Gliders, D-Day and WWII
Roy D Clark Jr MD
Your Glider
The glider you fly has a brief but eventful history with the AAF to
date, and undoubtedly will add many pages to the saga of World War II.
Already it has served in every theater of operation in which the Allies
are fighting.
Though old in experience, the glider, comparatively speaking, is the
infant in the AAF family. The entire program is so new that it has
been forced to cope with inexperience, improper design, pilot training
problems, and poor coordination with other task forces.
Despite this and its clumsy, blunt-nosed appearance, the CG- 4A glider
has proved its value and now shares the spotlight with power planes.
The first large scale use of gliders in the European theater of
operations was on June 6, 1944, when France was invaded. The success
of this assignment was viewed by Allied Supreme Headquarters as
sufficient to warrant "sober satisfaction." This conservative
expression confirmed a more out-spoken belief already shared by the
Troop Carrier and Training Commands, which train glider pilots.
The approval bestowed by Allied Headquarters came after a 50-mile
glider train landed airborne troops behind enemy lines to blow up gun
positions, block roads, and hold off the enemy until beach landings
could be made. Although hundreds of gliders were used, losses were
slight.
[end quote]
from page 6, US Army Air Force Pilot Training Manual for the CG-
4A Glider. [With extra supplement from a WACO factory booklet
(The WACO Model NZR Cargo Glider; U.S. Army Air Forces
Designation, CG-4A; British Model, Hadrian)
US$9.95 + s/h
Available from: George A. Petersen or Knauff & Grove
NCHS Inc RR#1 Box 414
PO Box 605 Julian, PA 16844
Springfield, VA 22150-0605 U.S.A.
U.S.A. (800) 888-7627
(703) 569-6663 (814) 355-2483
FAX 703-455-5256 FAX 355-2633
Paul Schweizer in _Wings Like Eagles: The Story of Soaring in the United
States_, reports almost 10,000 CG-4As were produced. Besides Waco,
several large corporations were involved in building CG-4As or major
components, including the Ford Motor Co., Commonwealth Aircraft,
Laister-Kauffman, Cessna, G & A Aircraft, General, Gibson, North
Western, Pratt-Reed, Robertson, and Timm.
The multi-place glider absolute altitude world record (13,489 m /
44,255 ft) was set by pilot Laurence E. Edgar and passenger Harold E.
Klieforth in a WWII Pratt-Reed designed PR-G1 over Bishop, California,
on March 19, 1952. This is the longest- standing world mark for
gliders.
In the current issue (June/July 1994) of SAILPLANE & GLIDING, Bob
Pirie, member of the British Gliding Association, describes how his
suggestion grew into a formation of tugs and 2-seater gliders that will
honor those glider pilots of WWII by opening Britian's major D-Day
commemoration event at 0930 on Sunday, June 5, 1994. Launching
simultaneously from Lasham and RAF Oldham, they will fly over Southsea
Common, a fleet of vessels anchored at Spithead, then Lee on Solent.
Those watching will include HRH, Queen Elizabeth, BGA president, HRH,
Prince Philip, 14 heads of state, and - the most honored guests of all
- veterans and families of the men and women who participated in "The
Longest Day." Derek Piggott, world-class CFI, flew WWII gliders and is
part of the project.
"The years by themselves do not make a place historic.
It is men who give the color of history to a place by their
deeds there ... ."
-Simeon Strunsky (1879-1948), No Mean City, Chap. 18
If anyone knows one of those WWII glider pilots who flew the CG- 4A,
Hadrian, Horsa, Hotspur, SGA 2-8 (LNS-1), PR-G1 (LNE-1), LRA- 1, LTQ-1,
TG-1, TG-2, TG-3, TG-3A, TG-4, TG-5, TG-6, TG-8, or any others for any
country, now is the time to tell their stories and add the color of
their deeds to history.
"History is the essence of innumerable biographies."
-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), On History
Roy D Clark Jr MD
509 Olive Way #531
Seattle, WA 98101-1725
USA