Men of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division landing near Appari in the Cagayan Valley on Luzon.
Appari, Cagayan Valley. A jeep and equipment is unloaded from a CG-13A glider.
Interior of a Waco CG-13A.
MORESBY: MISSION ABORTED
At 0825 hours on 5 September 1943, the U.S. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment took off from Port Moresby in 84 C-47 transport aircraft. An Australian parachute artillery regiment—25-pounders—reinforced the regiment. To assist a three-pronged Australian drive for the important Japanese-held port of Lae, the paratroopers were to seize an airstrip at Nadzab, some twenty miles inland. The air formations included 302 aircraft: A-20’s laid smokescreens to hide the drop zones from enemy observers; B-25’s bombed and strafed the landing area; and B-17’s carried a “basket” of twelve bundles of equipment in each bomb bay, a parachute on each bundle. These had been specially designed for the mission and contained ammunition, heavy machine guns and supplies. They would be dropped according to signals from the ground wherever needed. Squadrons of P-38 fighters flew cover above, and P-39’s guarded the flanks; heavy bombers carried bomb loads to drop on enemy positions at the nearby Heath Plantation.
Three deaths and a number of fractures occurred in the jump, but the paratroopers found little resistance on the ground, and they quickly organized a perimeter defense. An Australian engineer battalion that had set out on foot six days earlier joined them, and work proceeded on the airstrip. The shuttling by air of the Australian 7th Infantry Division from Marilinen to Nadzab—an operation that required several weeks—began thirty-six hours later.
No gliders were used in the Nadzab operation. Eleven, loaded with Australian men and equipment, were waiting to take off at Port Moresby on 5 September, when their mission was cancelled. It was said that the use of the gliders was cancelled because the outstanding success of the parachute drop made them unnecessary, but a contributing factor was the concern for the safety of the men they would carry. All the gliders were showing signs of deterioration. On the flight from Brisbane, where they were being assembled for the operation, one glider had lost its tail-assembly in mid-air, and the crew had been killed in the resulting crash. Thirty-five pilots and thirty-five mechanics, the first glider contingent for the Southwest Pacific, had arrived in Australia in February 1943. In April, another twenty-six pilots and twenty-six mechanics had joined them. Their crated gliders—twenty-seven of them—arrived shortly afterwards. None of these gliders was ever used in tactical operations. Some of the pilots and mechanics were later assigned to various other duties among widely separated troop carrier units and others were returned to the United States.
GLIDER RESCUE MISSION
On 13 May 1945, a C-47 flying on instruments struck a ridge in the Orange Mountains in Dutch New Guinea. Of the passengers, the three survivors included a WAVE corporal, Margaret Hastings. Search planes located the wreck, but the area in the interior, called Hidden Valley, was inaccessible by trail. Men, followed by supplies, parachuted into the valley to prepare a strip suitable for glider landings and recovery by snatch technique. Two medical corps men also parachuted in and rendered aid to the survivors.
Glider crews on Wakde Island prepared for the rescue operation. On 28 June, the first glider landed successfully. They loaded the five passengers, including the survivors, and were snatched thirty minutes later. In two subsequent sorties, the parachuted men were flown out by glider. Sentani airstrip on Hollandia served as the base of operations.
LUZON: THE ONE AND ONLY PACIFIC OPERATION
Right at 0600 hours on 23 June 1945, a C-46 carrying paratroopers of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division took off from the Lipa airstrip on Luzon. Six CG-4A’s and one CG-13 glider brought up the rear of scores of aircraft that followed in a V of V’s on their way to Aparri in northern Luzon. Fighters hummed overhead. This was a first for gliders in the Pacific. Although hundreds were at airfields scattered throughout the Pacific islands, none had yet been tested in combat. The tactical objective of this mission was to hasten the collapse of organized enemy resistance in northern Luzon. The forces to be dropped were to make contact with American and Philippine guerrillas to the south to free the Cagayan Valley.
The parachute and glider landing zones were the same: an abandoned enemy airstrip five miles south of Aparri. They flew to the rendezvous point at Camalaniugan, 250 miles by direct route from Lipa, the staging area for the airborne forces. To avoid alerting the enemy, they approached the rendezvous point over the China Sea, adding 100 miles to the course. Glider tow planes carried neither paratroopers nor cargo. The gliders carried a total of nineteen troops, six jeeps, one trailer, machine guns, ammunition and radio and medical supplies.
At precisely 0900 hours, the aircraft reached the drop zone, which pathfinders had marked with colored smoke. Fighter-bombers laid down a smokescreen, blinding the hills to the southeast where the Japanese supposedly had artillery that could reach the drop zone. Paratroopers and gliders “unloaded” from the aircraft in a single pass over the field. Glider landings were equally accurate, although the grass on the strip was denser than appeared from photo interpretation. A wing-tip collision between two CG-4A’s was the only imperfection in the glider phase.
Three days after the drop, the 511th made contact with the U.S. 37th Infantry Division, sealing off the Cagayan Valley. The captured strip was later used for supply landings and to evacuate casualties.
FINAL ALLIED OPERATIONS IN BURMA
In April 1945, C.C.F.T. transports and gliders played an important part in the final stages of the campaign in Burma, getting airfields at Pyinmana, Toungoo and Pegu into operation in time for quick support of the IV Corps advance. At Pegu, the transports carried out a familiar role, delivering reinforcements that would enable the ground forces to hold and consolidate their gains. In preparation for these activities, a reserve of 86,000 gallons of gasoline was built up at Meiktila to permit the temporary operation of C-47’s from that advanced base. Gliders loaded with bulldozers, runway lighting equipment, jeeps, tractors, scrapers, gasoline, radio equipment, food and water were ferried into Meiktila until fifty-five gliders were on hand.
IV Corps bypassed Pyinmana and secured Lewe Airfield south of the city on 20 April. At 0850 hours the next morning, eight C-47’s of the 4th Combat Cargo Squadron towed one glider each to Lewe, after delivering supplies to Meiktila. The gliders contained a tractor, a scraper, two bulldozers, a jeep and trailer, a power saw, gasoline, rations, water and nineteen men. The first glider was released over Lewe at 0955 hours and the last at 1015 hours. Some of the gliders were damaged in landing—one beyond repair—but none of the equipment was lost. The machinery was put to work immediately, but the gasoline was left aboard the gliders until it was needed. This was a mistake because Japanese fighters, making one of their last sweeps over Burma, came over Lewe on the morning of 22 April and set the gasoline in five of the gliders alight. This incident delayed work on the airfield for only a few minutes, however, the strip was 4,500 feet long and by noon. The first transports landed at 1600 hours that afternoon, only sixty-four hours after the ground forces had driven the Japanese away.
While Lewe Airfield was being repaired, a division overran Tennant and Kalaywa Airfields at Toungoo. A bulldozer that had accompanied the advancing column filled enough craters at Tennant to permit glider landings, but most of the equipment with the ground forces was put to work on Kalaywa. On 23 April, after delivering supplies, six C-47’s of the 4th Combat Cargo Squadron lifted six gliders loaded with construction equipment from Meiktila and released them over Tennant between 1015 and 1045 hours. The Tennant Strip was in much better condition than the one at Lewe. A C-47 carrying a number of personnel and equipment landed at 1415 hours, and a 6,000-foot runway was ready by 1600 hours. Improvement of the field continued throughout 23 April, and fifty-six transports landed with supplies the next day.
Ground forces reached the well-sited strip at Zayatkwin, thirty-two miles from Rangoon, on 4 May. Although Tennant Airfield was barely serviceable, C-47’s of the 1st Combat Cargo Group and 117 RAF Transport Squadron towed gliders from there to Zayatkwin on the morning of 5 May. Handicapped by weather, in addition to craters in the runway, the engineers made slow progress. When Lewe Airfield became temporarily serviceable on 8 May, eight more equipment-loaded gliders were towed to Zayatkwin. Momentarily improved weather and the added equipment enabled engineers to open the strip to C-47’s before nightfall on 8 May and to C-46’s the next day. Zayatkwin was the southernmost airfield opened in the IV Corps area during the drive on Rangoon.
