DEDICATION - PAGE 2
The
Military Order of the Purple Heart
 Awarded
to those who died or were wounded in combat. One in every four of the
Glider Pilots earned this decoration.
"Operation
Husky," the airborne landings in Sicily in July 1943, was the first major American airborne assault using
gliders in Europe. A difficult operation was made far worse when the
Allied Naval task group enroute to Sicily mistook Allied aircraft and their towed gliders in the dark
for enemy aircraft, and opened fire on the slow-moving air convoys shooting
down a number of transports and gliders. Between the "friendly
fire" and faulty navigation that caused gliders to go down in the sea, so many Glider Pilots
and infantry were killed and wounded that the
American high command came close to terminating the glider program and
questioned the value of large-scale airborne assaults in general. In
their invasion of Crete, German airborne and glider forces sustained such high
casualties that even Hitler, certainly not known for the value he placed on
human life, decided that large unit glider and paratroop assaults were too
dangerous and called a halt to any further major airborne assaults.
The
Prisoner of War Medal
Awarded
to personnel serving with the U.S. Army who were held captive by enemy forces.
In March 1944, gliders performed valuable and risky combat duty in Burma during
"Operation Thursday." Performing duties identical to those
accomplished today by helicopters, American Glider Pilots flew troops,
ammunition and supplies behind Japanese lines. When jungle airstrips were
insufficient to land powered aircraft, a dangerous maneuver called "the
snatch" was used extensively to retrieve landed gliders from a dead
stop. C-47's flew as slowly as possible trailing a tow line with a hook on the end. A shorter
tow line was attached to the glider and strung between two poles. The C-47
would fly low to the ground and snare the ground line dragging the glider from a
full stop to flight at over 100 miles per hour in less than seven seconds.
This technique was used to evacuate wounded who might otherwise have died or
suffered extensively awaiting medical treatment.
Militaire
Willems Orde Degree of Knight of the Fourth Class
Awarded by the
Netherlands Government to the American Glider
Pilots of WWII who flew into Holland in "Operation Market Garden," the
largest airborne assault in history. This
award entitles all who received it to wear the Orange Lanyard of the Royal
Netherlands Army. This is the highest award for valor awarded by the
Netherlands Government during WWII. Due to an oversight by the Airborne
and the Army Air Corps, the award was not issued to the Glider Pilots who took
part in Operation Market Garden until 38 years later through the efforts of
the National Representative of the World War II Glider Pilots
Association. It was presented at the National Reunion in Reno, Nevada in
1982 by the Netherlands Military Attaché on behalf of Her Majesty, the Queen
of the Netherlands.
On June 6, 1944, many American Glider Pilots flew their first combat mission
in "Operation Overlord," the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe
("Operation Neptune" was the name for the airborne phase of
"Operation Overlord"). Beginning with the first waves of airborne insertions in the early
hours of D-Day, and continuing well into the next day, Allied Glider Pilots flew
troops and supplies across from England, over the beaches of Normandy to landing
zones behind German lines. The daylight operations of the Normandy
Invasion proved to be exceptionally hazardous since, by then, the Germans were
alerted and were ready with massed anti-aircraft fire. Many Glider Pilots
spent well over a week on the ground fighting with the 82nd and 101st Airborne
Divisions until they established contact with the main Allied force when it
broke through German lines.
The
Croix de Guerre
 The
Croix de Guerre was awarded for bravery to military personnel and
recipients of the Légion and Médaille
Militaire. This decoration was established by the French Republic in
1915. It is awarded to soldiers, airmen or sailors of all ranks, officers
included, and also to officers and men of Allied forces mentioned in French
Despatches, for an individual feat of arms mentioned in a Despatch from the
general officer commanding an Army, Army Corps, Division, Brigade or the C.O. of
a regiment or the corresponding unit of Naval forces. The award of the
Légion d'Honneur carries with it a Croix de Guerre avec Palme. The
ribbon is green ribbed with black and has seven red stripes.
(Information
on the Croix de Guerre copied from the website of the 504th
Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. The above pictures
& descriptions of The French Croix de Guerre & Fourragere are
courtesy Vince
Pantozzi and The Manchu
Association)
In August 1944, the American Glider Pilots who survived Normandy, and
replacements for those who did not, flew their gliders in the invasion of
Southern France, "Operation Dragoon." By
then, the Germans had developed respect for the value of massed glider assaults
and took steps to prevent safe landings. Surviving Glider Pilots describe one German method of
obstructing likely glider
landing zones that the Germans nicknamed "Rommelspargel" or "Rommel's
Asparagus." The Germans placed poles in fields that
were likely glider landing zones. The heavy, tall poles were designed to destroy
landing gliders and kill or injure
passengers. Frequently, the Germans placed mines atop the poles
that were wired together
across many acres. When a glider hit one mined pole, many others also detonated
often creating a 360 degree ring of exploding mines around a landing glider.
The
American Defense Medal
The
American Defense Service Medal was awarded for qualifying service performed
between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941.
The proven value of gliders in contributing to the success of the invasions of
Normandy and Southern France emboldened Allied military planners to attempt a
massive surprise airborne assault into Belgium and Holland to secure a vital
bridgehead over the Rhine River before winter set in. Securing the
strategic ports of Belgium and Holland and denying the Germans locations from
which to further launch their deadly V-1 and V-2 rockets against the civilian
population of England were also reasons for attempting this risk-fraught
venture. On
September 17, 1944 in "Operation Market Garden," and continuing
through September 19, American and Allied Paratroopers dropped into Holland in the largest airborne
assault in history. Over 30,000 American, British and Polish Paratroopers
and Glider Pilots took part in this operation to liberate Holland and Belgium
and secure strategic bridges leading into Germany. This operation was
memorialized in Cornelius Ryan's book A Bridge Too
Far which was made into a movie by the same name.
The
American Campaign Medal
Awarded to persons serving in the
American Theatre of Operations in any capacity with the Armed Forces of the
United States between December 7, 1941 until March 2,1946.
Originally
believing that the huge airborne assault into Holland would encounter stiff but manageable
resistance, Allied commanders went ahead with the operation even after
intelligence began to indicate that the planned drop zones might harbor large SS
Panzer units. The operation was so huge that it took three days to
drop all the paratroops, glider infantry, and supplies needed to sustain the
operation. Early in the operation, the Germans captured a complete set of
operational plans that should never have been taken into the area of
operations. Armed with these plans, they knew exactly where to place their
ground forces and anti-aircraft batteries to meet incoming paratroops and
gliders. The casualties sustained by Allied forces after that were
extremely high.
The
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Awarded to
persons serving in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre of Operations in
any capacity with the Armed Forces of the United States between December 7, 1941
until November 8,1945
All but one of the bridges targeted for capture in Operation
Market Garden were
secured. The U.S. 101st Airborne and U.S. 82nd Airborne Divisions
accomplished their missions. The British First Parachute Division and the
Polish First Independent Parachute Brigade, assigned to capture the bridge over
the Rhine River at Arnhem, Holland, were dropped miles from their objective, and
were further burdened with radios set to incompatible frequencies. The
radios were vital to coordinating the assault of widely scattered
units. Doubly handicapped, they also encountered the SS Panzer
Divisions stationed in the area. They fought bravely and the operation
might have succeeded. However, the British 30th Armored Corps, just a few
miles south and already across the bridge at Nijmegen over the Waal River secured by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division at high cost in casualties, was
ordered to halt its advance by the high command that feared even greater
casualties.
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