Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: adrian@siesoft.co.uk (Adrian Hussey)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Airborne operations
Message-ID: <1990Jul19.030635.29187@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jul 90 03:06:35 GMT
References: <1990Jul3.031911.6890@cbnews.att.com>
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From: adrian@siesoft.co.uk (Adrian Hussey)
In article <1990Jul3.031911.6890@cbnews.att.com> hpb@hpb.cis.pitt.edu (Harry Bloomberg) writes:
>
>
>   This particular episode described the invasion of Germany and the
>crossing of the Rhine River.  The footage that really caught my
>attention depicted the dropping of paratroopers, both by towed glider
>and directly out of aircraft.
>
>   Some questions:
>
>   1) What are the trade-offs one must concider when deciding how to
>deliver paratroopers to the target area?  When do you want
>to use gliders and when do you want your paratroopers to jump directly
>out of aircraft?
>
>   4) How many men could be carried by a glider, how large were they,
>what was the range, how well did they work, etc? 
>
>Harry Bloomberg

No concrete answers to your questions I'm afraid, just an item you
may find of interest.

Gliders were used extensively in Operation Market Garden - certain
units of the British airborne went in in them, and I thought
elements of the 82nd and 101st did as well (?). I imagine any decent
book on the operation would contain some information on the subject,
but you could do a lot worse than try Cornelius Ryan's "A Bridge Too
Far", which is a) very, very readable and b) covers all sorts of
aspects, from the thoughts behind the planning of the operations, to
the stories and reminiscences of the people who actually took part.

Somebody mentioned the danger of being in a glider that lands badly
and Ryan certainly has a couple of anecdotes in the book which bear
this out - I recall (I think) one glider was carrying a field
artillery piece which broke loose on landing, with fatal results for
the crew.

Anyway, it's a damn good book and well worth reading if you're
interested in airborne ops (assuming of course, that you havn't
already done so!)

Also, a new book has just been published in the UK telling the story
of Market Garden from the German perspective. If anybody wants
details of it please email me.

Hoping this was of interest.

Regards

Adrian Hussey
adrian@siesoft.co.uk