 | Best/Most Sucessful Glider of WWII| Aviation Discuss Best/Most Sucessful Glider of WWII in the World War II - Aviation forums; ok let's be 'aving you're thoughts, note powered gliders don't count............ |
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04-28-2005, 03:17 PM
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#1 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country:  | Best/Most Sucessful Glider of WWII
ok let's be 'aving you're thoughts, note powered gliders don't count.........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | 
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04-28-2005, 03:22 PM
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#2 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | oh yeah, my vore for best AND most sucessful goes to none other than the Airspeed A.S.51 and A.S.58 Horsa.............
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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04-28-2005, 03:24 PM
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#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country: | The Horsa gets my vote, if there was a vote.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. | |
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04-28-2005, 03:25 PM
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#4 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | yeah i wudda put a vote but i couldn't be arsed to compile a list of gliders..........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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04-28-2005, 05:18 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London
Posts: 2,828
| Has to be the Horsa, nothing else came close. | 
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04-28-2005, 05:34 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
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04-28-2005, 06:13 PM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Lancaster, UK
Posts: 283
| The Horsa gets my vote too... although it would have been impossible without the German DFS230. This was the glider that stormed Eben Emael, and arguably gave the Allies the idea for the Horsa, D-Day and Market Garden (not to mention the Rhine airlandings)
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'Oh...never mind. I see you're radiating an aura of extreme incompetence.' | |
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04-28-2005, 07:25 PM
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#8 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,746
Country:  | I would have to go with the General Aircraft Hamilcar.
The Hamilcar entered RAF service in 1942, and was the largest wooden aircraft the RAF ever operated. With a wingspan of 110 feet, the Hamilcar was the only Allied glider capable of carrying a light tank. 40 troops or artillery pieces could be carried as alternative loads. Hamilcars were used on the 'D' Day landings and at Arnhem, as well as on other operations.
__________________  http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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04-28-2005, 07:34 PM
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#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country: | I don't think they ever carried tanks though, unless it was them who dropped in the Locusts on the Rhine crossing.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004 To those in that club. | |
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04-28-2005, 09:56 PM
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#10 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,746
Country: | Yes, it was for Operation Varsity (Northern Rhine Crossing), part of Operation Plunder. The Hamilcars did carry tanks, not sure which. You know more about armor than I do.
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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04-29-2005, 05:54 AM
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#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Lancaster, UK
Posts: 283
| The light tank in the pics is the Locust, an American design designated M22 by the US Army. It was armed with a 37mm cannon. The British had thier own equivalent called Tetrarch, with a 40mm gun, and I believe both were used during Op Varsity.
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'Oh...never mind. I see you're radiating an aura of extreme incompetence.' | |
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04-29-2005, 06:12 AM
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#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country: | The 'tank' in the second picture appears to be a Bren Gun Carrier or some variant of it.
The first picture I have in a book, it's a M22 in British service during training, 1944. The US never used the M22 for any airdrop because it lacked any feasible way of transporting it. Only a few were used on the Rhine Crossing by 6th Airborne but I don't know the exact number.
The Tetrach was carried into D-Day by the Hamilcar Gliders along with the Universal Gun Carriers. Small in number, they provided little assistance.
The Hamilcar itself was solely designed around the idea that it would carry the Tetrach into combat. Soon proving capable of carrying the Locust too.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004 To those in that club. | |
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04-29-2005, 06:48 AM
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#13 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,746
Country: | They didn't build alot of Hamilcars, but the ones they built seemed to do fairly well. I don't have the number of armored vehicles they used in Plunder/Varsity either, but I would think you are right, not very many. I have seen the number of 440 gliders used for Varsity, but that was both Hamilcars and Horsas. That was the British gliders anyway. The Americans were using the Waco CG-4s for their landings.
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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04-29-2005, 10:37 AM
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#14 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country:  | Ill have to say the Horsa. Heck, my alter-ego loved it! 
__________________  with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... | |
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04-29-2005, 12:12 PM
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#15 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | ah i remember him.........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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