Steering an Aerial Plywood Box Through Enemy Fire: The Glider Pilots of WW2

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In World War II, there were no C-130s or large cargo aircraft that could deliver heavy equipment
– such as a truck or artillery piece – in advance of an airborne invasion. For that, you needed to put that equipment, along with its crew, in a glider. These were unpowered boxes of plywood, pulled by a towing plane into enemy territory by a single cable wrapped with telephone wire.

The men who flew on gliders were all volunteers, for a specialized duty that their own government projected would have a 50 percent casualty rate. In every major European invasion of the war they led the way. They landed their gliders ahead of the troops who stormed Omaha Beach, and sometimes miles ahead of the paratroopers bound for the far side of the Rhine River in Germany itself. From there, they had to hold their positions. They delivered medical teams, supplies and gasoline to troops surrounded in the Battle of the Bulge, ahead even of Patton's famous supply truck convoy.

These all-volunteer glider pilots played a pivotal role from the day the Allies invaded Occupied Europe to the day Germany finally surrendered. Yet the story of these anonymous heroes is virtually unknown.

To explore these stories with us is today’s guest, Scott McGaugh, author of “Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin: The Glider Pilots of World War II.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:07.0	Before D Day on June 6, 1944, Allied Paratroopers famously landed behind enemy lines in order to support the amphibious operation.
0:16.0	But the paratroopers couldn't just fight with what they had on their person.
0:20.0	They needed a lot more equipment.
0:21.0	Today, artillery trucks and anything within a
0:23.8	reasonable weight limit of a few tons can be delivered by helicopter. But in
0:27.1	World War II heavy equipment could only be delivered behind enemy lines with a
0:31.4	glider. These are unpowered aircraft, practically boxes of plywood,
0:35.8	that were pulled by a towing cable, usually by a C-47, at about 125 miles an hour,
0:40.8	and the cable was released close to the landing zone.
0:43.7	At that point the pilot would do as best to steer it to ground and there wasn't much difference
0:47.3	between landing and crashing, which we can see in some battles where crews suffered up to a 50%
0:52.4	casualty rate.
0:53.6	In every major European invasion of World War II,
0:56.2	crews of gliders led the way.
0:58.0	The land of their gliders ahead of their troops who stormed Omaha Beach.
1:00.8	They delivered medical teams, supplies, and gasoline to troops surrounded
1:04.0	the Battle of the Bulge, ahead of even Patton's famous supply truck convoy.
1:07.8	Today I'm speaking to Scott Magoff, author of Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin, the Glider Pilots of World War II.
1:14.0	We look at what it was like to be part of a glider crew, the impact they had on the war effort,
1:18.8	why their stories have been mostly forgotten, and what we can take away from their experiences.
1:23.0	Hope we enjoy this discussion.
	...

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