Towed gliders enable troops to make swift and silent landings behind enemy lines
CRAPIED THUNDER OVER NORMANDY For soldiers in World War II glider landings were always dangerous In these engineless aircraft used to silently carry troops behind enemy lines every landing was a crash landing But gliders would be critical components of the Allied invasion of Normandy France of 1944 For four years Nazi Germany in the summer had dominated the European continent Now Allied troops from the United States the United Kingdom and Canada prepared to liberate France Hundreds of thousands of troops would arrive on Normandy's beaches in landing craft on the morning of June 6 1944 the day known as D Day But hours earlier a few thousand soldiers would parachute or glide behind Nazi lines to accomplish important missions ahead of the main invasion
An elite company of British soldiers GLIDERS understood the risks that came along with Horsa gliders had a wingspan of 88 feet 27 m glider missions They also recognized the and hinged nose panels so jeeps or other immense size of the task ahead of the wheeled vehicles could be loaded and unloaded Allied armies Still they had volunteered easily The gliders were constructed from for a special mission They would be among wood making them lightweight and relatively the first Allied soldiers to set foot on inexpensive to build It also meant they would French soil on D Day not use steel which was needed for other more heavily armored vehicles The company flew in six British built Horsa gliders each carrying 30 men They were towed across the English Channel toward the French coast by powerful Allied transport aircraft Below them in the stormy channel the men caught occasional glimpses of white streaks They were the wakes left by the vast array of ships headed for Normandy DESCENDING INTO FRANCE When the glider towing aircraft reached the French coast late on the night of June 5 they released their gliders The tow aircraft turned back to the United Kingdom to pick up more men The gliders soared on heading toward their assigned landing zone near the Caen Canal and the Orne River These bodies of water marked the eastern edge of the Allied invasion area The glider forces were assigned the task of capturing two key bridges there Bénouville and Ranville The structures were only a hundred yards apart They had to be taken few intact since Allied troops would soon need them for their advance inland from the
Allied gliders came to a rest in the open fields of the Normandy
