Professional Soldiers ® - Silent Wings: The American Glider Pilots of World War II

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PSM	03-23-2014 11:48

Silent Wings: The American Glider Pilots of World War II

There was a lot of information that I never heard before. Pretty interesting documentary about a small group of mostly forgotten soldier-pilots.

Silent Wings Full movie (1:54:55).

Pat

Ambush Master

03-23-2014 12:44

I've started watching it. It's VERY GOOD!!!

There's some History here that I've never heard of!!

Thanks for the Link!!

Martin

PSM	03-23-2014 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambush Master (Post 545964)

I've started watching it. It's VERY GOOD!!!

There's some History here that I've never heard of!!

Thanks for the Link!!

Martin

They have a Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock. http://silentwingsmuseum.org/museum/

We're coming to your AO in a couple of weeks so I think we'll come through Lubbock and take a look. It will help break up that long drive. ;)

Pat

Richard

03-23-2014 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSM (Post 545974)

They have a Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock. http://silentwingsmuseum.org/museum/

The museum used to be located at the airfield in Terrell before they moved it to Lubbock. I used to go visit it a couple of times a year - it was an excellent museum on the history of the glider pilots and glider infantry regiments of WW2. It was one of my favorite museums to take visitors to the DFW area.

The old glider museum building in Terrell now houses the No. 1 British Flight Training School Museum. During the Battle of Britain and before the US entry into WW2, British volunteers were sent to Canada where they acquired American visas and came to the US for pilot training as 'civilians' before returning to the RAF. There were 6 such schools and Terrell was the first to be created. It is also a very interesting museum for anyone visiting the DFW area and just a short drive to the East of Mesquite.

Richard

SF_BHT

03-24-2014 12:39

Thanks for the link.... Watched it last night and it filled in some blanks about what I knew about Gliders. Took some balls to do a one way flight into combat......

mojaveman

03-24-2014 19:13

Impressive. I never realized a jeep or even a 75mm howitzer could be carried in one of those gliders. There was even a technique in which a C-47 could fly low over a glider that was on the ground and snatch the tow line to make it airborne.

PSM	03-24-2014 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambush Master (Post 545964)

There's some History here that I've never heard of!!

Martin

Yeah. I had never heard of the Germans (or Brits for that matter) using gliders. And that battle on Crete was an eye opener. :mad:

Pat

Ambush Master

03-24-2014 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojaveman (Post 546110)

Impressive. I never realized a jeep or even a 75mm howitzer could be carried in one of those gliders. There was even a technique in which a C-47 could fly over a glider that was on the ground and snatch the tow line to make it airborne.

There were even "Miniature Bulldozers" (for building airfields, etc.) that they carried. Without Aircraft with a "Ramp" to Airborne deploy from, the Gliders were It!!

PSM	03-25-2014 13:40

2 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambush Master (Post 546136)

There were even "Miniature Bulldozers" (for building airfields, etc.) that they carried. Without Aircraft with a "Ramp" to Airborne deploy from, the Gliders were It!!

Pictured: "Clark CA-1 Airborne Bulldozer and hitched Laplant-Choate CAB-1 Scraper"

Link:
http://www.syltech.net/miniatures2.htm

ETA another pic and link.

http://castraponere.com/bloodontheta...irborne-dozer/

Pat

The Reaper

03-25-2014 13:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambush Master (Post 546136)

There were even "Miniature Bulldozers" (for building airfields, etc.) that they carried. Without Aircraft with a "Ramp" to Airborne deploy from, the Gliders were It!!

There is one in a glider display down at the ASOM.

TR

Sdiver

03-25-2014 14:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojaveman (Post 546110)

There was even a technique in which a C-47 could fly over a glider that was on the ground and snatch the tow line to make it airborne.

It worked some of the time. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYSmGl8io8

One of Pat's little tractors even makes an appearance.

:D

PSM	04-10-2014 15:50

1 Attachment(s)

My wife and I visited the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, TX, Tuesday morning. We got there just after they opened and had the place to ourselves for over an hour. It was very nicely done and well worth the $5 admission ($3 senior admission, but I passed on that. ;))

p.s.: Admission also gets you half off the Buddy Holly Museum. It's also $5/$3.

Pat

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