 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Glider infantry" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Glider infantry (also referred to asairlanding infantry esp. in British usage) was a type ofairborne infantry in which soldiers and their equipment were inserted into enemy-controlled territory viamilitary glider. Initially developed in the late 1930s by Germany, glider infantry units were used extensively duringWorld War II, but are no longer used by any modern military, though they are used by some paramilitary guerrillas.[1]
With thetreaty of Versailles preventing any other form of pilot training inGermany, large numbers of gliding clubs and schools were formed there afterWorld War I. Later, when planning theinvasion of France, theGerman military was faced with the problem of theBelgian fort ofEben Emael which dominated the River Meuse. Someone (according to some reports,Adolf Hitler himself) pointed out that the top of the fort was a flat grassy expanse on which gliders could land.
EightDFS 230 gliders, carrying 85Pioneers under LieutenantRudolf Witzig, landed on the roof of the fort in the early hours of May 10, 1940. There had been no declaration of war, and they achieved surprise. Using the newshaped charges, they disabled the fort's guns and trapped the garrison inside. The assault cost 21 casualties.
In the aftermath of this episode, theAllies formed their own glider forces, as part of theirairborne forces. Before they could see action, the Germans had made their largest airborne operation, theattack on Crete. Their glider troops and paratroops suffered heavy casualties, and the Germans decided that this mode of warfare was too costly. A subsequentplan for the invasion ofMalta which called for extensive German and Italian airborne operations was cancelled. The Italian80th La Spezia division was specially trained for airlanding operations, but never took part in any after the Maltese invasion was cancelled and it was instead deployed in theTunisian Campaign.
In 1940,Winston Churchill, theBritish Prime Minister, decreed the formation of a British glider force of 5000 men.[2] American plans were on a similar scale.[citation needed]
The gliders which were most widely used by theAllies were the American-designedWaco CG-4A, which could carry 13 passengers, and the British-designedAirspeed Horsa, which could carry 25 passengers. Both of these aircraft used plywood extensively in their construction, with the CG-4A also using aluminium to provide greater strength in its framing. To deliver especially heavy loads, the BritishGeneral Aircraft Hamilcar could carry up to eight tons (8,000 kg) of equipment.
Much like conventional gliders, these aircraft were towed behind a powered aircraft, usually aC-47 (or theArmstrong Whitworth Albemarle orShort Stirling in British units), and were then released near the designated landing area called the Landing Zone' or 'LZ'.
The crews of these aircraft landed their gliders in circumstances which would challenge the most seasoned pilot[citation needed]. Sometimes flying in at night they had but a few moments to pick a likely landing spot, avoid the other gliders making similar approaches and those already on the ground, avoid incoming enemy fire and then land the aircraft without crashing into any trees, ditches or enemy erected anti-troop stakes (called by pilots in Normandy "Rommel's asparagus"), and do so softly so as to ensure that the aircraft and/or cargo were not damaged in the process[citation needed].
Before theBattle of Normandy, the Allied command feared that the losses suffered by glider groups would be as high as 50-70% before even encountering the enemy. This fear was based on expectations for high numbers of crash landings and encounters withanti-aircraft defences. The actual losses were less than the estimates and were comparable to the losses of associated parachute units.
Certain Glider Artillery battalions (e.g., the 319th and 320th of the82nd Airborne Division) suffered heavier losses than the associated Glider infantry (i.e., the325th). The two artillery battalions landed in the evening hours ofD-Day in a landing zone (LZ-W) near St. Mere Eglise which was not secure. The artillery units sustained many casualties occurring from enemy anti-aircraft and machine gun fire in addition to crash landings. In contrast, the 325th landed on D-Day +1 and faced less intense enemy fire; while more than half of the327th Glider Infantry Regiment landed by boat on the third day atUtah Beach because of the lack of gliders able to carry them into Normandy.
The British Airlanding Brigades consisted of three infantry battalions and a small headquarters. The infantry battalions consisted of 806 men in four rifle companies, each with four platoons, and a support company consisting of two Anti-tank platoons each with four 6-pounder guns, two mortar platoons armed with six 3 inch mortars, and two Vickers machine gun platoons. These battalions were larger than those from theParachute Regiment.[3] Initially the American Glider Infantry Regiments (GIR) had only two battalions, but later in Europe, the two battalions of the 401st GIR were divided in March 1944 to act as the 3rd battalions of the 325th and 327th GIRs. In March 1945 the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment was disbanded and the battalions formally became part of their new regiments.
In both the British and American armies, there was a sense that the glider infantry were poor cousins to the more glamorousparatroopers. In theBritish Army, whereas paratroops were all volunteers,airlanding units were standardline infantry units converted without any option (although they were entitled to wear the same maroon beret andDenison smock as theParachute Regiment). In theUnited States Army, glider troops did not receive the extra pay awarded to paratroopers until after the Normandy invasion (where glider troops provided essential support to the parachute regiments and fought on the front-lines alongside their parachute brethren). This blatant inequality of treatment came to the attention of U.S. Airborne High Command and from that point forward the glider troops were issued the samejump boots and combat gear as paratroopers (including the M1A1 carbine with folding stock) and earned the same pay until the war ended in Europe in May 1945. There are numerous examples of glider troops volunteering as replacements for paratrooper units but very few, if any, examples of paratroopers volunteering for the glider units.
In one respect the American and British armies differed. The British Army formed theGlider Pilot Regiment from the glider aircrew. The men in this unit were not only trained aircrew, but also very well-trained infantry.[4] After a large scale landing, they would form an infantry battalion, attached to the HQ of the airborne division involved. The US Army did not form a comparable unit.
Firstly, glider infantry are loaded into gliders which are attached totowing aircraft by a cable. The loaded gliders are then towed through the air by towing aircraft and flown to a release point usually just beyond the hearing range of enemy troops.[citation needed] The tow cables are then released and the gliders would be piloted, without engine power, to a designated landing zone. Once the gliders landed, the troops and equipment would disembark and enter combat. Glider pilots were often organized together after landing to fight or be extracted to safety.[citation needed]
Compared withparatroops, alongside whom they would operate, glider-borne troops had several advantages:
However using gliders as a method of insertion also had serious drawbacks:
TheAllies first used gliders in Operation Husky, theinvasion of Sicily in 1943. This first experiment was disastrous. Poor planning and bad weather resulted in the gliders being scattered in the air. Several landed in the sea and 200 men drowned. Dozens of gliders and towplanes were damaged or shot down byfriendly fire.[5] Few gliders reached the intended landing zones, and only 73 men (from most of a brigade) reached the intended target, the Ponte Grande bridge south ofSyracuse.
With much better intelligence, planning and rehearsal, the glider landings in theBattle of Normandy were far more successful. In particular, onecoup de main force in six Horsa gliderscaptured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by surprise, led byMajorJohn Howard. The6th British Airlanding Brigade, part of6th Airborne Division, were in action early on following concentrated landings, and prevented early German attempts to counter-attack the Allied landings. American landings were more scattered, but still more successful than many planners had hoped for.
InOperation Market Garden, the1st British Airlanding Brigade, part of the1st British Airborne Division, were landed on the first day of the operation. The landings took place in daylight and were unopposed, but the only landing and drop zones thought suitable for such a large force were a considerable distance from the vital bridge which was the objective. No attempt was made to mount a coup de main attack by glider (although this was largely due to the haste with which the operation was mounted). A jeep-mounted reconnaissance squadron brought in by glider failed in the mission.
In thesubsequent fighting in Arnhem, the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Glider Pilot Regiment suffered heavy casualties.
The last major operation involving gliders was the crossing of the RiverRhine in March 1945. To avoid the long delay in relieving the airborne troops which had been a major cause of the failure ofOperation Market Garden, the landings were made close to the German front line defences. The landings took place in daylight once again, and heavy German anti-aircraft fire took heavy toll of the vulnerable gliders. Most Allied casualties were incurred by the glider pilots.[citation needed]
TheChindits were the creation ofBrigadierOrde Wingate, and were a large force operating behind Japanese lines during theBurma Campaign. InOperation Thursday to avoid the exhaustion of a long approach march, most of them were flown by the1st Air Commando Group to landing zones deep in enemy territory which had been secured by advance guards landed by glider on March 5, 1944. This operation, although successful, also incurred heavy casualties. This was partly because the intended landing ground was changed at the last minute. Also, the distance flown and the loads towed by the aircraft towing the gliders were greater than anything met in Europe. Many gliders had to be released over enemy territory or mountains. Others crashed on landing on the unfamiliar landing zone. However, enough construction equipment was landed to make the landing ground fit for transport aircraft.
After the heavy losses at Crete the Germans made no more large-scale glider assaults. They did make several coup de main attacks against targets which were not protected by anti-aircraft guns. One of these wasUnternehmen Eiche ("Operation Oak") a landing on theGran Sasso inItaly on September 12, 1943, in which the deposed Italian dictatorBenito Mussolini was rescued from house arrest.
Another was an attack (codenamedOperation Rösselsprung) on the headquarters of MarshalJosip Broz Tito inYugoslavia in March 1944. Glider troops landed above Tito's headquarters. This was in the middle of a large concentration ofYugoslav partisans, and the glider troops once again suffered heavy casualties, while Tito escaped.
The last German glider attack was on the liberatedFree French redoubt of the Vercors in July 1944. This attack from an unexpected direction drove the resistance fighters from the plateau, but the conduct of the operation was marred by the brutal behaviour of the glider troops.
Glider infantry did not survive long after the close of World War II. The German glider infantry units were disbanded. The U.S. Army Glider Infantry School was closed in 1948 and remaining glider units were eventually converted into parachute infantry. About the same time the BritishGlider Pilot Regiment was subsumed into theArmy Air Corps and the airlanding brigades were disbanded. However the Soviet Union continued to train and use glider troops well into the 1960s.
A convergence of factors led to the rather quick displacement of glider-borne infantry by regular paratroops. Larger capacity post war cargo plane designs with stern loading ramps enabled paratroops to carry heavier equipment. It was unsafe to tow wooden gliders at the high cruising speeds of four engined transports. Improvements in parachute infantry training and tactics reduced the scattering when paratroops disembarked. Newer anti-aircraft technology like radar and radar directed guns made gliders readily detectable[citation needed].
The concept of using aircraft to forcibly insert infantry, however, never completely died and was eventually revived in the late 1950s with the advent of helicopters andair assault infantry.