Glider assault on Eben Emael as an archetype for the future

Infantry Magazine, March-April, 2004 by Paul Witkowski

The Allies saw there were limits to glider operations, but a combination of paratroopers and equipment- laden gliders would prove to be highly successful. Next, the Allies built upon the concept of combining airborne forces to seize key objectives and terrain to pave a corridor for follow-on ground forces. The western Allies mastered this concept on both large-scale invasions and small-scale commando missions. The final lesson was the importance of mission rehearsal exercises. Intensive preparation combined with good intelligence of the objective yielded a higher probability of mission accomplishment. The Allies built upon these lessons to produce a glider program that dwarfed the pioneering German one.

The United States was reluctant to explore the possibilities of using gliders. However, American intelligence agents took close notice of German gliders. A War Department intelligence report dated February 3, 1941, mentioned the sighting of German gliders: "While flying recently at Rangsdorf, near Berlin, an American official observer saw three gliders on the ground, each hitched behind a Ju-52 airplane. The gliders were towed into the air, but they did not return to Rangsdorf, nor were they to be found two days later." The official gave an accurate description of a DFS-230 to which an intelligence officer added, "There has been numerous reports of the manufacture of troop carrying gliders in Germany ... This report, however, was the first in which an American official observer stated that he saw military gliders." Finally, under the direction of General Henry 'Hap' Arnold in 1941, the United States glider program was born.

By late 1944, the American glider fleet totaled more than 10,500 military gliders. To meet the pressing needs of production, gliders and their subassemblies were produced by a wide variety of manufacturers ranging from Ford Motor Company and piano companies to casket factories. The mainstay of the U.S. glider fleet was the Waco Aircraft Company's CG-4A. The CG-4A was constructed of a metal and wood frame covered with fabric, manned by a crew of two and with an allowable cargo load of 3,750 pounds, allowing it to carry 13 combat-equipped troops or a jeep or small artillery piece. The British equivalent, the Airspeed Horsa, was about twice as large in size and payload as its American counterpart. These gliders were used to take the fight to the Axis.

Allied Glider Operations in WWII

The Allies expanded the concept the Germans used at Eben Emael tenfold. Large-scale glider and paratroop drops were used several times during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy; Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France; Operation Market Garden, deep penetration into Holland; and Operation Varsity, crossing the Rhine River into Germany. Each of these operations entailed a massive movement of troops and equipment via gliders that made the glider attack on Eben Emael pale in comparison.

The largest of all these operations was Market Garden, launched on September 17, 1944. British Field Bernard Marshal Montgomery developed the plan for the operation. The general concept was to lay a corridor of paratroopers and glidermen along a 60-mile stretch of Holland to secure key bridges ending just across the northern end of the Rhine River. The British XXX Corps, armored component, would punch through the German frontlines and link up with the three Allied Airborne Divisions in Holland, crossing the bridges seized by the airborne troopers. From the northern terminus in Arnhem, Allied forces would be poised to strike deep into Germany's industrial heartland, hopefully bringing an early end to the war. Mrazek highlighted the scope of the operation: "Operation 'Market' was an airborne operation of unprecedented magnitude. A total of 34,876 troops had gone into battle by air--13,781 by gliders, 20,190 by parachute, and 905 by aeroplane on a prepared landing strip. Gliders brought in 1,689 vehicles, 290 howitzers and 1,259 tons of ammunition and other supplies." The original plan for the operation required three consecutive days of good weather to deliver all of the gliders and paratroopers to their intended landing and drop zones. Out of the 2,596 British and American gliders dispatched for Operation Market, 2,239 gliders were effective and delivered men and equipment to their designated landing zones. A corps worth of troops starting with the 101st Airborne Division in the southern sector stretched from Eindhoven to Uden to meet the 82nd Airborne Division in the center between Grave and Nijmegan and the British 1st Airborne Division with the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade at the northern tip in Arnhem. This overly ambitious plan went too far and ended in the near destruction of the British force at Arnhem.