Very cool. Thanks for posting. Sure seemed the plane was flying much faster than the glider appeared to be when snatched off the ground!

Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

Spore Ag said:

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Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

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No, they were manned. They didn't fly themselves. And they would detach before landing.

Here's a post war (1949) video of the same type of operation

Spore Ag said:

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Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

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They burned them where they landed.

Rabid Cougar said:

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Spore Ag said:

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Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

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They burned them where they landed.

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Didn't watch the video, huh?

During the initial assault some gliders were towed in tandem by what type of plane? C-47 used for the return in this clip.

Lots of glider training at Bergstrom Field in Austin - 1943 !

CanyonAg77 said:

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Rabid Cougar said:

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Spore Ag said:

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Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

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They burned them where they landed.

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Didn't watch the video, huh?

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Nope.. I have read somewhere that they burned most of the gliders.

I Googled and found this:

There were 1,900 gliders used in Market Garden. They "snatched" 256. Where do you think the other 1,600 plus went????

They used 517 at Normady and recovered 13.

"During the evening and the following morning, many more American troops would be delivered to the battlefield in a combination of several hundred CG-4A and Horsa gliders. and though many gliders were badly damaged casualties were lighter than had been feared. Although designed to be re-usable, 97% of the gliders were eventually scrapped in-situ."

"Austere Recovery of Cargo Gliders" by Keith Thomas, Gerald Berry and Lee Jett
National Defense University,Institute for National Strategic Studies

Rabid Cougar said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Rabid Cougar said:

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Spore Ag said:

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Guess the gliders were not manned upon return?

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They burned them where they landed.

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Didn't watch the video, huh?

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Nope.. I have read somewhere that they burned most of the gliders.

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Well, the whole point of the video was the recovery of the flyable gliders.

SporeAg did not seem to think that the gliders being recovered had to be manned.

Not a terrible assumption, but yes, the gliders that were recovered were piloted.

Spore Ag said:

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During the initial assault some gliders were towed in tandem by what type of plane? C-47 used for the return in this clip.

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I'm not aware of any plane used for WACO CG-4 Glider towing, other than the DC-3.

British Horsa gliders were sometimes towed by Lancaster Bombers, I think.

Side note, if anyone is interested in the Glider force:

https://ci.lubbock.tx.us/departments/silent-wings-museum

MUSEUM HISTORY


In 1971, former pilots of the U.S. Army Air Force's Glider Program banded together to form the National World War II Glider Pilots Association Inc. Their mission was to establish a forum for glider pilots to interact socially and provide the framework for the preservation of the history of the U.S. glider program.

One of its first goals was to locate and restore a WACO CG-4A glider for public display. Several glider pilots in the Dallas area learned about a CG-4A glider sitting atop a tire store in Fresno, California. After World War II, the aircraft had been purchased as military surplus, placed on top of the building and used as advertising. The glider was purchased and restoration was completed in time for the 1979 national reunion in Dallas. After the reunion, steps were taken to build a museum to house the CG-4A.

The first Silent Wings Museum opened to the public on November 10, 1984 in Terrell, Texas. By 1997, the pilots realized that a more permanent museum home was needed. Lubbock, where a majority of the glider pilots had trained, offered to provide a new site for the museum. The pilots selected Lubbock as the new location and the Terrell site closed in January 2001. In October 2002, the former South Plains Army Airfield site opened the new Silent Wings Museum with the restored CG-4A glider as a centerpiece of the exhibits.

CONTRIBUTIONS
One way to honor Glider Pilots and their service to their country is by contributing to the museum. For more information contact the Museum at (806) 775-3047.

BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Lots of glider training at Bergstrom Field in Austin - 1943 !

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Including my father. He served as a C-46/47 pilot out in the Pacific Theater and part of his training was as both a glider pilot and tow pilot at Bergstrom Field.

74OA said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Lots of glider training at Bergstrom Field in Austin - 1943 !

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Including my father. He served as a C-46/47 pilot out in the Pacific Theater and part of his training was as both a glider pilot and tow pilot at Bergstrom Field.

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Small world. My Dad did as well....

My dad was too young for WWII. But he grew up near the glider base between Lamesa and O'Donnell. A training glider, I assume the 2-seat trainer, came down near their farm.

He said they sent a jeep out with a tow cable, and asked him to run alongside holding the wings level as they towed it for takeoff.

Glider pilots were trained at Lubbock, as well as Plainview, and there was a field at Finny Switch, just north of Plainview.

I'll try to find and link some articles about the Finny field.

USA*** said:

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74OA said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Lots of glider training at Bergstrom Field in Austin - 1943 !

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Including my father. He served as a C-46/47 pilot out in the Pacific Theater and part of his training was as both a glider pilot and tow pilot at Bergstrom Field.

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Small world. My Dad did as well....

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I watched that video and the first thing that occurred to me was, "Dang, the stresses on those airframes when the glider was snatched must have been huge."

Senor Cardgage said:

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I watched that video and the first thing that occurred to me was, "Dang, the stresses on those airframes when the glider was snatched must have been huge."

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Not really. It's a nylon rope, so it's not unlike a bungee jumper.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Senor Cardgage said:

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I watched that video and the first thing that occurred to me was, "Dang, the stresses on those airframes when the glider was snatched must have been huge."

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Not really. It's a nylon rope, so it's not unlike a bungee jumper.

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Ah, got it, thanks. I hadn't noticed the second video where they mention the nylon rope before posting. The wikipedia article on it also explains it a bit.

Overly detailed training film on loading the gliders and tying down equipment:

The C-47's were specially equipped with essentially a large fishing reel inside the fuselage that would let out cable as the plane hooked the glider to reduce the stresses fro being yanked in the air. New a guy that flew the hump for a year and then was recruited to fly with the air commandos during the aerial invasion of Burma in late 43. They trained to pull two gliders full of British troops each and got quite proficient at it. However on the day of the actual invasion the Brits carried a lot of extra gear and weight causing the gliders to be over weight and almost caused several crashes.

We had several opportunities to talk about snatching the gliders off the ground, which was the only way to get the gliders, and the wounded, out of the landing zones. I mentioned that it looks pretty risky and he replied that they were able to do it fairly easily but admitted it was hairy when performed at night.