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	Glider Pilot Regiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Regiment was responsible for crewing the British Army's cargo gliders and saw action in the European Theatre in support of Allied airborne operations.
		The use of assault gliders by the British was prompted by the German assault on Eben Emael fortress.
		The Regiment was formally inaugurated on 24th February 1942 as part of the Army Air Corps which then comprised the Glider Pilot Regiment, the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Glider_Pilot_Regiment (779 words)

	Glider infantry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Eight DFS 230 gliders, carrying 85 Pioneers under Leutnant Rudolf Witzig, landed on the roof of the fort in the early hours of May 10, 1940.
		Gliders could carry larger and heavier equipment (such as anti-tank guns or jeeps, or even light tanks) than could be dropped by parachute.
		The last German glider attack was on the liberated Free French redoubt of the Vercors in July 1944.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Glider_infantry (1225 words)

	Northwest Historical Association Newsletter
		The army realized that the Glider Pilot would have to be an expert at flying his aircraft and be able to transition immediately to a experienced British Army NCO capable of leading troops in combat.
		Glider Pilots took part in resupply operations to Marshal Tito's partisans, the invasion of Southern France, and the invasion and occupation of Athens, Greece in late 1944.
		Glider pilots were either qualified as "1st Pilots" who wore the large RAF style wings with the Kings Crown and Lion, or "2nd Pilots" who wore a smaller style wing with a simple "G" within a circle.
	www.nwha.org /news_4Q2000/news_page5.html (2838 words)

	Gliderborne Assault on D-Day - GLIDER TROOPS
		All members of the Regiment were volunteers, mainly from the Army, they all received full flying training on Tiger Moth and Magister aircraft, then proceeding, as qualified power pilots, on to glider training, first on the Hotspur, then, with the rank of Sergeant or Staff-Sergeant, on to the florsa and Hamilcar.
		Glider troops were trained beyond the level of the standard British soldier though not to the peak and expense of paratroopers, and as such they were less swift when deployed in an attacking role, but were entirely solid in defence.
		Furthermore the American pilots were far from being veteran flyers by night and, as they were quite unaccustomed to dealing with flak, they were ordered to release their gliders 3000 yards from the coast line to avoid heavy anti-aircraft fire.
	free.prohosting.com /mawey/gliderborne_glidertroops.htm (3444 words)

	Nase noviny - Flying Soldiers (GPR in WWII) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The Horsa glider bucked and bounced at the end of the tow-rope as the pilot of its bomber tug tried desperately to avoid the German flak.
		The Glider Pilot Regiment, established in Army orders on 24th February 1942, and disbanded in 1957, was certainly very special, but it was also unique.
		The War Office memorandum announcing the formation of the British 1st Airborne Division noted that the 'glider pilot will be a highly trained airman both in power aircraft and gliders; in addition to which he must be highly trained as a fighting soldier having landed'.
	www.geocities.com /nasenoviny/GPREN.html (2202 words)

	Assault Glider Trust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Veterans of the Midland Branch of the Glider Pilot Regiment Association decided that an appropriate memorial to airborne forces in the Midlands might be a complete Airspeed Horsa assault glider.
		Two Midlands regiments, the South Staffords and the Oxf and Bucks Light Infantry were glider borne regiments, and they acquitted themselves with outstanding gallantry.
		The president and the trustees are all serving or retired officers with close connections to the Royal Air Force and airborne regiments.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Assault_Glider_Trust (429 words)

	3rd Brigade WW2 Reenactors - Glider Pilot Regiment
		Volunteers for the Regiment had to be at least the rank of Sergeant, "and be of exceptional high educational and medical standard", and pass the RAF Aircrew selection Board.
		As part of this concept the Glider Pilots were expected to become expert at every type of weapon and equipment used by the Airborne Forces, from Bren Guns to Jeeps to the Piat, the Glider Pilot was expected to be proficient at all of these and of course successfully land his glider as well!
		Glider pilots during WWII wore the British Army Air Corps or "AAC" cap badge exclusively.
	www.6th-airborne.org /gpr.html (2839 words)

	325th Glider Infantry Association
		Even if the pilot had the time and altitude to select a good spot to land, conditions on the ground of which he might be totally ignorant could wreck a landing.
		As soldiers of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment swooped down to Normandy, other elements of the 82nd Airborne Division were in the process of capturing the town of St. Mere Eglise on an airborne operation behind enemy lines.
		After the war, the Regiment assisted in Berlin occupational duties until it returned to the United States in 1946 and was deactivated on December 15, 1947.
	www.325glider.org (988 words)

	401st Glider Infantry Regiment - Gliders
		The glider was also used to carry in the extra supplies and heavy equipment needed to take and hold strategic points.
		Gliders crashed into one another on landing, broke apart during the flight over, sending men and equipment into the English channel, or were ripped apart on the hedgerows or by "Rommels Asparagus", poles placed in an up-right position as to tear apart a glider upon landing in the small pastures.
		This crates were used after the assembly of the glider for living quarters and to have wood for their heaters.
	www.geocities.com /gir327_401/401stgir_gliders.html (436 words)

	H.N. "Andy" Andrews
		The Horsa glider piloted by Andrews was one of 11 assigned to 3rd Parachute Brigade of 6th Airborne Division, which dropped east of the River Orne on the extreme left flank of the Allied beachhead.
		Glider techniques were honed to perfection by this stage of the war and less than 4 per cent of the gliders were destroyed in flight.
		On one occasion a trainee pilot cast-off his glider prematurely at 750 ft, leaving it facing 180 degrees in the wrong direction and with nowhere to land - except the dispersal area on the take-off airfield.
	www.mishalov.com /Andrews.html (870 words)

	The Glider Pilot Regiment (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The role of the Glider would be crucial to the success of the mission, if the glider pilots could get close to the bridges then the battle would be half won.
		It was therefore necessary for the glider pilots to know every second of their descent in to Normandy baring in mind that this operation would be taking place in the early hours of the morning under the cover of darkness.
		A brilliant scheme was devised to allow the pilots to experience what it would be like to fly the mission; a scale model was made and using a cine camera, a film was made of a pilots' eye view.
	www.users.globalnet.co.uk /~njmckay/glider.htm (319 words)

	Gliderborne Assault on D-Day - WACO Glider
		The glider operations in Burma proved that gliders were the superb aircraft to deliver equipment, including bulldozers, to prepare a runway for transport aircraft, deep in hostile territory, far behind enemy lines.
		Gliders transporting all kinds of elements of the 17 AB, were to land along the Issel Canal (north of Wesel) to secure the bridges.
		All the gliders to landing zone Â« S Â» (north of Wesel) were flown in double tow those to landing zone Â« N Â» (S of Hamminkeln) in single tow.
	storm.prohosting.com /mawey/gliderborne_gliders_wacoglider.htm (2435 words)

	Gliderborne Assault on D-Day - US Glider Infantry
		The 194th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR) was constituted on 16 December 1942 in the Army of the United States.
		The 321st, along with its two sister regiments, the 319th and the 320th was officially activated as part of the 157th Field Artillery Brigade on 29 August 1917 at Camp Gordon, near Atlanta, Georgia under the regimental leadership of Col.H.C.Williams.
		The 401st Glider Infantry Regiment (a sister Regiment) was deactivated and transferred its First Battalion to the 327th (later the battalion would be consolidated and redesignated as the 3rd Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry).
	storm.prohosting.com /mawey/gliderborne_glidertroops_gliderpilotsofd_daylist_usgliderinfantry.htm (4712 words)

	History
		This regiment was designed in order that the pilots of the gliders should not only be fully trained Glider Pilots but also trained soldiers who would be able to fight on the ground.
		After the disaster of Arnhem the casualties of the Glider Pilot Regiment were so great, over 60%, that officers and NCO Pilots of the Royal Air Force had to be injected, and these had the distinction of flying, fighting and dying in the Battle of the Rhine crossing.
		The Glider Pilot Regimental Association is several hundred strong, and it is from this that the early instructors of Upward Bound were drawn.
	www.ubt.org.uk /html/history.html (1597 words)

	www.totalsoldiers.org.uk (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The largest of the gliders were the Hamilcars flown by C Squadron; at 68 feet long and with a wingspan of 110 feet it's load options included up to 40 passengers but they usually carried 17-pounder guns or a light tank and sometimes supplies of ammunition or petrol.
		The gliders and their crews were based at RAF transport stations alongside their tow (tug) squadrons who predominately flew four-engined Halifax and Stirling aircraft (though the Hadrian was usually towed by the Dakota C-47).
		Of some 3,900 glider pilots trained, 3,300 saw action of whom 551 died (17%), 220 were wounded (6%), and 550 became prisoners of war or missing in action (17%): in total the regiment (including RAF GPs) experienced 1,321 battle casualties (40%).
	www.btinternet.com /~Web_Marshalls/w_totalsoldiers_history.htm (809 words)

	Glider Crews
		Due to their being no survivors from either glider, it was extremely difficult for the authorities at the time to construct a picture of what exactly happened.
		The glider was flown by Pilot Officer N.A. Davies and his co-pilot was Pilot Officer H.J. Fraser.
		The glider pilots and the servicemen are buried in Eiganes Churchyard, Stavanger.
	www.stephen-stratford.co.uk /glider.htm (639 words)

	The Glider Pilot Regiment (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The Glider Pilot Regiment was possibly the shortest lived and least known unit of the Second World War.
		Their Horsa gliders, the first of which was designed and built in a few months, were a tribute to British industry.
		The Army Air Corps takes great pride in the traditions it inherited from the Glider Pilot Regiment and is a worthy successor to that short lived Regiment of flying "total soldiers".
	www.assaultgliderproject.co.uk /the_glider_pilot_regiment.html (734 words)

	BBC - WW2 People's War - Operation Varsity
		Nevertheless, the glider landed intact and personnel and equipment were evacuated safely, finding themselves in the thick of fighting that went on for the rest of the morning.
		At this point, the operational involvement of the glider pilot regiment was officially finished and Staff Sergeant Free and his colleagues were transported to Eindhoven airfield in Holland from where they flew home with R.A.F.Transport Command.
		In total, 100 Army and RAF Glider pilots were killed on this operation and Staff Sergeant Free counts himself a very lucky man to have survived.
	www.bbc.co.uk /ww2peopleswar/stories/05/a3042505.shtml (481 words)

	The Glider Pilot Regiment 1942-1945 - The Regiment
		A simultaneous glider assault on three bridges across the Albert Canal had resulted in two of the targets being captured intact whilst the other was blown up by its defenders.
		Officers and men in any Regiment or Corps (except RAC), who are medically fit, may apply for transfer to a parachute or glider-borne unit of the Airborne Forces...A limited number of officers and other ranks are urgently required for training as glider pilots.
		The goal of all trainee Glider Pilots was the Army Flying Badge ('Lion With Blue Wings').
	myweb.tiscali.co.uk /marfleetwright/GPR/regiment.htm (1523 words)

	Royal Air Force Shawbury Station Website (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		In early 2001 a few veterans of the Midland Branch of the Glider Pilot Regiment Association decided to build a complete Airspeed Horsa assault glider to serve as an appropriate memorial to airborne forces based in the Midlands.
		Veterans, their relatives and friends, airborne regiments, the National Heritage Lottery and Midlands firms have contributed funds to buy machine tools and materials, as have the many visitors who have been to RAF Shawbury to see the project.
		The President is the incumbent Station Commander at RAF Shawbury and the Trustees are all serving or retired officers with close connections to the RAF and airborne regiments.
	www.shawbury.raf.mod.uk /assaultglider.html (1089 words)

	The World War II Lecture Institute
		Recklessly brave and grimly determined, the glider pilots endured not only the enemy’s flak but foul weather, inexperienced tow plane pilots, gliders that tended to shred parts in mid-air, their own lack of ground combat training, and inadequate planning at high levels for the airborne assaults.
		He also pointed out an unexpected contribution of military gliders to the postwar Broadway stage: the famous shower in which Nelly Forbush “washes that man right outa her hair” in South Pacific was taken directly from a similar shower made of a wrecked glider fuselage that Logan had seen in France.
		As an ex-member of the Glider Pilot Regiment, he was able to clarify such technical details as the “angle-of-dangle” indicator and how one got the tail off a Horsa glider.
	www.wwiilectureinstitute.com /stories/dank.htm (1575 words)

	British Armed Forces & National Service
		Fourteen glider pilots (six crews and one back-up - which did prove necessary) were sequestered in one Nissen hut at Tarrant with a Lieutenant as our mother hen, our own transport, and our own independent operation directed by two RAF pilots, Flt.
		Gliders 1 - 3, flying the three course path, we were to take the canal, while 4 - 6, would drop straight down and take the river.
		Once free of the tow planes, the gliders were in free flight at 6,000 feet, and each plane went into a steep dive to get through the flak belt being thrown up by the German anti-aircraft guns targeting the bombers that droned onward.
	www.britisharmedforces.org /ns/ns/nat_jim_wallwork.htm (3223 words)

	BBC - WW2 People's War - Sam's War
		All glider pilots were to be Sergeants and Sam was promoted from corporal -semi-skilled and unpicked to quote ‘Bomber’ - on 9th March 1943 on the same day he got his Glider Pilot Regiment flying badge.
		A combination of strong winds, poor visibility and even some badly set altimeters, plus panicking civilian American tug pilots releasing the British piloted gliders too early, meant that 69 came down in rough seas, 56 were scattered across the south east of the island and only 12 landed at their designated sites.
		Sam was due to be one of 1,000 Army glider pilots in a force of 1,220 that would eventually spend nearly 18 months in the sub-continent.
	www.bbc.co.uk /ww2peopleswar/stories/11/a1951111.shtml (4476 words)

	The Glider Pilot Regiment 1942-1945 - Links & Bibliography
		Glider Pilot Regimental Association South-West Branch: Branch Secretary, Arthur Underwood has put together an informative website.
		Cy Henson (ex G Sdn GPR) is compiling a register of RAF glider pilots.
		The Wings of Pegasus: Andy Bellwood is the son of a British glider pilot.
	myweb.tiscali.co.uk /marfleetwright/GPR/links.htm (1088 words)

	Glider Pilots Regiment (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		Army Air Corps was formed, at that time, comprising the Glider Pilot Regiment only, later joined by the Parachute Regiment when it was formed on August 1st 1942 and the Special Air Service (SAS), on April 1st 1944.
		Co. produced the prototype of the Hamilcar, designed to carry a light tank or 17,500 Ibs of freight.
		The American Waco, the CG-4A, designated the Hadrian by the British, was also flown by the Regiment on some operations.
	www.rblharwell.freeserve.co.uk /GliderPilots/History.htm (362 words)

	Harry Howard memories
		At the time of D-Day I was a S/Sgt Pilot in F Squadron of the Glider Pilot Regiment, based at Broadwell RAF Station near Burford in Oxfordshire, having returned from glider operations in the Mediterranean earlier that year.
		Although the Horse, was equipped with a skid which was designed for landing in a shorter distance than would be possible with the undercarriage, we had long learned to keep the wheels intact and not jettison them after take-off.
		Meantime the full stream from Broadwell had taken off, but by cutting the corners while the whole air armada of some 250 gliders with their tugs, was forming up over southern England, I found myself back in correct formation over the Channel bound for Normandy.
	www.angelfire.com /ok4/broadwell/hhoward.htm (410 words)

	Recce history - Forming (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The Reconnaissance Corps was formed at Churchill's request, along with the Parachute Regiment, the Glider pilot Regiment and the Special Air Service.
		Recce became divisional troops with a squadron or regiment attached to each of the infantry, armoured and airborne divisions.
		A normal Recce unit attached to an infantry division would be of regiment size, 4 squadrons consisting of 4 troops each, operating armoured cars and universal carriers.
	ourworld.compuserve.com /homepages/AdamWilliams2/forming.htm (417 words)

	669 Sqn History (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		Training both in glider flying and in Army manoeuvres intensified and on several occasions it did seem that the Squadron was to be used in attack.
		The Squadron was the largest in the Royal Air Force with a total of 1600 officers and men with an RAF Commanding Officer and an Army Captain from the Glider Pilot Regiment as second in command.
		The aircraft flown by the Squadron compromised of 12 DC3 Dakotas, 60 Hadrian Gliders and 12 Horsa Gliders.
	www.army.mod.uk /aac/units/4_regiment_aac/669_sqn_history.htm (828 words)

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