So, for lunchtime reading in the Museum Library, I ran across this:
Amazon.com - Fighting Gliders of World War II
James E. Mrazek, 1977
ISBN: 0 7091 5083 0
192 pages
Anyone read, or have, this? In this book, it covers all the major combatants, including Russia and Japan, and their gliders. Really cool was that both Germans and Americans used gliders as mobil repair shops.
Germans used them for their fighter squadrons on the Eastern front, to provide immediate repair facilities when moving squadrons from place to place, and truck travel was unreliable.
Americans used them for their Armored units, to attempt to keep repair facilities close to the rapidly advancing units.
Also, Americans developed a "Glider 'Snatch' Pick-up Technique that let a low flying tow plane pick up gliders and tow them back to an airfield after a drop. They used this technique to get wounded soldiers back from Normandy and in Burma. This also let them recover any undamaged, or easily repaired, gliders, instead of disassebling them and trucking them back to the ships to take to Britian.
Pick-up was done at 140mph, and the glider was airborne and moving at 120mph in moments. This was done with empty and fully loaded gliders, with equally good results.
Bookmarks