WWII glider pilots seek credit Now they're seen as heroes

Arizona Daily Star ^ | Aaron Mackey

[SandRat]

Each time Noel Addy flew his World War II glider over Europe, commanders predicted he'd live only 18 more seconds.

Towed behind a transport plane, Addy's armorless and gunless glider floated between German flak and machine-gun fire en route to landings behind enemy lines. On some missions, fewer than half of the gliders landed safely.

[cyclotic]

Allright, somebody’s got to get this one going so I will. Kind of sad when a thread about some WWII heroes, who had an incredibly dangerous but unheralded job get an article about them and no one discusses it. As with all Veterans, especially combat veterans, I salute them for their service.

I had the honor tonight, along with about 20 Boy Scouts to meet and hear some exploits of a B-25 bomber pilot. What incredible bravery.

[SandRat]

We just had our District Spring Camporee on Fort Huachuca last weekend.

[cyclotic]

Cool, ours is in 3 weeks. We had a huge dilemna. Is it right for my son to skip his sister’s graduation party to go camping?

I didn’t even try to justify it for myself:)

We moved the party to Sunday so he can make both.

[2banana]

And they didn’t even get airborne pay... I would rather jump than ride a plywood glider into an enemy held field...

[SandRat]

Had an old NCO that was Glider Pilot Qualified, called them flying coffins.

[Kenny Bunk]

NCO that was Glider Pilot Qualified, called them flying coffins.

Turns out that the whole glider concept was a mistake. Too many casualties occurred before the glider-borne troops even made it into combat, and they couldn't carry enough heavy stuff.

Not to mention they never managed to actually develop a really effective glider! So the whole thing being a cluster-muck, why just naturally the brave guys flying these flimsy contraptions, who suffered horrible casualty rates, were disrespected and sort of swept under the rug.

Many of the pilots weren't commissioned, so they didn't get any status. The AAC pilots towing them couldn't keep formation or altitude, never mind navigate the gliders to precisely where they wanted to go, and when they flared out to land, the Germans planted posts in the open fields to wreck them, and shot up the canvas, spruce, and plywood contraptions at will.

Glider troops? Bad idea all around and quickly ended experiment.

[PzLdr]

Wasn’t initially a bad idea. The German combat engineers that took Eben Emael in 1940, and German units that took some of the bridges in Holland used gliders to get there. But by 1943 and 1944, gliders were obsolete for troop insertion, but the Allies used them anyway. One of the problems at Arnheim was having the British use a drop zone 8 miles from the bridge to accomodate the gliders.

[snippy_about_it]

It's not that folks aren't interested. It's the format here at FR. Anything posted in VetsCor doesn't get posted in the "Activity" tab, never has. It's kind of like a back room unfortunately, unlike say the Canteen or any other "News" forum.

For your reading pleasure I offer this old "Foxhole" covered via VetsCoR 5 years ago. Boy how time flies.

The Freeper Foxhole Profiles Gliders and Glider Troops - August 14th, 2003

[vetvetdoug]

My Uncle was a member of the 325th Glider Regiment that was a part of the 82nd Airborne....unfortunately he was one of the first casualties of the Regiment while they were in Africa prior to the drop over Sicily.

[SandRat]

Honors to your uncle.