thedrifter
04-18-03, 01:42 PM
April 17, 2003
Glider pilots called bravest in World War II
By Brian Scheid
Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — George Buckley didn’t have any false bravado as he talked about flying his flimsy glider behind enemy lines, just hours before one of the bloodiest battles in World War II.
“I was scared to death,” the 77-year-old Milford resident said. “You know right well that in a short time you might be dead. It’s not a good feeling.”
It was before dawn broke on March 24, 1945, as Buckley, then a flight officer in the Army Air Force, glided in the midst of an eerie parade of 1,200 gliders crossing hundreds of feet above the Rhine River as enemy fire lit up the sky.
By the end of that day, the Allies won the battle, known as Operation Plunder, but dozens of Buckley’s fellow pilots died during jarring crash landings or in the midst of combat.
“That was the toughest,” Buckley said of Operation Plunder. “That doesn’t mean that the other ones were easy, but when you land in enemy territory they seem to fight harder than ever.”
Buckley was one of about 5,000 combat glider pilots in World War II, a group made up mostly of fresh-faced teenagers he described as an “unruly group of mavericks.”
An extinct breed of soldiers in today’s military, the glider pilots, an all-volunteer force, flew aircraft without motors or parachutes deep behind enemy lines. After landing, or the vast majority of the time crash landing, the pilots would grab a steel helmet, a rifle and a couple of grenades and become a combat infantry foot soldier.
The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks honored Buckley and the aviators of the National World War II Glider Pilots Association with a plaque dedicated to the hundreds of glider pilots who sacrificed their lives in what some call the most arduous duty of that war.
“What they did was one of the most hazardous things in World War II,” said Michael Speciale, executive director of the New England Air Museum. “But I think probably not enough people know about or understand exactly what it is that they did.”
According to Speciale, the casualty rate for glider pilots was about 10 percent to 30 percent. They were the first to arrive on the most deadliest missions, including landing behind Japanese lines in the jungles of Burma; arriving first in Normandy on D-Day; and dropping into the chilly winter of Belgium, where soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division were surrounded during the Battle of the Bulge.
Buckley, who insists the plaque is only for the young glider pilots who lost their lives, said 203 of the pilots were killed in action, about 140 were lost in the line of duty and more than 200 were injured or wounded in the midst of combat.
After battles, gliders, which carried infantrymen and equipment too heavy to parachute in, were frequently lost and rarely salvageable, Buckley said.
“Gliders were expendable, and after awhile, we got the idea that we were as well,” he said.
Across the Atlantic, gliders were produced at a record pace and had an intimate connection to Connecticut.
The World War II CG4-A Glider was designed and developed by the Waco Aircraft Company in Ohio, but the Pratt and Reed Co. in Essex was one of the country’s leading contractors for the aircraft.
Pratt and Reed, a piano manufacturer, delivered more than 950 gliders, with a price tag of more than $15,500 a piece, to the Army Air Force before the end of the war. The firm tested and trained pilots to use the gliders at Bradley Air Field outside Hartford.
Nearly 20 glider pilots were from this state, but only about 1,200 of the original 5,000 gliding fighters are still alive today.
After World War II, helicopters replaced the gliders, but in the basement of Buckley’s home the spirit of the glider pilots is still alive. Amid the thousands of medals, ancient uniforms and weapons in his labyrinth of military history, the battered insignia Buckley took from the fuselage of a glider rests.
“It was risky,” said Buckley. “But we were a wild bunch.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
Sempers,
Roger
Glider pilots called bravest in World War II
By Brian Scheid
Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — George Buckley didn’t have any false bravado as he talked about flying his flimsy glider behind enemy lines, just hours before one of the bloodiest battles in World War II.
“I was scared to death,” the 77-year-old Milford resident said. “You know right well that in a short time you might be dead. It’s not a good feeling.”
It was before dawn broke on March 24, 1945, as Buckley, then a flight officer in the Army Air Force, glided in the midst of an eerie parade of 1,200 gliders crossing hundreds of feet above the Rhine River as enemy fire lit up the sky.
By the end of that day, the Allies won the battle, known as Operation Plunder, but dozens of Buckley’s fellow pilots died during jarring crash landings or in the midst of combat.
“That was the toughest,” Buckley said of Operation Plunder. “That doesn’t mean that the other ones were easy, but when you land in enemy territory they seem to fight harder than ever.”
Buckley was one of about 5,000 combat glider pilots in World War II, a group made up mostly of fresh-faced teenagers he described as an “unruly group of mavericks.”
An extinct breed of soldiers in today’s military, the glider pilots, an all-volunteer force, flew aircraft without motors or parachutes deep behind enemy lines. After landing, or the vast majority of the time crash landing, the pilots would grab a steel helmet, a rifle and a couple of grenades and become a combat infantry foot soldier.
The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks honored Buckley and the aviators of the National World War II Glider Pilots Association with a plaque dedicated to the hundreds of glider pilots who sacrificed their lives in what some call the most arduous duty of that war.
“What they did was one of the most hazardous things in World War II,” said Michael Speciale, executive director of the New England Air Museum. “But I think probably not enough people know about or understand exactly what it is that they did.”
According to Speciale, the casualty rate for glider pilots was about 10 percent to 30 percent. They were the first to arrive on the most deadliest missions, including landing behind Japanese lines in the jungles of Burma; arriving first in Normandy on D-Day; and dropping into the chilly winter of Belgium, where soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division were surrounded during the Battle of the Bulge.
Buckley, who insists the plaque is only for the young glider pilots who lost their lives, said 203 of the pilots were killed in action, about 140 were lost in the line of duty and more than 200 were injured or wounded in the midst of combat.
After battles, gliders, which carried infantrymen and equipment too heavy to parachute in, were frequently lost and rarely salvageable, Buckley said.
“Gliders were expendable, and after awhile, we got the idea that we were as well,” he said.
Across the Atlantic, gliders were produced at a record pace and had an intimate connection to Connecticut.
The World War II CG4-A Glider was designed and developed by the Waco Aircraft Company in Ohio, but the Pratt and Reed Co. in Essex was one of the country’s leading contractors for the aircraft.
Pratt and Reed, a piano manufacturer, delivered more than 950 gliders, with a price tag of more than $15,500 a piece, to the Army Air Force before the end of the war. The firm tested and trained pilots to use the gliders at Bradley Air Field outside Hartford.
Nearly 20 glider pilots were from this state, but only about 1,200 of the original 5,000 gliding fighters are still alive today.
After World War II, helicopters replaced the gliders, but in the basement of Buckley’s home the spirit of the glider pilots is still alive. Amid the thousands of medals, ancient uniforms and weapons in his labyrinth of military history, the battered insignia Buckley took from the fuselage of a glider rests.
“It was risky,” said Buckley. “But we were a wild bunch.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
Sempers,
Roger