Glider infantry
in British usage) 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.
Later, when planning the invasion of France, the German military was faced with the problem of the Belgian fort of Eben Emael which dominated the River Meuse.
Eight DFS 230 gliders, carrying 85 Pioneers under Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig, landed on the roof of the fort in the early hours of May 10, 1940.
The Italian 80th La Spezia division was specially trained for airlanding operations, but never took part in any after the Maltese invasion was cancelled and it was instead deployed in the Tunisian Campaign.
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[citation needed].
Before 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.
The artillery units sustained many casualties occurring from enemy anti-aircraft and machine gun fire in addition to crash landings.
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 ended in Europe in May 1945.
[citation needed] The tow cables are then released and the gliders would be piloted, without engine power, to a designated landing zone.
In particular, one coup de main force in six Horsa gliders captured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by surprise, led by Major John Howard.
In the subsequent fighting in Arnhem, the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Glider Pilot Regiment suffered heavy casualties.
To avoid the long delay in relieving the airborne troops which had been a major cause of the failure of Operation Market Garden, the landings were made close to the German front line defences.
[citation needed] The Chindits were the creation of Brigadier Orde Wingate, and were a large force operating behind Japanese lines during the Burma Campaign.
One of these was Unternehmen Eiche ("Operation Oak") a landing on the Gran Sasso in Italy on September 12, 1943, in which the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was rescued from house arrest.
This was in the middle of a large concentration of Yugoslav partisans, and the glider troops once again suffered heavy casualties, while Tito escaped.
This attack from an unexpected direction drove the resistance fighters from the plateau, but the conduct of the operation was marred by the brutal behaviour of the glider troops.
About the same time the British Glider Pilot Regiment was subsumed into the Army Air Corps and the airlanding brigades were disbanded.
Larger capacity post war cargo plane designs with stern loading ramps enabled paratroops to carry heavier equipment.
