FIRST TO LAND

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3275, 14 June 1943, Page 6

FIRST TO LAND

INVASION OF EUROPE AIRBORNE DIVISIONS HUGE GLIDERS TO BE USED Next on the United Nations’ agenda is an invasion of Europe—perhaps via Sicily, perhaps through the Balkans, -perhaps in Western Europe. Wherever the blow falls on the Axis, its first shock will come from airborne divisions, the tough new striking force of glider and parachute troops built up in England in the last year, and tested in Tunisia.

British i parachute troops have descended on the Continent at least twice in successful raids—in Southern Italy and at Br uneval.

The conception, for instance, of paratroops as desperate opportunists plunging down to kill and destroy, with little hope themselves of survival, is a very limited and primitive one. Only in exceptional circumstances are our airborne troops likely to be called upon for such sacrifices as were made by the Germans in, for example, the assault on Crete. There are better and more scientific ways of using them. The “suicide squad” idea is in fact discouraged. The basic conception of an airborne division is that of an advanced striking force capable, by reason of its speed of transport and its opportunities of surprise, of preparing the way for ground or sea attacks. Its isolated role is designed to be of short duration. .Self-Contained Unit

In this conception it follows that an airborne division is a self-contained unit. But it is also a unit which involves a vast series of special problems of selection, training and equipment.

British war correspondents lately gained a vivj.d impression of some of these problems through being taken to the training ground in a troopcarrying glider towed by a bomber. They saw then how necessary it was for the glider pilots to keep them clear of the towing aircraft’s slipstream. They learned, too, something regarding landing hazards. f -Tfae crucial efforts,” one man wrote, “come at the take-off and from the moment when the glider parts company with the bomber and finds its way to earth at ? what seems a very steep angle and 1 considerable speed. At this stage a pilot can afford to make no mistakes —there are no engines to give the glider a second chance if the approach to the landing has been misjudged. Yet accidents, I am told, are very rare.” Roominess of Gliders “I was struck by the roominess of the glider,” writes the representative of the Manchester Guardian. “These aircraft can carry a large number of *fully armed men and weapons. It is no secret that a greater supply of powered transport aircraft would be an advantage, but the aircraft and the production units available have had to be parcelled out parsimoniously until recently. Had it not been for the R.A.F’s. requirements of the last two years, we might have seen airborne troops in action much earlier. “But,” he adds, “although we were behind the Germans in developing equipment and training, it can be said that we are now ahead of them in both. I saw air borne troops in action in an exercise bringing a heavy firepower into the field and a greater mobility than the Germans have ever done.” .

The airborne division comprises perhaps the most carefully-chosen large body of men that any belligerent Power can show. Selected from the fittest and most alert members of the Army, the men are willing subjects of considerable medical, dietetic, education and psychological research.

Their machines, weapons and tactics are the insult of endless experiment and beyond all this the airborne troops have a morale quite their own.

To wear the “airborne” badge men must be under 32 years of age, under 13 stone, and under 6ft. 2in. Rigorous tests for vision by day and night are made.

Incidentally, it is stated that the men of the Airborne Division have a fervent faith in their new technique and a belief that the airborne armies of the future will come to dominate the battles or even avert the wars. Possibly they have caught this from their leader, Major-General F. A. M. Browning, who believes that airborne armies can police the world in peace as they can build victories in war. Huge Gliders

Of course, all activities of the airborne troops depend upon air transport being available in full measure. At present both America and Britain are building numerous heavy transport gliders, such as the American Waco, which carries 15 fully-armed

troops, and the British airspeed Horst, a great monoplane with an 88ft. wingspan.

From an operating viewpoint, the use of a glider involves load, range, and landing. A transport monoplane operating alone may have a load of 40001 b., range 600 miles, speed 200 miles an hour, whereas the same machine with glider attached would carry 10,6001 b., but would have its range reduced to 450 .miles and its speed to 150 miles an hour. An important point is the glider’s ability to alight in a confined space. “Spoilers” are fitted to the wings to break down the lift when required, so. that the angle of the glide and sinking speed can be governed with remarkable precision. An approach is us ually made at 70 miles an hour and a touch-down at about 50. The glider pulls up quickly and the troops or cargo are unloaded.

Sergeants of the Airborne Divisions are being trained as glider pilots at several R.A.F. elementary flying training schools, and instructors say their keenness makes them fine pupils. Co-operation with the R.A.F. is thorough. Recently an Army Co-op-eration Command Mustang unit had to move to a new aerodrome many miles away. To move all the gear by road would have kept the squadron out of the air for two or three days; air Airborne Division undertook the job, packed everything into its gliders, and had the Mustang squadron re-established in two or three hours.

■Obviously, the glider will play an important part in future military Operations and after the war it may take a place as a slip-coach to the world’s airways.