WACO CG 4A Combat Glider
If you go to The U S Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio you will see one of the 13,909 CG 4A gliders built in the USA during WW II .

A few facts about the CG 4A.

Wingspan 83 ft 8 in
Length 48 ft 3.75 in
Height 12 ft 7.44 in
Empty weight 3750 lbs
Gross weight 7500- 9000 lbs
Tow speed 150 mph
Stall speed 41 55 mph
Average glide speed 65 mph
Glide ratio 7500 lbs 10 to 1
Most common tow plane C 47 DC 3

Cargos often carried
13 troops and 2 pilots
Jeep and 4 troops and 2 pilots
Trailer and 7 troops and 2 pilots
75mm howitzer 3 troops 2 pilots 18 rounds of ammunition
Anti tank gun 3 troops 2 pilots ammunition
3 mules and 3 troops 2 pilots
2 pilots misc cargo fuel ammo rations medical mail evacuate wounded

CG 4As saw action in Sicily Burma Normandy Southern France Holland Bastogne Rhine New Guinea and Luzon At almost any gathering of Warbirds you will find WW II Glider Pilots. Ask around Many wear their nametags and wings Some 6000 were trained in World War II

NOTE For more information about the CG 4A glider program contact

The World War II Glider Pilots Association
136 W Main St
Freehold NJ 07728
phone 732 462 1838

NO ENGINE NO PROPELLER NO ROAR
It s A Combat Glider

Any account of the airborne operations on D Day would not be complete without including the gliders the glider pilots and the glider troops The whole concept of powerless envelopment other than in a parachute was unique to many The courage and skills of those who served in this way are still to be admired

Two types of gliders were used in the Normandy invasion the British Horsa and the American WACO CG 4A WACO incidentally stands for Weaver Aircraft Company a long term manufacturer of beautiful biplanes The company is in Troy Ohio but CG 4As were also manufactured in other plants around the country Manufacturers of pianos and furniture suddenly found themselves making gliders There were four glider missions flown on D Day and considering all the usual snarls these missions went generally well

Two landed just before dawn one just before dark and the majority of the fourth mission just after dark The ground troops welcomed the heavy weapons the gliders carried but USAF historians concluded some years later that the greatest value lay in the experience they provided in little known fields of aerial reinforcement and resupply Warren 97 61 64 The two missions flown before and after sunset on D Day included both CG 4As and Horsas They had extensive fighter escort and with the advantage of some daylight they were generally more accurate These missions were made up of serials from the 434 th 435 th 436th 437 th and 438 th Groups

The heavy losses projected by most planners for the daylight glider missions just didn't happen although in one case the 82 nd Airborne commander tried and failed to change the landing zone when he saw that Germans still held it As in most airborne missions throughout the war there was no workable way for the airborne forces on the ground to talk to the Troop Carrier Command Post or for either of them to talk to the Troop Carrier serials in the air This was before the age of two way pocket radios and communications failed regularly As a result most gliders in this case came down in the original landing zone with a large loss of men and materiel

THE SECOND MISSION

On the second mission in the dark the 82 nd Airborne visual aids on the alternate landing zone Landing Zone E were the ones that stood out above the others This inadvertently led the formation over heavier German anti aircraft positions and three C 47s were lost The darkness and other factors resulted in over 20 per cent casualties among the Glider Pilots The four D Day glider missions consisted of 313 gliders 141 Wacos and 172 Horsas They carried 75 artillery pieces including howitzers and anti tank guns 215 vehicles 1,792 troops and 174 tons of cargo much of which was ammunition On 7 June 1944 the IX Troop Carrier Command launched two glider missions and two parachute resupply missions All took off in the early morning hours The British flew only one large resupply drop during NEPTUNE which they made near midnight on D Day

This mission flown by 50 Dakotas of 46 Group brought back chilling remembrances of Sicily when over anxious U S Navy gunners opened up on American troop carrier aircraft in the darkness The British formation approaching Normandy had six airplanes shot down by friendly fire The first American supply mission received friendly fire as well but with no losses This mission to the 82 nd Airborne comprised 208 aircraft drawn from the 61 st 313 th 314 th and 316 th Troop Carrier Groups and was plagued by unpredicted bad weather that forced 25 percent of the planes to turn back Lack of workable communications again resulted in costly losses of men and supplies Ten aircraft were lost to small arms fire and of 1234 tons of cargo 156 tons were dropped and only140 were retrieved This showed again the danger from concentrated small arms fire to slow flying aircraft at low altitude and once more poor communications played its costly role

And according to official air force records the second mission was never requested by the 101 st and should never have been sent At least one ground unit the 501 st PIR Parachute Infantry Regiment had put out panels with a supply request for reconnaissance spotters but the only Eureka Rebecca in operation was in the 82 nd area for the first mission

GERMANS IN THE LANDING ZONES

Some cargo was dropped in Drop Zones which were still partly occupied by the Germans and someinto areas held by the 82 nd and possibly the 8 th Infantry Division The 442 nd TCG flying 56 aircraft had over 20 aircraft damaged and two men wounded The 440 th TCG with 62 aircraft had four men killed and two wounded when they lost two planes to flak and from bomb loss when a P47 flying escort over the Channel inadvertently dropped its bomb cluster on a C 47 flying below it Besides the obvious deficiencies in communications between ground and air which would persist throughout almost the entire war some telling conclusions were drawn regarding use of gliders in air assaults According to USAAF historical analysis the missions on D Day l demonstrated that during daylight infantry units could be delivered by glider within artillery range of an enemy and have 90 percent of their men assembled and ready for action within a couple of hours.

Glider missions--one of the most controversial subjects within the Normandy operational planning staff had once again proven to be troublesome and excessively dangerous After Normandy night landings were not attempted again in the European theater Warren 97 9 Dank a 128

We will never again see the likes of the CG 4A made of plywood welded steel tubing and fabric covering There were over 13,000 made and like the parachutes many were just left where theylanded for the locals to pick apart And in some cases the packing crates were more popular among the glider troops than the glider They were made of beautiful pine lumber and were often outfitted as living quarters And in many cases they were the only source of lumber for other needs around the various Troop Carrier bases.

A GLIDER PILOT'S STORY
By Flight Officer George E Pete Buckley
74th Troop Carrier Squadron 434th TCG

On the third of June at Aldermaston home of the 434 th Troop Carrier Group and a high level of nervous excitement and tension was in the air Airborne troops in great numbers were moving onto the field with much more equipment than could be used in a training flight Military police were stationed at all the gates and no one could get on or off the base

In the afternoon of June 4 th all C 47 and glider pilots reported to the operations room for a briefing by the group intelligence officer We all took our seats facing a small stage and when we had all settled down he unveiled a map of France Which showed exactly what and where our objective was A low gasp and murmur went up as we all realized that the time had finally come for us to put our skills as glider pilots and tow pilots to the real test He also told us that within the last 24 hours the Germans had been studding the fields in the LZ area with poles and were digging large ditches across other fields to prevent glider landings Evidently the Germans were preparing a lively reception for us

THE LEAD GLIDER GROUP

His next announcement took us all by surprise We the 434th Group had been chosen to lead the glider phase of the D Day invasion with fifty two CG 4A gliders carrying men and equipment of the 101st Airborne Division The code name for this serial would be CHICAGO and we would land on Landing Zone E LZ E at Heisville on the Cotentin Peninsula

Five minutes behind us taking off from Ramsbury would be the 437th Group towing fifty two CG 4As carrying men of the 82nd Airborne Division They would land five miles northwest of us in Landing Zone area E LZ E near les Forges The code name for this serial would be DETROIT We also learned to our dismay that we would be going in at night because the paratroopers who preceded us could not wait until dawn for the anti tank guns ammunition medics jeeps and medical supplies we would be carrying This was a tough nut to swallow since most of our training in the States and in England had been for early dawn of daylight landings The thought of a night landing in enemy territory in strange fields with a heavily loaded glider sounded like sure disaster The only good news was that Mike Murphy the senior Glider Officer in European Theater ETO had convinced the top brass that the English Horsa gliders we were supposed to fly would not be as suitable for night landings as the American CG 4As and the switch was made at the last minute

That afternoon June 5 I went down to the flight line with Flight Officer F O Bill Bruner my co pilot to check out the CG 4A and went to meet our 101st passengers Pfc Paul Nagelbush Pfc Stanley Milewiski and Pfc Russell Kamp They were members of the 81st AAA Bn 101st Airborne Division We would also be carrying supplies ammunition their 57mm anti tank gun entrenching tools a camouflage net and three boxes of rations The total glider load was 3,750 lbs Our C 47 tow plane flight crew was Pilot 1st Lt David Whitmore co pilot Lt G Goulding radio operator and crew chief were T Sgt F Raymond and S Sgt E Harmon Take off was scheduled for approximately 0 10 on the morning of the 6th with touchdown scheduled in enemy territory at 4 00AM near Heisville Our glider was No 49 at the tail end of the 52 ship formation

Bill and I then went to the mess hall for the proverbial last meal and those of us who felt the need went to see the chaplain A lot of us there hadn't been to church for quite some time His tent was jammed At approximately 0 10AM our tow ship gunned its engines and started down the runway through a light rain shower into the black of night As the wheels of our glider left the ground someone in the back yelled Lookout Hitler Here we come That helped to break the ice for the moment After that no one said a word as I trimmed the glider for the long flight ahead For the next three and one half hours we would be alone with our thoughts and fears It wasn't too bad for me because I was occupied flying the glider but the Airborne men in back and Bill Burner had nothing to do They must have been going through hell with their thoughts We settled down on tow holding our position behind the C 47 by keeping the faint blue formation lights on top of the plane centered up in line between the faint glow of the tow plane's engine flame dampeners This is not the easiest job in the world at night the longer you stare the more your eyes start to play tricks on you I turned the controls over to Bruner occasionally so I could look away and get my eyes to refocus again The added problem we faced was the extreme turbulence caused by all the planes ahead of us

Shortly after we crossed the coast of France small arms fire and heavier flak started coming up at the planes at the front of the formation and intensified the closer we got to our landing zone LZ It looked like fluid streams of tracers zigzagging and hosing across the sky mixed in with the heavier explosions of flak One wondered how anything could fly through that and come out in one piece After the front of the formation had passed over the German positions and woke them all up we at the tail end of the line began to get hit by a heavier volume of small arms fire which sounded like corn popping or typewriter keys banging on loose paper as it went through our glider I tried to pull my head down into my chest to make myself as small as possible I tucked my elbows in close to my body pulled my knees together to protect my vital parts and was even tempted to take my feet off the rudder pedals so they wouldn't stick out so far I really started to sweat