TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN COMBAT GLIDER PILOTS OF WORLD WAR II

Annual Reunion of the National WWII Glider Pilots Association - Click here for information

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INTERESTING PHOTOS AND STORIES FROM THE GLIDER PILOT COMMUNITY AND FROM VISITORS TO THIS SITE

Click on the thumbnails for larger pictures.

From a Dutch visitor to the site:

        "September 17, 1944, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment landed in the field that surrounds the farmhouse that we now live in, in Overasselt, Holland.  They left a lot of equipment behind, and many gliders.  The local population put these things to good use:  we restored the roof of the house recently and found that a few of the beams that were taken out were strangely shaped:  very light, laminated wooden beams, long tapered beams with pieces of dark green fabric glued on, words scribbled on in chalk.  Glider parts, of course.

        We investigated and we found that the house, then on the old road from the Grave Bridge to Heumen and Groesbeek/Nijmegen, had suffered so much in 1944/1945 from vibration caused by all the heavy armour that had rolled on its way north that the roof needed reconstruction.  The only suitable wood available came from gliders.  The Groesbeek Liberation Museum collected the pieces last week.

        Directly opposite our house, in the fields is the monument that is a tribute to the men those gliders carried:  three parachutes, made of iron.

        Attached is a picture of our house (on the right) taken September 17 or 18, 1944.  German POW's being marched under escort in the direction of Heumen, after interrogation in what is now my wife's study..."  (Picture directly above on the left.)  The "Drop Zone Memorial" described in the message above appears on the right - From a photograph taken September 1994, during the 50th anniversary memorial ceremonies hosted by the Government of the Netherlands and many local communities commemorating Operation Market Garden.

Photos of abandoned CG-15A

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