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104-767: The Waco CG-4 was the most widely used American troop/cargo military glider of World War II . It was designated the CG-4A by the United States Army Air Forces , and given the service name Hadrian (after the Roman emperor ) by the British. The glider was designed by the Waco Aircraft Company . Flight testing began in May 1942. More than 13,900 CG-4As were eventually delivered. The CG-4A

208-768: A "single thrust" forward into Germany, but each man saw himself as the leader of a single thrust. Montgomery said the allied strategy should be "one powerful full-blooded thrust across the Rhine and into the heart of Germany backed by the whole of the resources of the Allied Armies". Such a policy would relegate Bradley's American armies to a "purely static role". On his part, Patton said that with 400,000 gallons of gasoline he could be in Germany in two days. War planners saw both men's proposals as tactically and logistically infeasible. While agreeing that Montgomery's drive towards

312-430: A 1,500 man parachute drop and the large transport gliders that he had seen. The Luftwaffe opened a parachute school as a result in 1937. Further field testing convinced Student that a vehicle was needed to deliver the heavy weapons for the lightly armed parachute troops. This idea was dismissed until October 1938 by which time Student had risen to major-general and was appointed Inspector of Airborne Forces. Development of

416-420: A British officer – Browning in particular – be appointed its commander. Browning for his part decided to bring his entire staff with him on the operation to establish his field HQ using the much-needed 32 Airspeed Horsa gliders for administrative personnel, and six Waco CG-4 A gliders for U.S. Signals' personnel. Since the bulk of both troops and aircraft were American, Brereton, a U.S. Army Air Forces officer,

520-439: A blue circle that is winging its way around the world for victory ... The wings are first covered with a canvas fabric stretched on like wallpaper over plywood then every seam, hold, open place, closed place, and edge is taped down with the all adhesive dope that not only makes the wings airtight, but covers my hands, my slacks, my eyebrows, my hair, and my tools with a fast-drying coat that peels off like nail polish or rubs off with

624-482: A co-pilot but would instead carry an extra passenger. Because the C-47s served as paratrooper transports and glider tugs and because IX Troop Carrier Command would provide all the transports for both British parachute brigades, this massive force could deliver only 60 percent of the ground forces in one lift. This limit was the reason for the decision to split the troop-lift schedule into successive days. Ninety percent of

728-419: A collection of anti-aircraft batteries and a mix of 25 self-propelled guns and tank destroyers . Kriegsmarine and SS units were also allocated to Student's command, and Hitler had promised Model that 200 Panther tanks would be sent straight from the production lines; he also ordered all Tiger tanks , Jagdpanther self-propelled guns, and 88 mm guns that were available in Germany to be transferred to

832-559: A defence against what Wehrmacht intelligence judged to be 60 Allied divisions at full strength, although Eisenhower possessed only 49 divisions. Model set out to stop the Allied advance. The German 719th Infantry Division , part of LXXXVIII Corps, was dispatched south to the Albert Canal and Model requested reinforcements from Germany, stating that he would require 25 infantry divisions and six armoured divisions to hold; he envisioned

936-628: A hostile beachhead, the gliders to be towed by Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina amphibian aircraft . The Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics developed specifications for two types of amphibious glider, a single-hulled type which could carry 12 passengers and a twin-hulled type that could carry 24 passengers. Two companies, the Allied Aviation Corporation and the Bristol Aeronautical Corporation , received contracts to produce 100 gliders, and plans called for

1040-430: A limited airborne coup de main operation that was to be launched on 2 September 1944. Comet envisioned using British and Polish airborne forces to capture several bridges en route to the Rhine. However several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation and then cancel it on 10 September. Montgomery replaced Comet with Market Garden,

1144-834: A line stretching from Antwerp via Maastricht to Metz and from there to follow the line of the Albert Canal to the Meuse and the Siegfried Line. Meanwhile, Colonel General Kurt Student , commander of the Fallschirmjaeger , the German airborne forces, received orders from Alfred Jodl , Chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht , to immediately move from Berlin and proceed to

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1248-443: A long column like that in a single thrust you'd have to throw off division after division to protect your flanks from attack. Nevertheless, Eisenhower consented to Operation Market Garden, giving it "limited priority" in terms of supplies – but only as part of an advance on a broad front. Eisenhower promised that aircraft and trucks would deliver an additional 1,000 tons of supplies daily to Montgomery for Market Garden. Eisenhower

1352-785: A more ambitious plan to bypass the West Wall or Siegfried Line of German defenses by hooking around its northern end and securing a crossing of the Rhine River, thereby gaining a path to the Ruhr. Another factor was the existence of V-2 sites in the Netherlands which were launching rocket strikes on London . On 10 September Dempsey, the British Second Army commander, told Montgomery that he had doubts about this plan. Montgomery replied that he had just received an order from

1456-547: A mountain valley of New Guinea. The CG-4A was also used to send supplies to partisans in Yugoslavia . After World War II ended, most of the remaining CG-4As were declared surplus and almost all were sold. Many were bought for the wood in the large shipping boxes. Others were bought for conversion to towed camping homes with the wing and tail end cut off and being towed by the rear section and others sold for hunting cabins and lake side vacation cabins. The last known use of

1560-565: A much more capable force. The Soviets also experimented with ways to deliver light tanks by air, including the Antonov A-40 , a gliding tank with detachable wings. By the time of the Korean War , helicopters had largely replaced gliders. Helicopters have the advantage of being able to extract soldiers, in addition to delivering them to the battlefield with more precision. Also, advances in powered transport aircraft had been made, to

1664-513: A proper troop experience... his staff was superficial... Why the British units fumble along... becomes more and more apparent. Their tops lack the know-how, never do they get down into the dirt and learn the hard way." Garden consisted primarily of XXX Corps and was initially spearheaded by the Guards Armoured Division , with the 43rd Wessex and 50th Northumbrian Infantry Divisions in reserve. They were expected to arrive at

1768-446: A reserve. Near Eindhoven and Arnhem a number of scratch formations were being assembled. Several SS units, including an NCO training battalion and a panzergrenadier reserve battalion, were being prepared to enter combat and Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personnel were being grouped into Fliegerhorst and Schiffstammabteilung formations. There were also a number of training battalions that were being equipped, several depot battalions from

1872-611: A study with view to develop a glider capable of being towed by aircraft. This directive was set into motion through Classified Technical Instructions (CTI-198 on 24 February 1941, and CTI-203 on 4 March 1941), which authorized the procurement of 2-, 8-, and 15-place gliders and equipment. Eleven companies were invited to participate in the experimental glider program, but only four responded with any interest, Frankfort Sailplane Company (XCG-1, XCG-2), Waco Aircraft Company (XCG-3, XCG-4), St. Louis Aircraft Corp. (XCG-5, XCG-6), and Bowlus Sailplanes (XCG-7, XCG-8). Only Waco Aircraft Company

1976-413: A thinner that burns like Hell. Sedalia Glider Base was originally activated on 6 August 1942. In November 1942 the installation became Sedalia Army Air Field , (after the war would be renamed Whiteman Air Force Base ) and was assigned to the 12th Troop Carrier Command of the United States Army Air Forces . The field served as a training site for glider pilots and paratroopers. Assigned aircraft included

2080-732: A troop-carrying glider was assigned to Hans Jacobs of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug to develop the DFS 230 which could carry 9–10 fully equipped troops or 1,200 kg (2,800 pounds). The Germans were the first to use gliders in warfare, most famously during the assault of the Eben Emael fortress and the capture of the bridges over the Albert Canal at Veldwezelt, Vroenhoven and Kanne on May 10, 1940, in which 41 DFS 230 gliders carrying 10 soldiers each were launched behind Junkers Ju 52s . Ten gliders landed on

2184-503: The China-Burma-India Theater . The CG-4A was constructed of a metal and wood frame covered with fabric, manned by a crew of two and with an allowable normal cargo load of 3,710 lb, allowing it to carry 13 combat-equipped troops or a jeep or small artillery piece. The CG-10 could hold 10,850 lb of cargo, such as two howitzers , at a time. The final glider mission of the war was at Luzon on 23 June 1945. By

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2288-599: The Gotha Go 242 (23 trooper) and Messerschmitt Me 321 (130 trooper) to transport heavy armaments in anticipation of Operation Sea Lion and Operation Barbarossa . Gliders were also used by Germany in Greece in 1941. On April 26, 1941, the troops from six DFS 230 gliders captured the bridge over the Corinth Canal accompanied by 40 plane-loads of German paratroopers. (Fortuitously, the British were able to demolish

2392-589: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 prompted the United States to set the number of glider pilots needed at 1,000 to fly 500 eight-seat gliders and 500 fifteen-seat gliders. The number of pilots required was increased to 6,000 by June 1942. After Barringer was lost at sea on a flight to Africa in January 1943, the program came under direction of Richard C. du Pont . Bigger gliders, such as

2496-525: The Operation Plunder crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. The USAAF CG-4A tow line was 11 ⁄ 16 inch (17 mm) nylon , 350 feet (110 m) long. The CG-4A pickup line was 15 ⁄ 16 inch (24 mm) diameter nylon, but only 225 ft (69 m) long including the doubled loop. In an effort to identify areas where strategic materials could be reduced, a single XCG-4B

2600-571: The Panzer Division Hermann Göring and various artillery, anti-aircraft, and field police units scattered throughout the north of the Netherlands. Rundstedt and Model suspected that a large Allied offensive was imminent, having received many intelligence reports that described a 'constant stream' of reinforcements to the right wing of the British Second Army. Anthony Blunt is accused of passing information from MI5. The senior intelligence officer of Army Group B believed

2704-695: The Red Ball Express , from makeshift ports in Normandy . A potential solution to the logistics problem was to capture a large port more accessible to the advancing allied armies. On 4 September, Montgomery's troops did just that, capturing the massive port of Antwerp in Belgium virtually intact, but the Scheldt Estuary leading to it and preventing its use was still under German control. Neither Eisenhower nor Montgomery initially made opening

2808-618: The Royal Air Force in the Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association and for cadet training by the Air Training Corps , they are not used in combat operations. No troop-carrying gliders have been in British service since 1957. Major General Henry "Hap" Arnold , Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air (becoming Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces on March 9, 1942), initiated

2912-686: The Second World War fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. Its objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine River), creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: seizing nine bridges with combined US and British airborne forces ("Market") followed by British land forces swiftly following over

3016-771: The United States Army 's capabilities on 1 January 1953. However, the United States Air Force continues to use sailplanes at the United States Air Force Academy to train cadets in the fundamentals of flight. In April 1941, United States Navy officer Marc Mitscher proposed that the Navy develop amphibious gliders with flying-boat hulls with a goal of deploying an amphibious glider force capable of delivering an entire United States Marine Corps brigade of 715 men to

3120-684: The Yakovlev Yak-14 (35 trooper) in 1948, and the Ilyushin Il-32 (60 trooper) also in 1948. In 1950, a Yak-14 became the first glider to fly over the North Pole . The Soviet Union maintained three glider infantry regiments until 1965. However, Soviet Air Force transport gliders were gradually withdrawn from service with the arrival of turboprop transports like the Antonov An-12 and Antonov An-24 , which entered service in

3224-670: The capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges in a coup-de-main operation at the very start of the invasion of Normandy . Other glider actions included Operation Dragoon (the invasion of southern France), Operation Market Garden (the landing at Arnhem Bridge to try and seize a bridgehead over the lower Rhine) and Operation Varsity (crossing of the Rhine). Out of the 2,596 gliders dispatched for Operation Market Garden, 2,239 were effective in delivering men and equipment to their designated landing zones. Although gliders are still used in

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3328-586: The 101st, 82nd and 1st Airborne Divisions and the Polish Brigade. 14,589 troops were landed by glider and 20,011 by parachute. Gliders also brought in 1,736 vehicles and 263 artillery pieces. 3,342 tons of ammunition and other supplies were brought by glider and parachute drop. To deliver its 36 battalions of airborne infantry and their support troops to the continent, the First Allied Airborne Army had under its operational control

3432-648: The 14 groups of IX Troop Carrier Command, and after 11 September the 16 squadrons of 38 Group RAF (an organization of converted bombers providing support to resistance groups) and a transport formation, 46 Group . The combined force had 1,438 C-47/Dakota transports (1,274 USAAF and 164 RAF ) and 321 converted RAF bombers. The Allied glider force had been rebuilt after Normandy until by 16 September it numbered 2,160 CG-4A Waco gliders, 916 Airspeed Horsas (812 RAF and 104 U.S. Army) and 64 General Aircraft Hamilcars (large cargo gliders). The U.S. had only 2,060 glider pilots available, so that none of its gliders would have

3536-697: The 30-troop Waco CG-13A and the 42-troop Laister-Kauffman CG-10 A were designed later. The most widely used type was the Waco CG-4A, which was first used in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and participated in the D-Day assault on France on 6 June 1944, and in other important airborne operations in Europe, including Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and the crossing the Rhine in March 1945, and in

3640-467: The 85th Infantry Division, which had suffered heavy casualties during the retreat from Normandy, he had assumed command of the remnants of the 84th and 89th Infantry Divisions en route. Initially ordered to take his command to the Rhineland for rest and reinforcements, Chill disregarded the order and moved his forces to the Albert Canal, linking up with the 719th; he also had "reception centres" set up at

3744-625: The Allied breakout from Normandy and the closure of the Falaise Pocket , the allied armies pursued the retreating German army, expelling it from nearly all of France and Belgium. On 1 September, the Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower took over command of ground forces, while continuing as Supreme Commander. Montgomery resented this change, although the US and UK had agreed to it before

3848-518: The Arnhem thrust. Thereafter it was given first priority." Eisenhower proposed a "broad front strategy" in which the allied armies of Montgomery in Belgium and Bradley further south in France advanced in parallel on a front several hundred miles wide into Germany. Montgomery – and Bradley's aggressive subordinate, George S. Patton  – both desired a concentration of forces,

3952-615: The British General Aircraft Hamilcar could carry 7 tons (enough for a light tank ), but the CG-4A could land in smaller spaces. In addition, by using a fairly simple grapple system, an in-flight C-47 equipped with a tail hook and rope braking drum could "pick up" a CG-4A waiting on the ground. The system was used in the 1945 high-elevation rescue of the survivors of the Gremlin Special 1945 crash, in

4056-589: The British and Polish paratroopers managed to avoid capture by the Germans and were sheltered by the Dutch underground until they could be rescued in Operation Pegasus on 22 October 1944. Historians have been critical of the planning and execution of Operation Market Garden. Antony Beevor said that Market Garden "was a bad plan right from the start and right from the top". The Germans counter attacked

4160-496: The British government that the V-2 launch sites around The Hague should be neutralised and that the plan must therefore proceed. That same day, angered by Eisenhower's reluctance to give his plan the priority he desired, Montgomery flew to Brussels to meet him. Montgomery tore a file of Eisenhower's messages to shreds in front of him, argued for a concentrated northern thrust, and demanded priority in supplies. So fierce and unrestrained

4264-570: The CG-4A glider, Curtiss C-46 Commando , and Douglas C-47 Skytrain . The C-46 was not used as a glider tug in combat, however, until Operation Plunder (the crossing of the Rhine) in March 1945. CG-4As went into operation in July 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily . They were flown 450 miles across the Mediterranean from North Africa for the night-time assaults such as Operation Ladbroke . Inexperience and poor conditions contributed to

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4368-482: The CG-4A was in the early 1950s by the USAF with an Arctic detachment aiding scientific research. The CG-4As were used for getting personnel down to, and up from, floating ice floes, with the glider being towed out, released for landing, and then picked up later by the same type of aircraft, using the hook and line method developed during World War II. The only modification to the CG-4A was the fitting of wide skis in place of

4472-646: The CG-4A were: The factories ran 24-hour shifts to build the gliders. One night-shift worker in the Wicks Aircraft Company factory in Kansas City wrote, On one side of the huge bricked-in room is a fan running, on the other a cascade of water to keep the air from becoming too saturated with paint. The men man the paint sprayers covering the huge wings of the glider with the Khaki or Blue and finishing it off with that thrilling white star enclosed in

4576-551: The German resistance had broken. Most of the German Fifteenth Army in the area appeared to be fleeing from the Canadians and they were known to have no Panzergruppen . It was thought that XXX Corps would face limited resistance on their route up Highway 69 and little armour . Meanwhile, the German defenders would be spread out over 100 kilometres (62 mi) trying to contain the pockets of airborne forces, from

4680-439: The Navy took delivery during World War II of 15 U.S. Army Air Forces Waco CG-4A non-amphibious gliders for evaluation under the Navy designation LRW-1. Neither of these initiatives resulted in operational use of gliders by the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps. The Soviet Union built the world's first military gliders starting in 1932, including the 16-seat Grokhovski G63, though no glider was built in quantity until World War II. During

4784-548: The Netherlands, especially around Arnhem. Brereton's experience with tactical air operations judged that flak suppression would be sufficient to permit the troop carriers to operate without prohibitive loss. The invasion of Southern France had demonstrated that large scale daylight airborne operations were feasible. Daylight operations, in contrast to those in Sicily and Normandy, would have much greater navigational accuracy and time-compression of succeeding waves of aircraft, tripling

4888-426: The Netherlands, where he would collect all available units and build a front near the Albert Canal, which was to be held at all costs. This front was to be held by the new First Parachute Army , a euphemistic name for a paper formation. Its units were scattered throughout Germany and the Netherlands and consisted either of units in the process of being formed or remnants cadred by survivors of previous units. Though

4992-421: The Netherlands. On 4 September he recalled Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt , who had been in retirement since Hitler had dismissed him as Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief West on 2 July, and reinstated him in his former command, replacing Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model , who had taken command just 18 days previously and would henceforth command only Army Group B. Rundstedt immediately began to plan

5096-866: The Nijmegen salient but failed to retake any of the allied gains. Arnhem was finally captured by the Allies in April 1945, towards the end of the war. Highway 69 (later nicknamed "Hell's Highway") leading through the planned route was two narrow lanes, partly raised above a surrounding flat terrain of polder or floodplain . The ground on either side of the highway was in places too soft to support tactical vehicle movement and there were numerous dikes and drainage ditches. Dikes tended to be topped by trees or large bushes, and roads and paths were lined with trees. In early autumn this meant that observation would be seriously restricted. There were six major water obstacles between

5200-510: The Normandy invasion. He had been the commander of ground forces and the change resulted in his former subordinate, Omar Bradley , becoming his equal. Montgomery continued to command the 21st Army Group, consisting mainly of British and Canadian units. By late August the allied armies were running out of petroleum gasoline. Several allied divisions and corps were forced to halt their advance temporarily to replenish supplies. To Eisenhower fell

5304-613: The Second Army in the south to Arnhem in the north. The rout of the Wehrmacht during July and August led the Allies to believe that the German army was a spent force unable to reconstitute its shattered units. During those two months the Wehrmacht had suffered a string of defeats with heavy losses. Between 6 June and 14 August it had suffered 23,019 killed in action, 198,616 missing or taken prisoner and 67,240 wounded. Many of

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5408-464: The Second Army would launch an offensive in the direction of Nijmegen, Arnhem and Wesel with a primary objective of reaching the industrial area along the Ruhr river. He was convinced that airborne troops would be used in this offensive but was unsure where they would be deployed, suspecting areas along the Siegfried Line north of Aachen or possibly even near the Saar. Second Army would assemble its units at

5512-413: The Soviet Union demonstrated the TsK Komsula, a four-place glider, designed by GF Groschev that could also be used for cargo. Larger gliders were then developed culminating in an 18-seater at the military institute in Leningrad in 1935. Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Student visited Moscow as part of the military collaboration programme with the Soviet Union. He reported back to his superiors in Berlin details of

5616-435: The US sometimes used them as if they were, since it was easier than recovering them. Troops landing by glider were referred to as air-landing as opposed to paratroops . Landing by parachute caused the troops to be spread over a large drop-zone and separated from other airdropped equipment, such as vehicles and anti-tank guns. Gliders, on the other hand, could land troops and ancillaries in greater concentrations precisely at

5720-412: The USAAF transports on the first day would drop parachute troops, with the same proportion towing gliders on the second day (the RAF transports were almost entirely used for glider operations). Brereton rejected having two airlifts on the first day, although this had been accomplished during Operation Dragoon, albeit with slightly more daylight (45 minutes) and against negligible opposition. 17 September

5824-468: The West. On 5 September, Model's forces were bolstered by the arrival of the II SS Panzer Corps , which consisted of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions under the command of Lieutenant General Wilhelm Bittrich . The Corps had been reduced to approximately 6,000–7,000 men, 20–30% of its original strength in the course of continuous action since late June including in the Falaise pocket ; losses in officers and NCOs had been especially high. Model ordered

5928-429: The XXX Corps' jumping-off point and the objective of the north bank of the Lower Rhine River: the Wilhelmina Canal at Son en Breugel 100 feet (30 m) wide; the Zuid-Willems Canal at Veghel 80 feet (20 m); the Maas River at Grave 800 feet (240 m); the Maas-Waal Canal 200 feet (60 m); the Waal River at Nijmegen 850 feet (260 m); and the Rhine at Arnhem 300 feet (90 m). The plan

6032-432: The bridge a few hours later.) Next, General Student then convinced Hitler that Crete could be captured using only airborne troops. Consequently, on May 20, 1941, 500 German transport aircraft carrying paratroopers and 74 DFS 230 gliders took off from the Greek mainland. During the capture of the island, 5,140 German airborne troops were either killed or wounded out of the 13,000 sent. Among the 350 German planes destroyed in

6136-412: The bridges ("Garden"). The airborne operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by the British Second Army , with XXX Corps moving up the centre supported by VIII and IX Corps on their flanks. The airborne soldiers, consisting of paratroops and glider-borne troops numbering more than 41,000, were dropped at sites where they could capture key bridges and hold

6240-487: The bridges crossing the Albert Canal, where small groups of retreating troops were picked up and turned into ad hoc units. By 7 September the 176th Infantry Division , a Kranken division composed of elderly men and men with various medical complaints, had arrived from the Siegfried Line and elements of the First Parachute Army began to appear. At this stage the Army consisted of approximately seven Fallschirmjaeger regiments composed of some 20,000 airborne troops along with

6344-419: The bridges north of Eindhoven at Son and Veghel. The 82nd Airborne Division , under Brigadier General James M. Gavin , would drop northeast of them to take the bridges at Grave and Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne Division , under Major-General Roy Urquhart , with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade , under Major General Stanisław Sosabowski , attached, would drop at the extreme north end of

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6448-503: The end of the war, the United States had built 14,612 gliders of all types and had trained over 6,000 glider pilots. The designs of the Waco Aircraft Company were also produced by a wide variety of manufacturers including Ford Motor Company and Cessna Aircraft Company as well as furniture, piano and coffin manufacturers. Following World War II, the United States maintained only one regiment of gliders. Gliders were used in military exercises in 1949, but glider operations were deleted from

6552-414: The end of the war. The Junkers Ju 322 Mammut ("Mammoth") was the largest such glider ever built, but it was never used operationally. Not all military gliders were planned for transport. The Blohm & Voss BV 40 was a German glider fighter designed to attack Allied bomber formations but was not used. The British glider development started in mid-1940, prompted by the assault on Eben Emael . Among

6656-448: The extent that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute. And after the widespread use of radar in the military, silence in the air is no longer sufficient for concealment. The development of modern gliders was spurred by the Versailles Treaty following World War I , under the terms of which Germany was prohibited from constructing certain high powered airplanes. As a result, German aircraft designers turned their attention toward

6760-576: The formations the Wehrmacht had at the beginning of the Normandy campaign had been annihilated or reduced to skeleton formations by the end of August. As the German armies retreated towards the German frontier, they were often harried by air attacks and bombing raids by aircraft of the Allied air forces, inflicting casualties and destroying vehicles. Attempts to halt the Allied advance often seemed fruitless as hurried counter-attacks and blocking positions were brushed aside and at times there seemed to be too few German units to hold anywhere. By early September

6864-495: The grassed roof of the fortress. Only twenty minutes after landing the force had neutralized the fortress at a cost of six dead and twenty wounded. Hitler was anxious to gain maximum publicity and so several foreign attachés were given guided tours of the fortress. Consequently, the British, American and Japanese became quickly aware of the methods that had been used. By mid-1940, both Japan and Britain had active glider programs. Development then began of even larger gliders such as

6968-522: The heavy losses. They participated in the American airborne landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, and in other important airborne operations in Europe and in the China Burma India Theater . Although not the intention of the Army Air Forces, gliders were generally considered expendable by high-ranking European theater officers and combat personnel and were abandoned or destroyed after landing. While equipment and methods for extracting flyable gliders were developed and delivered to Europe, half of that equipment

7072-449: The industrial district of the Ruhr in Germany should have priority, Eisenhower still thought it was important to "get Patton moving again". This strategy was contested by Montgomery, who argued that with the supply situation deteriorating, he would not be able to reach the Ruhr, but "a relocation of our present resources of every description would be adequate to get one thrust to Berlin". Montgomery initially suggested Operation Comet ,

7176-416: The intended drop zones. Eisenhower believed that the use of the airborne forces might provide the push needed for the allies to cross the Rhine. The plan of action consisted of two operations: Market would employ four of the six divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army. The U.S. 101st Airborne Division, under Major General Maxwell D. Taylor , would drop in two locations just north of XXX Corps to take

7280-482: The landing gear for landing on the Arctic ice floes. Data from Aviation Enthusiasts Corner. and Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions for Army Model CG4A Glider (TO No. 09-40CA-1) General characteristics Performance 128 mph (206 km/h) CAS/135 mph (217 km/h) IAS at 9,000 pounds (4,100 kg) Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Military glider Once released from

7384-420: The late 1950s. Operation Market Garden 1st Parachute Army [REDACTED] 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" 4,600 combined allied aircraft Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns Chronology of the liberation Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during

7488-468: The need to prepare for the first drop by bombarding German flak positions for half a day and a weather forecast on the afternoon of 16 September (which soon proved erroneous) that the area would have clear conditions for four days, so allowing drops during them. After one week preparations were declared complete. The planning and training for the airborne drops at Sicily and Normandy had taken months. One United States Air Force historian noted that 'Market'

7592-426: The number of troops that could be delivered per hour. The time required to assemble airborne units on the drop zone after landing would be reduced by two-thirds. IX Troop Carrier Command's transport aircraft had to tow gliders and drop paratroopers, duties that could not be performed simultaneously. Although every division commander requested two drops on the first day, Brereton's staff scheduled only one lift based on

7696-559: The operation, half had been Ju 52s, which seriously depleted the force needed for the invasion of the Soviet Union shortly after. As a result, Hitler vowed never to use his airborne force in such large numbers again. Some German glider operations continued later in the war, some examples being the rescue operation of Benito Mussolini at Gran Sasso and emergency re-supply operations in Russia, North Africa and Eastern Europe towards

7800-580: The port of Antwerp a top priority and Antwerp was not used by allied supply ships until 28 November after the Battle of the Scheldt . The allied failure to win access quickly to the port of Antwerp has been called "one of the greatest tactical mistakes of the war". Winston Churchill later acknowledged that "clearing the Scheldt Estuary and opening the port of Antwerp had been delayed for the sake of

7904-438: The practical development of unpowered aircraft, with a pilot remaining in the air in a glider for more than 20 minutes and a national glider competition emerging by 1922. The early sporting objectives of gliders were quickly overtaken in the Soviet Union and in Germany by military applications, mainly the training of pilots. By 1934, the Soviet Union had ten gliding schools and 57,000 glider pilots had gained licences. In 1932,

8008-515: The procurement of 12,000 more amphibious gliders if the concept proved successful. No twin-hulled glider was built, but each company constructed the prototype of a single-hulled amphibious glider, the XLRA-1 by Allied Aviation and the XLRQ-1 by Bristol Aeronautical. The two prototypes made their first flights in early 1943, but by the time they did the Navy and Marine Corps already had concluded that

8112-423: The route, capturing the road bridge at Arnhem and the rail bridge at Oosterbeek . The 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division would be flown to the captured Deelen Airfield on D+5. The First Allied Airborne Army had been created on 16 August as the result of British requests for a coordinated headquarters for airborne operations, a concept approved by General Eisenhower on 20 June. The British had strongly hinted that

8216-438: The situation seemed dire, the German front was starting to form into what Robert Kershaw terms "a crust". Leadership, initiative, and a good staff system were beginning to create an organised push-back out of the initial chaos. On 4 September, the 719th infantry division began to dig in along the Albert Canal and was soon joined by forces under the command of Lieutenant General Kurt Chill . Although Chill only officially commanded

8320-422: The situation was beginning to change. Some 65,000 troops of the German Fifteenth Army were extricated from the area with 225 guns and 750 trucks by a flotilla of commandeered freighters, barges and small boats. From there they moved to the Netherlands. Adolf Hitler began to take a personal interest in the apparent disintegration of Army Group B , which comprised the German armies in northern France, Belgium, and

8424-415: The south before they reached the Rhine. The British 1st Airborne Division was unable to secure the bridge and was withdrawn from the north side of the Rhine after suffering 8,000 dead, missing, and captured out of a complement of 12,000 men. When the retreat order came there were not enough boats to get everyone back across the river. The Germans subsequently rounded up most of those left behind, but some of

8528-458: The south end of the 101st Airborne Division's area on the first day, the 82nd's by the second day and the 1st's by the fourth day at the latest. The airborne divisions would then join XXX Corps in the breakout from the Arnhem bridgehead. Four days was a long time for an airborne force to fight unsupported. Even so, before Operation Market Garden started it seemed to the Allied high command that

8632-472: The target landing area. Furthermore, the glider, once released at some distance from the actual target, was effectively silent and difficult for the enemy to identify. Larger gliders were developed to land heavy equipment like anti-tank guns , anti-aircraft guns, small vehicles, such as jeeps , and also light tanks (e.g., the Tetrarch tank ). This heavier equipment made otherwise lightly armed paratroop forces

8736-409: The task of responding to competing demands for fuel and other supplies for the armies under his command. There was no shortage of fuel in the makeshift ports in Normandy; the difficulty lay in transporting sufficient quantities from Normandy to the armies in Belgium and northern France. Most arrived at the front in five gallon jerry cans after being transported hundreds of kilometres by trucks, known as

8840-412: The terrain until the land forces arrived. The land forces consisted of ten armoured and motorised brigades with a similar number of soldiers. The land forces advanced from the south along a single road surrounded by flood plain on both sides. The plan anticipated that they would cover the 103 km (64 miles) from their start to the bridge across the Rhine in 48 hours. About 100,000 German soldiers were in

8944-598: The time of Operation Market Garden, the 10th SS Panzer Division had an approximate strength of 3,000 men; an armoured infantry regiment, divisional reconnaissance battalion, two artillery battalions, and an engineer battalion, all partially motorised. However, Bittrich said after the war that he only had five tanks at Arnhem. Other formations were appearing to strengthen the German defences. Between 16 and 17 September, two infantry divisions from Fifteenth Army assembled in Brabant, under strength but well-equipped and able to act as

9048-547: The tow craft near the front, they were to land on any convenient open terrain close to the target, hopefully with as little damage to the cargo and crew as possible, as most landing zones (LZ) were far from ideal. The one-way nature of the missions meant that they were treated as semi-expendable leading to construction from common and inexpensive materials such as wood. Most nations seriously attempted to recover as many as possible, to re-use them, so they were not originally intended to be disposable, although resource-rich nations like

9152-444: The two divisions to rest and refit in "safe" areas behind the new German line; these areas coincidentally were to be Eindhoven and Arnhem. The 10th SS Panzer Division was to be restored to full strength in order to provide an armoured reserve and thus the 9th SS Panzer Division was ordered to transfer all of its heavy equipment to its sister division; it was intended that the 9th would then be transported to Germany for replenishment. At

9256-562: The types developed were the 28 trooper Airspeed Horsa and the 7-ton capacity General Aircraft Hamilcar cargo glider. The Hamilcar could carry vehicles, anti-tank guns and light tanks into action. The General Aircraft Hotspur – originally planned as a compact assault glider carrying a small number of troops – was used for training the British Army pilots who formed the Glider Pilot Regiment . The Slingsby Hengist

9360-560: The use of gliders to deliver Marines to beachheads was impractical. No further examples of the two glider types were built, and the Navy officially terminated the amphibious glider program on 27 September 1943. Testing of the two prototypes continued until early December 1943, apparently in connection with the development of a glider bomb. The Marine Corps established a glider training unit in early 1942 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island , South Carolina , using non-amphibious Pratt-Read LNE-1 and Schweizer LNS-1 gliders. In addition,

9464-425: The vicinity to oppose the allied offensive. It was the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point. The operation succeeded in capturing the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, and a few V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed in its most important objective; securing the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem . The Germans slowed and then halted the armoured brigades advancing from

9568-644: The war, there were only two light gliders built in series: Antonov A-7 and Gribovski G-11 – about 1,000 altogether. A medium glider, the KC-20 , was built in a small series. They were used mostly for providing partisans in Belarus with supplies and armament in 1942–1943. On 21 September 1943, 35 gliders were used in the Dnepr crossing . Later, other types of gliders were built: the Cybin C-25 (25 trooper) in 1944,

9672-445: Was Montgomery's language that Eisenhower reached out, patted Montgomery's knee, and said, "Steady, Monty! You can't talk to me like that. I'm your boss." Eisenhower allegedly told Montgomery why a "single thrust" toward Berlin was not feasible: What you're proposing is this – if I give you all the supplies you want, you could go straight to Berlin – right straight (500 miles) to Berlin? Monty, you're nuts. You can't do it... If you try

9776-516: Was a backup design which was not required when the similar capacity American-built Waco CG-4 (given the British service name "Hadrian") became available in large numbers through lend-lease. Four hundred of the 3,600 Horsas built were supplied to the USAAF. The most famous British actions using gliders included the unsuccessful Operation Freshman , against a German heavy water plant in Norway in 1942; and

9880-474: Was able to deliver the experimental glider prototypes that satisfied the requirements of Materiel Command, the eight-seat Waco CG-3 (modified to become a production nine-seat glider) and the fifteen-seat Waco CG-4 . In October 1941, Lewin B. Barringer was made Glider Specialist, Air Staff, HQ of the Army Air Forces, answering to General Arnold, and placed in charge of the glider program. The shock of

9984-577: Was also under pressure from the United States to use the First Allied Airborne Army as soon as possible. After Normandy, most of the airborne forces had been withdrawn to England, re-forming into the First Allied Airborne Army of two British and three US airborne divisions and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Eighteen airborne operations had been proposed, then cancelled, when the rapidly moving Allied ground forces overran

10088-708: Was built at the Timm Aircraft Corporation using wood for the main structure. From 1942 to 1945, the Ford Motor Company's "Iron Mountain Plant" in Kingsford, Michigan , built 4190 units of Model CG-4A gliders for use in combat operations during World War II. The Kingsford plant built more CG-4A gliders than any other company in the nation at much less cost than other manufacturers. The 16 companies that were prime contractors for manufacturing

10192-482: Was constructed of fabric-covered wood and metal and was crewed by a pilot and copilot. It had two fixed mainwheels and a tailwheel. The CG-4A could carry 13 troops and their equipment. Cargo loads could be a 1 ⁄ 4 -ton truck (i.e. a Jeep ), a 75 mm howitzer , or a 1 ⁄ 4 -ton trailer, loaded through the upward-hinged nose section. Douglas C-47 Skytrains were usually used as tow aircraft. A few Curtiss C-46 Commando tugs were used during and after

10296-561: Was for airborne forces to seize bridges across all these obstacles nearly simultaneously – any failure to do so would result in delay or defeat. In case bridges were demolished by the Germans, XXX Corps had plans to rebuild them. To this end, a vast quantity of bridging material was collected, along with 2,300 vehicles to carry it and 9,000 engineers to assemble it. Although the area is generally flat with less than 30 feet (9 m) of variation in altitude, Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks , commander of XXX Corps, recalled that "The country

10400-426: Was named by Eisenhower on 16 July and appointed by SHAEF on 2 August. Brereton had no experience in airborne operations but had extensive command experience at the air force level in several theaters, most recently as commander of Ninth Air Force , which gave him a working knowledge of the operations of IX Troop Carrier Command . Market would be the largest airborne operation in history, delivering over 34,600 men of

10504-402: Was on a dark moon and in the days following it the new moon set before dark. Allied airborne doctrine prohibited big operations in the absence of all light, so the operation would have to be carried out in daylight. The risk of Luftwaffe interception was judged small, given the crushing air superiority of Allied fighters but there were concerns about the increasing number of flak units in

10608-481: Was rendered unavailable by certain higher-ranked officers. Despite this lack of support for the recovery system, several gliders were recovered from Normandy and even more from Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and Wesel , Germany. The CG-4A found favor where its small size was a benefit. The larger British Airspeed Horsa could carry more troopers (seating for 28 or a jeep or an anti-tank gun ), and

10712-437: Was the only large airborne operation of the war in which the USAAF "had no training program, no rehearsals, almost no exercises, and a... low level of tactical training." Gavin had doubts about the plan. In his diary he wrote, "It looks very rough. If I get through this one I will be very lucky." He was also highly critical of Browning, writing that he "... unquestionably lacks the standing, influence and judgment that comes from

10816-521: Was wooded and rather marshy, which made any outflanking operation impossible." Two important hill areas, 300 feet (90 m) high, were some of the highest ground in the Netherlands: one northwest of Arnhem and one in the 82nd Airborne Division's zone, the Groesbeek ridge. Seizure and defence of this elevated terrain was considered vital to holding the highway bridges. In August 1944, following

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