WWII had airborne units all over the place. The Germans didn't do well with them in that they tried too many low level drops into Russian snow banks that really weren't as deep as they thought. But, airborne soldiers were pretty much useless without parachutes and the gear that went with it. Also, the reason for the thread, gliders were quite a feat when it came to transporting airborne troops. I was with the 82nd airborne in 1967 through 1970 and WWII gliders were hammered into our heads about how valuable they were in the war. Any true stories about gliders??
Lt Witzig and his 80-85 infantry men landed on the roof of Fort Eban Emael ('40), with DFS 230 gliders. They took the Fort and Hitler's first phase of Nazi Invasion carried out. The best known ( to me) glider operation in the military history of WW2! Few months ago, we were discussing about this Operation here in this good Forum, long back we wrote a few (Regiment History > Glider Operation) on the military gliders of WW2, where I mentioned about Hamilcar1, an all wooden (except con pans) made glider that enable to carry even Tetrarch; what a tremendous military engineering effort framed out by the British during the Battle of France ! But I never mind to say again that happened to the glider operations/Airlanding infantry/Glider infantry divisions, what ever you may call, been the poorest of the poor military planning during D Days (to me). You may recall what happened to them.
Gliders can do some pretty amazing things, but they are also very vulnerable. This must have been one of the most dangerous military positions in the war as one could so easily be shot down.
Glider Operations Europe WW2 - USAF Historical Division: https://archive.org/details/AirborneOperationsInWorldWarIIEuropeanTheater https://archive.org/details/DZNormandy https://archive.org/search.php?query=Airborne Division (United States)
Operation Eiche (Op Oak), rescued Il Duce by Otto Skorzeny from Campo Imperator Hotel (about 6500ft/1980m from sea level), with his Fallschirmjagger team alongwith some DFS 230 assult gliders. Mussolini rescued from the hill top hotel and not a single shot been fired!
Rescue of Mussolini interview Part 1 (part 2 and the raid are in related clips column on right of screen) http://www.criticalpast.com/video/6...el_United-States-army-captain_discuss-a-paper
