![]() Once on the ground, the pilot deplanes with his twelve troopers and fights as an infantryman. Lose altitude and crash land in the right place. The aircraft itself is fragile, made of canvas and aluminum tubing. He hasn't been trained to fly an airplane, though some volunteers may know how to do it. In America, there were bureaucratic conundrums. A German airborne attack in Crete came close to failure and cost far too many casualties. ![]() Events didn't flow so smoothly after that initial success. The result was the German penetration of the impregnable Maginot Line and the fall of France. German gliders, having evolved from their pre-war sailplane training at a time when the Luftwaffe was virtually forbidden, capture the Belgian fort of Eban-Emal in an extraordinarily successful glider attack. The first half hour or so details the problems the American glider program had in getting off the ground, so to speak. Of course the Brits and the Germans used them too, with about the same degree of success, but this features American pilots and two familiar newscasters who flew with them, Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney. I doubt we'll see better coverage of American glider operations in World War II.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |