GLIDERS

GLIDERS. The military glider, unique to World War II, became obsolete after the war as aviation developed, especially with the production of successful helicopters.

The Germans conducted the first glider mission in 1940. Recognizing the possibilities, the British and Americans implemented their own glider programs designed to discharge, in a small area, large numbers of fully armed troops ready for immediate combat, thus eliminating the costly time required to assemble paratroopers. Gliders also made it possible to deliver vehicles and weapons too heavy for parachutes.

The Germans made the most imaginative use of gliders to land troops silently on top of the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael in May 1940. Within ten minutes they blinded that great fortress, virtually putting it out of action. In May 1941 the only large-scale employment of gliders by the Luftwaffe played a significant role in Operation Merkur, the successful airborne assault on Crete. A daring, small-scale glider mission liberated Benito Mussolini from imprisonment at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains in Italy in 1943. Elsewhere, minor glider missions substituted when transport aircraft operations were not feasible.

Allied forces used gliders on a larger scale. The first operation, in 1943, a British-American assault on Sicily, provided valuable experience despite being inept and costly. Use of gliders on D day in Normandy was largely successful but indecisive. The largest Allied glider mission, part of Operation Market-Garden in September 1944, employed 2,596 gliders to secure a bridgehead across the Rhine River at Arnhem, Netherlands, but had limited success. Operation Varsity, the last glider operation of the war, near Wesel, Germany, on 23 March 1945, employed 1,348 gliders and was considered a tremendous success.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Craven, Wesley F., and James Lea Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces in World War II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950–1958.

U.S. Air Force. USAF Historical Studies, Air Force Historical Research Agency, nos. 1, 97, and 167.

John A.McQuillenJr./c. w.

See alsoD Day ; World War II, Air War against Germany .

glid·er / ˈglīdər/ • n. 1. a light aircraft that is designed to fly for long periods without using an engine.2. a person or thing that glides: the flying lemur is an efficient glider as well as climber.3. a long swinging seat suspended from a frame in a porch.