page_title: Glider infantry
section_title: Allied organization
hierarchical_section_title: Glider infantry / Allied organization
context_page_description: Glider infantry was a type of airborne infantry in which soldiers and their equipment were inserted into enemy-controlled territory via military glider. Initially developed in the late 1930s by Germany, glider infantry units were used extensively during World War II but are no longer used by any modern military.
context_section_description: The gliders which were most widely used by the Allies were the American-designed Waco CG-4A, which could carry 13 passengers, and the British-designed Airspeed Horsa, which could carry 25 passengers. Both of these aircraft used plywood extensively in their construction, with the CG-4A also using aluminium to provide greater strength in its framing. To deliver especially heavy loads, the British General Aircraft Hamilcar could carry up to eight tons (8,000 kg) of equipment.
  Much like conventional gliders, these aircraft were towed behind a powered aircraft, usually a C-47 (or the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle in British units), and were then released near the designated landing area called the Landing Zone' or 'LZ'.
  The crews of these aircraft landed their gliders in circumstances which would challenge the most seasoned pilot. Sometimes flying in at night they had but a few moments to pick a likely landing spot, avoid the other gliders making similar approaches and those already on the ground, avoid incoming enemy fire and then land the aircraft without crashing into any trees, ditches or enemy erected anti-troop stakes (called by pilots in Normandy "Rommel's asparagus"), and do so softly so as to ensure that the aircraft and/or cargo were not damaged in the process.
  Prior to the Battle of Normandy, the Allied command feared that the losses suffered by glider groups would be as high as 50-70% before even encountering the enemy. This fear was based on expectations for high numbers of crash landings and encounters with anti-aircraft defences. The actual losses were less than the estimates and were comparable to the losses of associated parachute units; the losses suffered by certain Glider Artillery battalions (e.g., the 319th and 320th of the 82nd Airborne Division) were higher than the losses of the associated Glider infantry (i.e., the 325th) primarily because the two artillery battalions landed in the evening hours of D-Day and the landing zone (LZ-W) near St. Mere Eglise was not secure with many casualties occurring from enemy anti-aircraft and machine gun fire in addition to crash landings. In contrast, the 325th landed on D-Day +1 and faced less intense enemy fire; while more than half of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment landed by boat on the third day at Utah Beach because of the lack of gliders able to carry them into Normandy.
  The British Airlanding Brigades consisted of three infantry battalions and a small headquarters.  The infantry battalions consisted of 806 men in four rifle companies, each with four platoons along with a support company consisting of two Anti-tank platoons each with four 6 pounder guns, two mortar platoons armed with six 3 inch mortars, and two Vickers machine gun platoons.  These battalions were larger than those from the Parachute Regiment. Initially the American Glider Infantry Regiments (GIR) had only two battalions, but later in Europe, the two battalions of the 401st GIR were divided in March 1944 to act as the 3rd battalions of the 325th and 327th GIRs. In March 1945 the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment was disbanded and the battalions formally became part of their new regiments.
  In both the British and American armies, there was a sense that the glider infantry were poor cousins to the more glamorous paratroopers. In the British Army, whereas paratroops were all volunteers, airlanding units were standard line infantry units converted without any option (although they were entitled to wear the same maroon beret as the Parachute Regiment). In the United States Army, glider troops did not receive the extra pay awarded to paratroopers until after the Normandy invasion (where glider troops provided essential support to the parachute regiments and fought on the front-lines alongside their parachute brethren). This blatant inequality of treatment came to the attention of U.S. Airborne High Command and from that point forward the glider troops were issued the same jump boots and combat gear as paratroopers (including the M1A1 carbine with folding stock) and earned the same pay until the war
caption: The Airspeed Horsa
exif: {}