throughout 1943, but production schedules continued to fall behind, particularly when the United States Army Air Forces became interested in the glider, requiring a significant number to be completed for Operation Overlord , the airborne landings in Normandy, and
24990-455: The end of that year; in reality this was overoptimistic, with the planned 40–50 only being completed by June 1944. The slow rate of production for the Hamilcar appears to be the result of a combination of factors. There was a great demand on the specific types of wood required to build the glider, and difficulty in finding suitably large airfields with enough skilled personnel where the gliders could be constructed and stored; it also appears that
25200-420: The engine or an inefficient transmission system. By late 1941, several new British units had been raised specifically trained to conduct airborne operations. The largest such unit was the newly formed 1st Airborne Division , and on 19 January 1942 the War Office took the decision that a light tank detachment would be amongst the support units attached to the division. Designated the Light Tank Squadron, this unit
25410-414: The equipment in Britain's fledgling airborne forces , which had been formed in June 1940 by order of the Prime Minister , Winston Churchill . When officials at the War Office examined the equipment that would be required for a British airborne division, they decided that gliders would be an integral component of such a force. These gliders would be used to transport troops and heavy equipment, which by 1941
25620-674: The evening of July 13, 1943, more than 112 aircraft carrying 1,856 men and 16 gliders with 77 artillerymen and ten 6 pounder guns, took off from North Africa in Operation Fustian . The initial target of the British 1st Parachute Brigade , under Brigadier Gerald Lathbury , was to capture the Primosole bridge and the high ground around it, providing a pathway for the Eighth Army , but heavy anti-aircraft fire shot down many of
25830-410: The extra control it gave them and the ability to avoid other gliders and potential collisions in the landing area. The wheeled undercarriage was not fitted until after the glider had been loaded; two 15-ton jacks were used to lift the aircraft for the fitting. When the glider was carrying tanks or other vehicles, common practice was that their engines would be started in the air, usually just prior to
26040-577: The first large scale airborne attack in history. During the invasion of the Netherlands , the Germans threw into battle almost their entire Luftlandekorps , an airborne assault army corps that consisted of one parachute division and one division of airlanding troops plus the necessary transport capacity. The existence of this formation had been carefully kept secret until then. Two simultaneous airborne operations were launched. German paratroopers landed at three airfields near The Hague , hoping to seize
26250-468: The first lift on 17 September arrived over the landing zones safely, but problems were experienced when they came in to land. Two of the gliders landed on soft ground, which caused them to rapidly decelerate; this, combined with the majority of their equipment being in the front of the gliders, resulted in them flipping onto their backs. Three of the pilots were killed and the fourth was badly wounded and later taken prisoner, and several passengers were wounded;
26460-436: The first nation to organize women in an airborne unit, recruiting 200 nurses who during peacetime would parachute into natural disaster zones but also as reservists who would be a uniformed medical unit during wartime. Several groups within the German armed forces attempted to raise their own paratroop formations, resulting in confusion. As a result, Luftwaffe General Kurt Student was put in overall command of developing
26670-561: The first week of September, the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group ( Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery ) was advancing on a line running from Antwerp to the northern border of Belgium with its British Second Army ( Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey ) while the First Canadian Army (Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar ) had commenced its task of recapturing the ports of Dieppe , Le Havre and Boulogne-sur-Mer . To
26880-490: The forces. Seven of the 39 C-47s landed far from Oran from Gibraltar to Tunisia , and only ten actually delivered their troops by parachute drop. The remainder off-loaded after 28 C-47 troop carriers, short on fuel, landed on the Sebkra d'Oran dry lake, and marched overland to their objectives. One week later, after repacking their own chutes, 304 men of the battalion conducted a second combat jump on 15 November 1942 to secure
27090-489: The fuselage. The first flight of the Mark X, under its own power, took place in February 1945 and the initial flight and further trials showed that the glider operated as had been expected. With engines installed, a Mark X could be towed by a fully loaded Halifax and achieve an operational radius of approximately 900 mi (1,400 km). However, if the glider itself was fully loaded and took off on its own power, it could not maintain height even at full power; this resulted in
27300-426: The glider casting off from the tug; special exhaust ducts were fitted to the glider to expel exhaust fumes. The Tetrarch and M22 Locust light tanks were so large that they barely fit inside the glider, and as such their crews stayed inside the tank for the duration of the flight. Once the glider landed, the anchorages keeping the vehicle stationary would be released by the driver pulling a lanyard within his reach, and
27510-408: The glider to provide it with 20,000 pounds-force (89,000 N) of mean thrust as it took off; they would then be jettisoned once the glider was airborne. Initial trials conducted in January 1943 proved to be successful, but was not pursued any further for unknown reasons. The second solution was double towing, where two Halifax aircraft, one stripped of all unnecessary equipment, attached tow ropes to
27720-455: The glider was erected, it was flown to RAF North Luffenham in Rutland to have its specific cargo placed on board, and it was then flown to RAF Tarrant Rushton , which had been selected as the Hamilcar training and operational base in November 1943. It was not possible to tow the glider empty, so any empty gliders usually carried Universal Carriers or concrete blocks as ballast. Training with
27930-419: The glider was hinged and opened to the side for ease of loading vehicles and cargo, and the crew of two pilots were seated in tandem in a cockpit on the top of the fuselage, which was accessed via an internal ladder and was fifteen feet above ground; they were eventually protected by a bullet-proof windscreen and a plate of armour behind the second pilot. An intercom was also added to provide communication between
28140-485: The gliders were available by September. Thirteen Hamilcars would be flown on 17 September and land in landing zone 'Z'. Eight of the gliders would carry 17-pounder anti-tank guns, their towing vehicles and crews, and the other five would carry ten Universal Carriers, two apiece; the Carriers were to act as transports for the airborne troops. On 18 September fifteen Hamilcars would land in landing zone 'X'; eight would carry
28350-620: The ground anywhere in the world within hours for a variety of missions. Benjamin Franklin envisioned the danger of airborne attack in 1784, only a few months after the first manned flight in a hot air balloon : Five Thousand Balloons capable of raising two Men each, would not cost more than Five Ships of the Line : And where is the Prince who can afford so to cover his Country with Troops for its Defense, as that Ten Thousand Men descending from
28560-404: The hull had a thickness of 9.5 millimeters (0.37 in). The tank's engine was able to give it a maximum speed of 40 mph (64 km/h). The T9 was not primarily designed to be transported by glider, a significant change from the original request, but instead was to be carried under the belly of a Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft, using four lifting brackets welded onto each side of
28770-533: The hull of the tank. The turret was designed to be removable so that it could be detached and transported inside the C-54 and reattached once on the battlefield. The loading took six men about twenty-five minutes, the unloading ten minutes. On top of this the aircraft required a proper airfield on which to land. However, the T9 was of the correct shape, weight and size to be carried inside a Hamilcar glider, suggesting that these dimensions had been chosen deliberately so that
28980-464: The landing zone after being hit in the wing, and another was forced to make an emergency landing far from the landing zone after being hit; the stores, pilots and passengers were captured by German forces shortly after the glider landed. The rest of the Hamilcars landed successfully. The third lift on 19 September did not take place due to weather problems, and because several of 1st Airborne Division's landing zones had been overrun. Finally on 21 September
29190-495: The landing zone. One Hamilcar, which was transporting a Tetrarch light tank, was lost over the English Channel when the tank broke loose of its shackles and crashed through the nose of the glider that was carrying it, causing both to fall into the sea mid-flight. The rest of the gliders arrived safely at the landing zone at approximately 21:00, flying astern of each other as closely as possible; several accounts mention that
29400-424: The landing zones, one Hamilcar was forced to cast off and land at an airfield in England after its tow aircraft developed engine trouble, and another ditched in the English Channel when its tug developed engine troubles as well; both had been carrying 17-pounder anti-tank guns. The rest of the Hamilcars encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire as they landed, with several being hit. As a result, one Hamilcar landed short of
29610-493: The months following Operation Husky. As a result of the Knollwood Maneuver, division-sized airborne forces were deemed to be feasible and Eisenhower permitted their retention. Italy agreed to an armistice with the Allies on September 3, 1943, with the stipulation that the Allies would provide military support to Italy in defending Rome from German occupation. Operation Giant II was a planned drop of one regiment of
29820-471: The movement of Allied armour through the landing zones. Although approximately forty gliders were later repaired and flown back to Britain, none of these were Hamilcars as their size precluded any attempt to recover them. After their defeat in Normandy from June to August 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border. In the north, in
30030-546: The new tanks were issued to the squadron, replacing a majority of the Tetrarchs; however a small number of Tetrarchs fitted with a 3 inch (76.2 mm) infantry support howitzer , which were designated as Tetrarch 1 CS (Close Support), were retained. Several of the Locusts also were fitted with Littlejohn adaptors to increase the range and penetration power of their main armament, although it is not clear how many were fitted or if they were fitted at manufacture or after they reached
30240-478: The night of 11 July, a reinforcement drop of the 82nd, consisting of the 504th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (composed of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, the 376th Parachute Field Artillery and Company 'A' of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion), under Colonel Reuben Tucker , behind American lines at Farello airfield resulted in heavy friendly fire casualties when, despite forewarnings, Allied anti-aircraft fire both ashore and aboard U.S Navy ships shot down 23 of
30450-457: The night of 5 June, with the deployment of 6th Airborne Division to eastern Normandy. It was tasked with protecting the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne landings, securing strategically important areas east of Caen , capturing several important bridges over the Caen Canal and River Dives , and destroying a coastal artillery battery. The division would use approximately 350 gliders for
30660-703: The night of November 16/17 1941 in preparation for a stealthy attack on the forward airfields of Gambut and Tmimi in order to destroy the Axis fighter force on the ground before the start of Operation Crusader , a major offensive by the British Eighth Army . A Würzburg radar site on the coast of France was attacked by a company of 120 British paratroopers from 2 Battalion, Parachute Regiment, commanded by Major John Frost , in Operation Biting on February 27, 1942. The key electronic components of
30870-518: The number and size of their transport aircraft ; a sizeable force can appear "out of the sky" behind enemy lines in merely hours if not minutes, an action known as vertical envelopment . Airborne forces typically lack enough supplies for prolonged combat and so they are used for establishing an airhead to bring in larger forces before carrying out other combat objectives. Some infantry fighting vehicles have also been modified for paradropping with infantry to provide heavier firepower. Protocol I of
31080-575: The open countryside to minimise the risks involved, and also make recovery of the glider easier. Accidents do not seem to have been a common occurrence. During training by 'C' Squadron of the Glider Pilot Regiment , part of the Army Air Corps , which specialised in flying Hamilcars, over 2800 lifts were made with an average of 50 lifts per crew. Only three incidents resulted in fatalities or injuries, with seven pilots killed during
31290-440: The operation, the majority of which would transport 6th Airlanding Brigade . This number included thirty-four Hamilcars; four would land in landing zone 'N' between 03:00 and 04:30 in support of the operations of 3rd Parachute Brigade and 5th Parachute Brigade , and would carry four 17-pounder anti-tank guns and their transport vehicles and crews. The other thirty would land at approximately 21:00 in landing-zone 'W' as part of
31500-502: The other hand, were very impressed by the potential of paratroopers, and started to build their own airborne divisions. The first United States airborne combat mission occurred during Operation Torch in North Africa on 8 November 1942. 531 men of the 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment flew over 1,600 miles (2,600 km) at night from Britain, over Spain, intending to drop near Oran and capture two airfields. Navigation errors, communications problems, and bad weather scattered
31710-483: The other three came under heavy German anti-aircraft fire and crashed as they landed; one tank survived with a damaged machine gun, another crashed through a house which put its wireless radio set and main armament out of action, and the third broke loose of the glider as it landed and was flipped over onto its turret, which rendered it useless. After the operation had come to an end, a few of the undamaged Hamilcars were dismantled and their parts shipped to England to aid in
31920-567: The other two towed gliders. Each group took off from a different airfield in the Carolinas. The four groups deployed a total of 4,800 troops in the first wave. Eighty-five percent were delivered to their targets without navigational error, and the airborne troops seized the Knollwood Army Auxiliary Airfield and secured the landing area for the rest of the division before daylight. With its initial objectives taken,
32130-467: The paratroopers and airlifters , and so extensive planning is critical to the success of an airborne operation. Advances in VTOL technologies ( helicopter and tiltrotor ) since World War II have brought increased flexibility, and air assaults have largely been the preferred method of insertion for recent conflicts, but airborne insertion is still maintained as a rapid response capability to get troops on
32340-510: The performance of airborne units in North Africa and more recently Sicily. However, other high-ranking officers, including the Army Chief of Staff George Marshall , believed otherwise. Marshall persuaded Eisenhower to set up a review board and to withhold judgement until the outcome of a large-scale maneuver, planned for December 1943, could be assessed. McNair ordered 11th Airborne Division commander Major general Joseph May Swing to form
32550-403: The pilots and the personnel below them. An initial design feature, which was eventually removed prior to full-scale production, was the installation of an under-fuselage hatch which would allow the prone firing of a Bren light machine gun as the glider approached the landing zone. The ratio between length and wingspan was practically the same as that of an Avro Lancaster bomber , which had
32760-404: The position after several hours however, because they attracted artillery fire that caused the infantry to suffer heavy casualties. The Locust never saw active service with the British Army again and was classified as obsolete in 1946. A number of Locusts were used by foreign militaries in the post-war period; the Belgian Army used Locusts as command tanks for their M4 Sherman tank regiments, and
32970-404: The production models, and the first was not available until the early months of 1945. The first prototype was converted from a Hamilcar Mark I. Two Bristol Mercury radial piston engines, capable of producing 965 hp (720 kW) each were added to the wings of the glider, and the wings and fuselage were strengthened so they could take the weight of the engines. Extra controls were added to
33180-423: The regiment, divided into two troops of four, would land with the 6th Airlanding Brigade in landing-zone 'P' east of the Diersfordter Wald and west of Hamminkeln, acting as a divisional reserve; the rest of the regiment would arrive by road after crossing the Rhine with 21st Army Group. The eight Locusts were loaded into separate Hamilcar gliders between 17 and 20 March, and on the morning of 24 March were towed from
33390-465: The remaining Tetrarchs of the regiment were replaced by Locusts and eight were used during Operation Varsity in March 1945. The tanks did not perform well in action; several were damaged during the landing process and one was knocked out by a German self-propelled gun . Only two Locusts were able to reach their planned rendezvous point and go into action, occupying a piece of high ground along with an infantry company. The tanks were forced to withdraw from
33600-500: The rest of 1st Airlanding Brigade would land on 18 September, and on 19 September the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade would land, along with a supplies for the entire division. The division would use approximately 650 gliders during the operation, of which 39 would be Hamilcars. It appears that the Hamilcars that had been used by 6th Airborne Division and subsequently abandoned in June had been replaced, as records state that 64 of
33810-566: The rest of the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. Operation Varsity was the only time the Locust was used in action with the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment or the British Army as a whole. A report issued at the end of a conference held by the Director (Air) of the War Office in January 1946 confirmed that the Locust design was considered obsolete; any light tanks to be used in post-war airborne formations would be made from completely new designs. The British Army disposed of
34020-511: The river IJssel, and then hold the northern portion of the operational area until relieved by Allied ground forces. The division would use 440 gliders for the operation, which included a large number of the new Horsa Mark II and 48 Hamilcars. The loads assigned to the Hamilcars were similar to those used during Operation Market Garden, with sixteen of the gliders transporting 17-pounder anti-tank guns, as well as their vehicles and crews. Twelve were assigned to 716th Airborne Light Composite Company of
34230-399: The shock absorbers struts to deflate, and then enter the glider and operate the door release line. If the swing door was jammed after the glider had landed, it was possible for tanks to break through the unopened forward fuselage and drive straight out of the glider, which occurred in both airborne operations where Hamilcars transported tanks. When the parts for a Hamilcar were completed and
34440-417: The sight of the Hamilcars and other gliders as they landed was a great morale booster for Allied troops who saw them. However, their landings were not all without incident. Two Hamilcars collided with each other in the landing zone, destroying themselves and the Tetrarchs they carried; a third Hamilcar hit another Tetrarch as it was being unloaded and flipped the tank upside down, rendering it unusable, although
34650-635: The south, the US 12th Army Group (Lieutenant General Omar Bradley ) was nearing the German border and had been ordered to advance on the Aachen gap with the US First Army (Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges ) in support of Montgomery's advance on the Ruhr , while its US Third Army (Lieutenant General George S. Patton ) moved eastward towards the Saar . The US 6th Army Group (General Jacob L. Devers )
34860-573: The squadron. The squadron was expanded into the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment in December 1943, and as late as March 1944, plans were made for the regiment to be equipped with seventeen Locusts and three Tetrarchs when it took part in Operation Tonga , the British airborne landings in Normandy. However, records indicate that by April the Hamilcar gliders of the regiment were being refitted to only carry Tetrarchs, and by late March
35070-494: The system were dismantled by an English radar mechanic and brought back to Britain for examination so that countermeasures could be devised. The result was a British victory. Of the 120 paratroopers who dropped in the dead of night, there were two killed, six wounded, and six captured. This was the last large-scale airborne assault by Hitler and the Germans. The German paratroopers had such a high casualty rate that Hitler forbade any further large-scale airborne attacks. The Allies, on
35280-455: The tail down. It weighed 18,400 pounds (8,300 kg) when empty, and could transport a military load of 17,600 pounds (8,000 kg) to give a total weight of 36,000 pounds (16,000 kg). The whole aircraft was broken down into smaller sections for transport. It was so large and heavy that it required the largest and most powerful aircraft to pull it off the airfield and subsequently tow it; four-engined bombers were used, most frequently
35490-400: The tank could be transported inside a glider if required. A number of changes were made to the prototype during testing. The main change was the addition of supporting steel beams to improve and strengthen the suspension of the tank, which increased the weight to 7.05 metric tons (7.77 short tons), the maximum weight that could be carried by a Hamilcar glider. Two new prototypes were ordered by
35700-422: The tank to be brought into action as soon as the glider landed; surviving illustrations of the design show the tank encased in the glider's fuselage but with the turret outside the airframe, possibly so that it could engage targets as it landed. However, the design was considered to be impractical, both by the company and the War Office, and a more conventional design was finally arrived at in a joint meeting between
35910-465: The tank would perform adequately despite its faults, so the tank was given the title of "Locust" and 260 were shipped to Great Britain under the Lend-Lease Act. Seventeen Locusts were received by the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment in late 1943, but mechanical problems led to the tanks being withdrawn in favor of the Tetrarchs previously used by the regiment. In October 1944 however,
36120-399: The tank's design. Marmon-Herrington only began to produce significant numbers of the T9 in late 1943 and early 1944, and by then the design was considered to be obsolete; only 830 were built by the time production ended in February 1945. As a result, the Ordnance Department gave the tank the specification number M22 but no combat units were equipped with it. However, the War Office believed that
36330-621: The tanks and self-propelled guns deployed by German forces, such as the Panzer IV and the Sturmgeschütz III . By August, in preparation for the 6th Airborne Division's participation in the planned breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, the majority of Tetrarchs in 'A' Squadron were replaced with Cromwell fast cruiser tanks ; only three Tetrarchs were retained, remaining with the Headquarters troop of 'A' Squadron. In September
36540-510: The task of developing the proposed tank, and in turn requested designs from three American companies: General Motors , J. Walter Christie and Marmon-Herrington . The design offered by Christie in mid-1941 was rejected as it failed to meet the specified size requirements, as was a modified design the company produced in November. At a conference in May 1941, the Ordnance Department chose the Marmon-Herrington design and requested that
36750-506: The theatre should be concentrated in Great Britain, and that planning for the invasion of North-Western Europe should begin. A provisional target date of May 1944 was set, the code-name Overlord decided upon, and a joint Anglo-American planning staff created under Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan , who was given the title of chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC). The plan eventually agreed upon called for
36960-564: The tow rope between the glider and tug snapped over Belgium, and it was forced to land near Ghent . By March 1945, the Allied armies had advanced into Germany and had reached the River Rhine . The Rhine was a formidable natural obstacle to the Allied advance, but if breached would allow the Allies to access the North German Plain and ultimately advance on Berlin and other major cities in Northern Germany. Following
37170-498: The tow rope was detached; cross-country navigation was also practised. It was common practice for members of airlanded units to be inside the gliders as cargo when training took place, although there is evidence that tank crews only acted as cargo for one or two flights, probably due to the risk of accidents which might cost the lives of specialised troops and equipment. Those flights that tank crews did experience usually consisted of gliders landing on carefully marked airfields instead of
37380-692: The training. Operation Tonga originated in the planning of Operation Overlord, the plan for the eventual invasion of France and the opening of a Second Front in North-Western Europe . Planning for the invasion of Europe by the Allies had begun in May 1943 when President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Churchill had met at the Washington Conference . The two Allied leaders decided that all available Allied forces in
37590-478: The transports as they flew over the beachhead. Despite a catastrophic loss of gliders and troops loads at sea, the British 1st Airlanding Brigade captured the Ponte Grande bridge south of Syracuse . Before the German counterattack, the beach landings took place unopposed and the 1st Airlanding Brigade was relieved by the British 5th Infantry Division as it swept inland towards Catania and Messina . On
37800-481: The two in January 1941. It called for a glider which would be constructed primarily out of wood capable of carrying a Tetrarch light tank or two Universal Carriers with a combined maximum weight of approximately 17,024 lb (7.722 t); a surviving requisition form from the Air Ministry to GAL confirms a cost of £50,000 per glider. By early February 1941 the basic design for the glider had been completed by
38010-593: The two prototype models and ten pre-production aircraft required for evaluation trials. Subsequent production of parts was assigned to a series of sub-contractors called the 'Hamilcar Production Group', which included the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company , the Co-operative Wholesale Society and AC Cars . Production for the glider was targeted to begin in late 1941 with approximately 40–50 to be completed by
38220-657: The unpowered glider could not be flown lightly loaded and needed ballast , the Hamilcar X was less sensitive to centre of gravity issues and could be flown empty. The performance of the Hamilcar X under its own power and loaded to maximum weight was similar to performance under tow. At 32,500 lb (14.7 t), it could take off in 1,385 yd (1,266 m). Its maximum speed was 145 mph (233 km/h) but it could cruise at 120 mph (190 km/h). With 400 gallons of fuel it could manage 705 mi (1,135 km) in still air or 1,675 mi (2,696 km) with 860 imp gal (3,900 L) of fuel onboard replacing
38430-442: The use of airborne forces after the many misdrops and the deadly friendly fire incident. General Dwight D. Eisenhower reviewed the airborne role in Operation Husky and concluded that large-scale formations were too difficult to control in combat to be practical. Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair , the overall commander of Army Ground Forces , had similar misgivings: once an airborne supporter, he had been greatly disappointed by
38640-406: The war, and the 28th Airborne Tank Battalion was refitted with conventional tanks in October 1944. Some 25 Locusts were ordered in April 1944 for use in the European Theater of Operations , and delivered by September; although a small number were sent to the United States Sixth Army Group in Alsace , France, for testing, they were never used in combat. However, the British still required the M22 as
38850-437: The weather cleared, but due to 1st Airborne Division's deteriorating situation it was decided that the 878th Aviation Engineer Battalion would not be delivered. As such, only a single Hamilcar accompanied 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade when it set off for its drop near the town of Driel; this was the same Hamilcar which had been forced to land in England on 19 September when its tug had experienced engine trouble. However,
39060-422: The western flank of U.S. VII Corps with heavy casualties. All together, airborne casualties in Normandy on D-Day totaled around 2,300. General Aircraft Hamilcar The General Aircraft Limited GAL.49 Hamilcar or Hamilcar Mark I was a large British military glider produced during the Second World War , which was designed to carry heavy cargo, such as the Tetrarch or M22 Locust light tank . When
39270-593: Was a combat team composed of elements of the 17th Airborne Division and a battalion from the 541st Parachute Infantry Regiment . The entire operation was observed by McNair, who would ultimately have a significant say in deciding the fate of the parachute infantry divisions. The Knollwood Maneuver took place on the night of 7 December 1943, with the 11th Airborne Division being airlifted to thirteen separate objectives by 200 C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft and 234 Waco CG-4A gliders. The transport aircraft were divided into four groups, two of which carried paratroopers while
39480-403: Was advancing towards Germany after Operation Dragoon , the invasion of southern France. Montgomery devised an ambitious plan called Operation Market Garden which would take place in mid-September; it was intended to bypass the Siegfried Line by hooking around its northern end and thereby allow the Allies to cross the Rhine in force and trap the German 15th Army between Arnhem and the shores of
39690-484: Was agreed that 50 would be supplied to them by June 1944. However, the continued slow production of the gliders so concerned the USAAF that it cancelled its requirement in February 1944; this meant that American personnel who had been helping with the production of the gliders were withdrawn and production times were further delayed. It also meant that only British airborne forces would use the Hamilcar. By January 1944 only 27 Hamilcars had been erected and were ready for use;
39900-481: Was allocated a number of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft to train on. The military had already purchased large numbers of Junkers Ju 52s which were slightly modified for use as paratroop transports in addition to their other duties. The first training class was known as Ausbildungskommando Immans . They commenced the first course on May 3, 1936. Other nations, including Argentina , Peru, Japan , France and Poland also organized airborne units around this time. France became
40110-441: Was also a problem. Nonetheless, the Soviets maintained their doctrinal belief in the effectiveness of airborne forces, as part of their concept of "deep battle" , throughout the war. The largest drop during the war was corp-sized (the Vyazma airborne Operation , the 4th Airborne Corps ). It was unsuccessful. Airborne formations were used as elite infantry units however, and played a critical role in several battles. For example, at
40320-402: Was also equipped with Tetrarchs, which had recently been re-designated as an airborne tank by the War Office. 'C' Squadron was officially transferred to the 1st Airborne Division on 24 June 1942, bringing with it seven Tetrarchs amongst the other vehicles it was equipped with. The unit immediately began training, but did not stay attached to the 1st Airborne Division for very long; during mid-1943,
40530-435: Was also realized that the design of the tank was actually obsolete. The armor of the M22 in several areas was found to be so thin that it was incapable of even resisting the armor-piercing ammunition of a .50 caliber machine-gun. Complaints were also made about the 37mm main armament, which was not powerful enough to penetrate the armor of most tanks used by the Axis powers. Similarly a report made on 13 March 1944, by elements of
40740-417: Was also set up in New Delhi , India , in October/November 1941, at the then-Welllingdon Airport (now the defunct Safdarjang Airport ) to train paratroopers for the British Indian Army which had been authorised to raise an airborne-capable formation earlier, resulting in the formation of the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade . The Indian airborne forces expanded during the war to the point that an airborne corps
40950-496: Was by the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion in November 1942, as part of Operation Torch in North Africa. The U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions saw the most action in the European Theater , with the former in Sicily and Italy in 1943, and both in Normandy and the Netherlands in 1944. The 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team was the principal force in Operation Dragoon in Southern France. The 17th Airborne Division deployed to England in 1944 but did not see combat until
41160-423: Was chosen to develop X.25/40 because it was believed to be too small to build larger gliders, and Airspeed would eventually build the Horsa. Because it had already developed the Hotspur, which first flew in November 1940, and was considered to have a sufficiently developed production capacity capable of producing a larger glider, General Aircraft Limited were chosen to develop X.27/40 . Before being selected,
41370-476: Was crucial for the Luftwaffe for operations over Norway. In Norway, a company of paratroopers dropped at Oslo's undefended airstrip. Over the course of the morning and early afternoon of April 9, 1940, the Germans flew in sufficient reinforcements to move into the capital in the afternoon, but by that time the Norwegian government had fled. In the Battle of France , members of the Brandenburg Regiment landed by Fieseler Fi 156 Storch light reconnaissance planes on
41580-430: Was designated the Light Tank T9 (Airborne), and was designed so that it could be transported underneath a Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft, although its dimensions also allowed it to fit inside a General Aircraft Hamilcar glider. After a series of modifications were made to the initial prototype, production of the T9 began in April 1943. It was significantly delayed, however, when several faults were found with
41790-520: Was fitted with tailwheel landing gear, with oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers that could be deflated to bring the fuselage nose down for loading or unloading purposes. A jettisonable undercarriage was initially designed for the glider, as it was discovered that it travelled for a shorter distance when it landed only on its skids. However, this was eventually replaced with a fixed undercarriage – the same as had been designed for ferrying operations – as pilots found that they preferred to land on wheels because of
42000-481: Was flipped over onto its turret, rendering it useless. Six Locusts landed intact on the landing zone, including several with significant damage, but two of these tanks did not reach the rendezvous point chosen for the regiment. One undamaged tank came to the aid of a group of American paratroopers who were under fire from a German self-propelled gun but was rapidly knocked out by the German vehicle, wounding two crewmembers. A second tank broke down as it attempted to tow
42210-471: Was formed from No 2 Commando and subsequently became 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment) dropped into southern Italy from converted Whitley bombers flying from Malta and demolished a span of the aqueduct near Tragino in a daring night raid named Operation Colossus . 54 effectives of 'L' Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade (largely drawn from the disbanded Layforce ) mounted a night parachute insertion onto two drop zones in Bir Temrad, North Africa on
42420-427: Was formed on 15 August 1943, despite concerns that there would be insufficient transport aircraft to deliver the unit into battle, and the 28th Airborne Tank Battalion was also formed in December of the same year. However, neither unit saw combat, due to the US Army's lack of interest in using them in an airborne capacity. The 151st Airborne Tank Company remained in the United States, shuttling from base to base throughout
42630-480: Was found to be unrealistic; not only was the production rate for the glider far too slow to accommodate this large number, the same number of tugs needed to tow the gliders could not be found. In November 1943 the War Office issued another report in which it increased the number of required gliders to 800, an even more unrealistic number; by the time production of the Hamilcar ended, a total of 344 had been built. GAL produced an initial run of 22 Hamilcars, which included
42840-433: Was made by the British Air Commission in Washington, D.C., with a proposal calling for a tank of between 9 t (8.9 long tons) and 10 t (9.8 long tons) to be developed, this being the maximum weight the War Office had decided could be carried by current glider technology. The proposed tank was to have a primary armament of a 37-millimeter (1.5 in) main gun and secondary armament of a .30-06 Browning M1919A4 , and
43050-404: Was noted that the time it took to unload the M22 from a C-54 on the battlefield meant that both the tank and aircraft would make excellent targets for enemy fire. Operational use of the tank would therefore be restricted to the availability of airfields large enough to accommodate a fully laden C-54, which might not be in the right geographical location or might even have to be captured in advance of
43260-444: Was now considered obsolete. This made it available for use by the airborne forces and it was chosen by the War Office as the tank to be transported by glider. However, it had not been designed specifically as an airborne tank or to be airmobile, and it also possessed several faults. Its size limited the possible crew to three—a driver in the hull and a gunner and commander in the turret—which was found to be too few crew members to operate
43470-415: Was planned bringing together the 2nd Indian Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division , but the war ended before it could materialize. A fundamental decision was whether to create small airborne units to be used in specific coup-de-main type operations, or to organize entire airborne divisions for larger operations. Many of the early successful airborne operations were small, carried out by
43680-402: Was to be formed of nineteen light tanks and would operate to the fore of the division, using their speed to capture objectives and hold them until relieved by other units. The unit chosen for conversion into the Light Tank Squadron was 'C' Special Services Squadron, which had seen service as an independent tank unit during Operation Ironclad , the invasion of Madagascar in mid-1942. The squadron
43890-414: Was to include artillery and some form of tank. Plans to transport an airborne tank went through a number of revisions, but by May 1941 it was considered feasible for a tank weighing 5.4 long tons (5.5 t) to be carried for 300 to 350 mi (480 to 560 km) in a glider, although the latter would have to be specifically designed for the task. In a conference held on 16 January 1941, it was decided that
44100-402: Was transported to RAF Snaith in Yorkshire, as GAL's airfield at Hanworth was too short for the glider to take off from; moving the glider to a secure military airfield would also ensure that it remained secret. Its first flight was conducted on 27 March 1942, towed by a Handley Page Halifax bomber. A second prototype was completed in June 1942, and further testing and development took place at
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