Sicily

SICILY

(Operation Husky) On July 9, 1943, allied gliders took off that night from an airfield in Tunisia. The destination was Axis-held Sicily; their cargo, British airborne troops. In spite of the many difficulties encountered on a first mission of this nature (and there were many), enough of the gliders got through to successfully complete the mission. Only 49 CG-4As are known to have landed safely on Sicilian soil. The remaining gliders crash-landed at sea and several glider pilots and troopers were presumed drowned.

Gliders crash landed at sea

"At last we got our signal from the tow ship to cast off. It was 22:20. Here it was: whatever faced us on the island. The flak was getting thicker and our course took us over one of the anti-aircraft guns. Fortunately none of the flak hit our glider. As we crossed the shoreline, I could see a glider bouncing on the shore to my right. The moon was covered by haze and our visibility was poor. We had cut at 2200 feet and now we were at 1000 feet just over the shoreline. I could not make out my landing zone, so I had to glide straight ahead, hoping for the best. At 500 feet I could distinguish certain fields; and I let down in a small field with trees in it. As we landed, we ran into a tree, but were fortunate to hit it with the wing stopping us abruptly. No one was injured on the landing."

"From the moment I cut loose, I knew that I would never make it to shore. As we descended through the darkness, we strained for a glimpse of the shoreline, but all we could see ahead were tracer bullets and exploding flak. We eventually ran out of sky, as my British pilot guided us to a smooth landing in the rolling sea. In a matter of seconds, we all clambered out and were sitting on the wings trying to determine how far we were from shore. One British soldier and I decided to try swimming ashore while the rest remained with the slowly sinking glider. Exhausted and about a half an hour later, I came upon another partially submerged Waco and decided to wait it out for rescue."