Suicide Jockeys — Why America’s Glider Pilots Were the Unsung Heroes of WWII

“Gliders could deposit men, equipment, ammo, jeeps, and howitzers onto unprepared fields silently and with pinpoint precision.”

By Monique Taylor 

AMERICA’S GLIDER pilots of the Second World War considered themselves the “bastards of the Army Air Corps.” Their job was to fly engineless planes, without parachutes and land them in small fields deep inside enemy territory, often under fire.

The glider pilots, in their “flying coffins,” flew some of the most important missions of the war in both Europe and the China-Burma-India Theater. What’s more, they were the only pilots who routinely engaged in deliberate one-way flights.

Their mission was to deliver men and equipment to the airborne or ground troops fighting behind enemy lines. If they succeeded in reaching their landing zones, once on the ground, they joined the ranks of the combat infantry. Once the airborne operations were completed, the glider pilots could expect to do it all over again the next time the brass needed them.

Interestingly, this curious form of warfare was actually a byproduct of the stalemate of the trenches of the First World War. Hitler’s generals sought to avoid the stalemate of the 1914 to 1918 Western Front in the coming contest by leapfrogging over enemy lines using assault gliders like the DFS 230. Carried aloft by conventional transport plans and then released, gliders could silently arrive at an objective, allowing the troops on board to surprise and overwhelm the defenders quickly. It was a technique used during the German invasions of France and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940.

The Allies immediately realized the gliders’ value and in the years that followed raced to design their own. Both the Americans and the British had to determine whether their glider programs would fall under the infantry or the air echelons of their respective services. Ultimately, the British organized their glider corps along the German lines and operated them as part of the infantry, while the American glider crews were placed under the authority of the Army Air Corps and later the Army Air Forces.

As I detail in my book Suicide Jockeys: The Making of the WWII Combat Glider Pilot, the American glider pilot’s status under the Army Air Forces made him an enigma. He was not infantry, nor was he considered a conventional airplane pilot; he flew an aircraft with no motor. The consequences of this was reflected in his training and ultimately his experiences in battle. 

Glider pilots had to be skilled excellent aviators

American glider crews are truly among the most misunderstood servicemen of the Second World War.

The U.S. military’s foray into glider warfare began in February of 1941 with experimental training. Five months later, a 150-officer pilot program meant to train instructors was established. By February of 1942, the race was on to train 1,000 glider pilots. Just 13 months later, that goal was raised to 7,800 trainees. While the number of recruits swelled the training efforts struggled to keep up. It was all rather ad hoc; training began before the military had even acquired its first gliders, the lightweight, wood, metal and canvas CG-4A Waco. Half of the first Wacos delivered had to be grounded because of quality control issues in the manufacturing. It wasn’t until 1943 that American glider training finally got off the ground.

Pilots or foot soldiers?

Unlike their piston engine counterparts, glider crews were expected to fight on the ground.

As the commander of the aircraft and cargo it was the pilot’s responsibility to see the cargo was unloaded, whether this meant unloading under fire or fighting with the airborne to gain control of the landing zone. Once the troops and gear were in action on the ground, crews would fight their way out of enemy territory, link up with friendly forces and make their way back to their home bases in groups or on their own.

This dual role of the glider pilot was highlighted in Operation Market Garden in September of 1944, one of the largest glider and airborne missions of the war.

Gliders not only took part in the operation’s opening waves but were called upon to deliver reinforcements and supplies to the airborne forces already fighting on the ground. Poor flying conditions hampered these efforts, but in all 1,899 gliders were dispatched delivering 9,566 troops, 705 jeeps, 45 trailers, 13 motorcycles, 185 artillery weapons or mortars, 1,535 gallons of gasoline, 1,241 lbs. of mines/explosives, half a million lbs. of ammunition, 70,634 lbs. of rations and nearly two million lbs. of miscellaneous combat equipment. Their pilot duties completed glider pilots then glider pilots manned the front lines.

In the Far East, glider pilots delivered cargo and equipment to remote forward areas. They could haul everything from troops and supplies to jeeps and even including bulldozers and deliver it all to small clearings in the jungle. The equipment was often accompanied by engineers who participated in the construction of temporary landing strips. Once constructed, sometimes in as little as 24 hours, the larger cargo planes could land. Perhaps the oddest cargo ever carried by American gliders were mules. Flights over the Himalayas delivered the animals, which were used to carry equipment, in the rugged China-Burma-India theatre.

The largest glider mission of the war in Asia was Operation Thursday. It took place over three days in the Burma theatre. Three landing zones were chosen: Broadway and Piccadilly (March 5, 1944), and Chowringhee (March 6 to 7, 1944).  At the last-minute the Piccadilly site was abandoned. Sixty-four gliders headed for Broadway but only 38 made it. Glider ropes weakened by the climate and snapped over the Himalayas releasing dangerously overloaded gliders to land as best they could. The glider pilots and passengers forced to make emergency landings escaped through the jungle while avoiding detection by the enemy for days on end.

At the Chowringhee landing site 12 gliders landed with only one glider being destroyed. The glider that was lost happened to be carrying a bulldozer necessary to build the landing strip. Two additional gliders were deployed with a replacement bulldozer and a jeep. As quickly as the runway was built, the outpost was abandoned to prevent detection by the Japanese. It was bombed by the Japanese the following day.

Gliders were remarkably flimsy but offered huge advantages

The American CG-4A Waco glider was constructed of metal tubing, plywood and linen/cotton fabric coated with a chemical compound called “Dope.” Each Waco could carry 3,750 lbs. of equipment or 13 passengers and had a glide ratio of 12 feet of glide for every one foot of descent when loaded. Although unable to carry less than a C-47 Dakota, gliders could deposit men, equipment, ammo, jeeps, and howitzers onto unprepared fields silently and with pinpoint precision; transport planes needed runways to land while parachute drops could be inaccurate. The number of troops, firepower and combat equipment that could be delivered by gliders into small, concentrated areas was impressive.

During the invasion of Normandy for example, 512 gliders landed a total of 4,047 troops and 412,477 lbs. of combat equipment into occupied France. This included 281 jeeps, 110 artillery weapons or mortars and 202,062 lbs. of ammunition. American glider pilots flying the British-made Horsa gliders brought much-needed 57 mm howitzers into battle during those first crucial hours of Operation Overlord.

In Operation Dragoon in Southern France on August 15, 1944, the objective was to drop troops nine miles inland to create havoc by cutting communication lines, while additional troops were brought into the shore by landing craft along the French Riviera. Three hundred and sixteen gliders landed delivering 2,235 troops, 409,709 lbs. of combat equipment and supplies.

Gliders and their occupants were completely defenseless

The Germans were the first to use gliders in combat; they also developed techniques to defend against glider assaults.

One such countermeasure was “Rommel’s asparagus.” These were tall poles erected in possible landing zones close enough to one another to shear the wings off landing gliders. They often had wires strung between the poles that would detonate mines when glider’s wings tripped them.

Gliders were also susceptible to “tank traps,” descending earthen ramps dug into the ground which could entomb the nose of the birds’ preventing troops on the ground from unloading the cargo. These traps were also combined with “Rommel’s asparagus” on either side.

In the Pacific, the Japanese scattered teak logs across landing zones to damage incoming gliders.

However, even without these sorts of traps, gliders’ thin skins were no match for ground fire and flak.

The glider was most vulnerable to ground fire when coming in to land. To minimize the danger, pilots would swoop in low at high speed then bleed off speed by turning. Chutes were later deployed in some Wacos to reduce speed before touchdown.

Gliders were often the key to Allied airborne operations in Europe

Gliders weren’t only used in massive Allied airborne assaults like Overlord, Dragoon or Market Garden. They also were used to bring reinforcements and supplies into forward areas.

During the Battle of the Bulge, gliders were used to resupply the besieged forces at Bastogne. After being surrounded for days by German armour and infantry, U.S. troops in the small Belgian held on with little in the way of supplies or ammunition.

When the skies finally cleared on Dec. 26, 1944, gliders were part of the air armada assembled to resupply the defenders. Sixty-one were dispatched carrying 184,740 lbs. of equipment and nurses and surgeons. Tragically, some flight suffered losses when the tow planes and gliders missed a flight corridor that had been cleared of enemy anti-aircraft and flew over German batteries.

Although America’s glider pilots played a key role in the Allied victory, the use of gliders in warfare would soon fade into obsolescence. The advent of helicopters soon enabled armies to ferry men and equipment into forward areas with greater efficiency than either parachutes or gliders. Yet, in their day, were the first ‘stealth’ aircraft and their ‘suicide jockey’ pilots were among America’s most curious aviators.

“I’ll tell you straight,” legendary American news anchor Walter Cronkite reported during his time as a war correspondent. “If you’ve got to go into combat, don’t go by glider. Walk, crawl, parachute, swim, float – anything! But don’t go by glider.”

Monique Taylor is the author of Suicide Jockeys: The Making of the WWII Combat Glider Pilot. She is also the daughter of a World War II Combat Glider Pilot. Monique has also authored articles in The National WWII Glider Pilots Association’s Briefing and in the San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review. She is currently engaged in research on the glider pilots of the China Burma India Theater of WWII. For more information about Monique Taylor and her work you can visit www.moniquetaylorauthor.com