Can you
name one glider pilot from WWII? Neither
could I. This single DVD takes some steps to rectify that.
With the familiar voice of Hal Holbrook narrating the story of some
forgotten American heroes we are taken on the journey from the first
glider experience of the Germans to the end of the war.
Hal Holbrook isn’t the only celebrity Walter Cronkite and Andy
Rooney make screen appearances on the DVD.
There are
some fascinating facts such as there were no gliders in the American
inventory and weren’t even thought of until Feb 1941 after the German
success in Belgium. There
were only 6,000 volunteer pilots flew gliders in World War II.
How about this while from the outside gliders are nice and quiet
from the inside they are noisy even without the tow plane.
The DVD
treats you to some great footage of the German raids into Belgium with
DFS-230s in action. Rudy
Opitz speaks from the German perspective on the operations in Belgium and
Crete. Besides the DFS-230s
there is a lot of footage of Ju-52s and some Ar-232.
Some
excellent video coverage follows the birth of the US glider force.
The first Waco Gliders were built in Troy, Ohio.
The CG-4A cost $15,400 each when built by Ford and about $10K more
when built elsewhere. Just
because these gliders were one time use items doesn’t mean that they
didn’t have nose art.
Walter
Cronkite was a young UP reporter that actually went on combat missions in
gliders. Besides Cronkite
there is Andy Rooney and a few actual combat glider pilots.
There stories are interspersed with the historical data and add
tremendously to the history. The first hand accounts are a lot of fun to listen to.
There are dramatic C-47 crashes as well as glider.
Some of the crashes are landing in water and others with missing
wings. All these things just
go to prove how dangerous this job really was.
Probably
the man most influential man in the glider program was Major Mike Murphy.
Whenever the glider force was in danger of being cancelled he would
pull something off that kept the gliders alive.
As an example, briefing some congressmen at night on a field.
Ten gliders landed behind him and as the last glider landed he had
the lights brought up and with the soldiers outside the gliders the
congressmen were suitably impressed.
There are a few stories about Mike Murphy and they all show the
professionalism of men who flew the gliders.
Another
person that is mentioned is Jacky Coogan, a childhood actor, who was a
glider pilot in Burma.
Modelers
will take away a lot of information from this DVD, such as how D-Day
stripes were actually applied.
The DVD
leads you through the major glider borne operations, Sicily, Burma,
Normandy, Southern France, Holland, Bastogne, and finally Germany.
There is some color footage as the end of the war nears.
This is fascinating in its own right.
The DVD concludes with a reunion of glider pilots and two new CG-4A
replicas, as no real ones exist. This
section is concluded by congressional recognition for their heroics, 60+
years after the fact.
This 113
minute DVD contains information not covered before and by that fact alone
it is highly recommended. The professionalism with which this story is told, the
personal anecdotes, and first rate video finally tells the whole story of
these great American heroes.
Highly
recommended.
Thanks to
Aeroplane Books for the review copy.
You can get your copy from them at www.aeroplanebooks.com.
Here is the direct link: https://www.aeroplanebooks.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=&idproduct=49275
Tell them you heard about it here.
Floyd
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