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To: 2banana

Had an old NCO that was Glider Pilot Qualified, called them flying coffins.


6 posted on 04/18/2008 7:22:10 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: SandRat
NCO that was Glider Pilot Qualified, called them flying coffins.

Turns out that the whole glider concept was a mistake. Too many casualties occurred before the glider-borne troops even made it into combat, and they couldn't carry enough heavy stuff.

Not to mention they never managed to actually develop a really effective glider! So the whole thing being a cluster-muck, why just naturally the brave guys flying these flimsy contraptions, who suffered horrible casualty rates, were disrespected and sort of swept under the rug.

Many of the pilots weren't commissioned, so they didn't get any status. The AAC pilots towing them couldn't keep formation or altitude, never mind navigate the gliders to precisely where they wanted to go, and when they flared out to land, the Germans planted posts in the open fields to wreck them, and shot up the canvas, spruce, and plywood contraptions at will.

Glider troops? Bad idea all around and quickly ended experiment.

7 posted on 04/18/2008 8:32:52 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (GOP Plank: Double Domestic Crude Production. Increase refining capacity 50 percent)
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