GLIDING INTO ACTION

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 15, 31 July 1944, Page 12

GLIDING INTO ACTION

Offensive Operation Value of Britain’s Engineless Aircraft By Squadron-Leader John Macadam, Squadron-Leader Macadam is a former sports editor of the “ Daily Express ” (London). At the outbreak of war he became a war correspondent. Joined the R.A.F. two years ago and spent six months in the ranks before being commissioned; has written a book about his experiences in the ranks.

With the introduction to modern warfare of the towed engineless aircraft, the extension of the use of the transport aircraft, and the parachute, ground forces have been given a mobility and speed of movement that would have been ridiculed less than a decade ago. By the use of navigational aids, modern aircraft flying from Britian—or other Allied bases—are able to find their way to targets that would have been closed to them less than two years ago, and, once over that target, the socalled glider and the low-level parachute enable them to place troops within a few yards of their pin-pointed objective, armed with light or heavy equipment, as the situation demands.

That is a very large contribution to the scientific planning of a modern battle and Allied tacticians are thoroughly aware of the potentialities of the new weapon. It is true that sometimes Jules Verne claims have been made for gliders that are fancifully pictured as being towed in low trains at tremendous distance from their objective, on which they swoop in utter silence and then disgorge anything from a battalion of the Guards to a Mountain Brigade.

Gliders Aren’t so Flimsy

he facts are less exotic, more compelling. In the first place the large up-to-date glider is not really a glider at all. It is no sensitivelv-contmllpd

creature sniffing out helpful currents of air on which to dart and swim like a bird in flight. It is a heavy business-like piece of solid wood and fabric whose main business is to be towed over a target with a certain load, and, when over that target, to get down on it with the greatest possible speed. To this end it begins to lose height as soon as it is released by the towing aircraft, gets its nose down on its target at a terrifying angle, hurtles earthwards, straightens out at the appropriate

moment, and touches down almost immediately. This operation is as noiseless as a steam-shovel working in rocky ground ; it is as birdlike as an overheated hippo getting into a suddenly-espied river.

These illusions shattered, what is left? As much as any modern planner could want. Leaving for a moment the question of parachute troops who are still supreme for certain specialized

tasks, it is now recognized that gliders are an economic proposition, since large numbers of well-equipped and mounted troops can be towed with accuracy with a good chance of landing without being detected. Apart from their purely offensive purpose, gliders have proved themselves as transports. It is recorded that within seventy minutes of instructions being received to transport the personnel of a unit to a location more than one hundred miles away, the first glider was loaded and in the air. Three and a quarter hours later their load of men and equipment had been removed, and less than ten hours later all the transport aircraft were back at base.

On another occasion a bomber crashed on return from an operation and a new engine was required. It would have taken eleven days to do this by road, yet within eight hours the engine was delivered by glider. These examples indicate the scope of glider- activityfor the speedy landing of offensive troops, for the transport of food and material, for the return transport of wounded men. Special Briefing for Pilots Just as important as the aircrew of the towing aircraft is the pilot of the glider, for on him, from the moment of cast-off, depends the successful culmination of the mission. These men are all members of Britain’s Glider .Pilot Regiment, distinct in their parachutist uniforms and

their light-blue wings. They are trained by the R.A.F. first in light training aircraft and then in the engineless gliders. They attend their own special briefing before each operation, and also the briefing of the R.A.F. aircrews engaged. Between the R.A.F. men and the glider pilots there exists a deep mutual respect and trust. An outward token of this feeling can be seen on one of the stations of the R.A.F. Group responsible for air-borne operations. Here the R.A.F aircrews wear the silver-wing hat badge of the paratroops on the breasts of their working uniforms. “ It is our way of showing the complete unity that exists in our squadrons between the R.A.F. and the Army types," said the Station Commander, Group Captain T. M. Abraham, D.F.C. “ At work, and in the mess when work is done, these boys’ interests are identical.” In the airfields where R.A.F. and airborne troops exercise, the halfaffectionate, half-derisive “ Pongo " and “ Brown Job ” is never applied to the soldiers. The soldiers look at the Albemarles and Halifaxes and Wellingtons and say : “Me fly one of these contraptions ? Not for a pension.” The aircrews look at the parachutes and the gliders and say : “ You could’nt get us into these things for a fortune." Out of this simple 50-50 regard is being forged one of Britain's most effective weapons of war.