Wish List: Waco CG-4
When you compile a list of WWII aircraft, it can be interesting to arrange them in the order of their total production numbers. In some cases, a massive figure reflects an extended manufacturing period, whilst for others, it can indicate the hurried significance of an aircraft type. North American Aviation built the Mustang in substantial numbers for one reason above all others – they were exceptionally good aircraft. And by ‘good’ we mean useful to the war effort.
Aircrew certainly had no vote in what factories actually built for them to fly – as proven by the B-24 Liberator being built in larger numbers than the B-17 Flying Fortress – but the Statisticians, Planners and Commanders of the Army Air Forces sure did have a say in what was ordered. An aircraft being built in vast quantities also indicated that it likely intersected with a similar number of personal experiences, opening the widest possible range of stories for our Museum to tell, providing guests with the likeliest chances of finding a personal connection amidst the collection.
So let’s take a look at a rough list of the most highly-produced aircraft from WWII. Note: the aircraft listed in bold face type are already part of our collection.
| Ilyushin | Il-2 | 36,183 |
| Messerschmitt | Bf 109 | 34,852 |
| Supermarine | Spitfire | 22,685 |
| Piper | J-3 Cub | 20,191 |
| Focke-Wulf | Fw 190 | 20,051 |
| Polikarpov | Po-2 | 20,000 |
| Consolidated | B-24 | 18,482 |
| Yakovlev | Yak-9 | 16,769 |
| Doulgas | C-47 | 16,079 |
| Republic | P-47 | 15,660 |
| North American | P-51 | 15,586 |
| North American | AT-6/SNJ | 15,495 |
| Junkers | Ju 88 | 15,183 |
| Hawker | Hurricane | 14,487 |
| Waco | CG-4 | 13,903 |
| Curtiss | P-40 | 13,738 |
| Boeing | B-17 | 12,731 |
| Vought | F4U | 12,571 |
| Grumman | F6F | 12,275 |
| Vultee | BT-13 | 11,537 |
| Vickers | Wellington | 11,462 |
| Petlyakov | Pe-2 | 11,427 |
| Avro | Anson | 11,020 |
| Mistubishi | A6M | 10,939 |
| Polikarpov | I-16 | 10,292 |
| Lockheed | P-38 | 10,037 |
| DFS | SG38 | 10,000 |
| North American | B-25 | 9,984 |
| Lavochkin | La-5 | 9,920 |
| Grumman | TBF / TBM | 9,836 |
| Bell | P-39 | 9,584 |
| Beechcraft | Model 18 | 9,000 |
| Airspeed | Oxford | 8,751 |
| Yakovlev | Yak-1 | 8,734 |
| Boeing-Stearman | Model 75 | 8,584 |
| Grumman | F4F | 7,885 |
| de Havilland | Mosquito | 7,781 |
| Fairchild | PT-19 | 7,700 |
| Douglas | A-20 | 7,478 |
| Avro | Lancaster | 7,377 |
| Heinkel | He 111 | 7,300 |
| Yakovlev | UT-2 | 7,243 |
| Curtiss | SB2C | 7,140 |
| de Havilland | Tiger Moth | 7,105 |
| Polikarpov | I-15 | 6,750 |
| Tupolev | SB | 6,656 |
| Yakovlev | Yak-7 | 6,399 |
| Lavochkin | LaGG-3 | 6,528 |
| Ilyushin | Il-10 | 6,226 |
| Handley Page | Halifax | 6,176 |
| Messerschmitt | BF 110 | 6,150 |
| Junkers | Ju 87 | 6,000 |
| Douglas | SBD | 5,938 |
| Bristol | Beaufighter | 5,928 |
While the above is far from a perfect list, there are probably still a couple of numbers which jump out to many of you. The numbers for the Waco CG-4 are certainly surprising, but also intensely interesting as a result. They validate the work which several small groups are currently engaged with in restoring a Waco CG-4 to flying condition – now that excites the imagination! Wouldn’t it be amazing to attend an event where one of these remarkable aircraft took to the skies and then landed in front of us for our enjoyment and education?
A Question of Practicality
To be fair, the aviators among those of you reading this are probably thinking – are these guys all insane? Why would anyone attempt to fly a Waco CG-4 Glider? Well we here would argue that what we do with our historic aircraft appears to most anyone outside of our small circle to be almost impossible at face value, but even so, we still find a way to successfully achieve our goals due to our amazingly talented staff and phenomenal volunteers.
Historical gliders of differing sizes are regularly flown around the world. For instance, the Laister-Kauffman TG-4A Training Glider presently hanging from the roof in the Museum’s Army Hangar actually flew in to our airfield when it was donated. It is a shame that it hasn’t flown since that day, but it was very much an operable restoration. Our friends at the Western Antique Airplane & Automobile Museum in Hood River Oregon maintain a large collection of airworthy WWII-era, including the last known flying Schweizer TG-3A.
Even so, we are not saying that flying a glider the size of a CG-4 is possible without significant challenges associated with it. However, we would argue that it is an important task to tackle due to the long overdue recognition it would bring to the service performed by the brave men who did so during World War II. Some of these men used to joke that the G on their wings stood not for gliders, but for Guts! For those reading on, we hope that most of you will feel similarly to us here at the Museum, that this is an effort we owe to those who flew on ‘Silent Wings’.
Unquestioned Historical Significance
The US Army Air Forces glider program arose from the success which the German Army demonstrated with their assault glider troops early in WWII. Most of us familiar with that history probably remember the dramatic assault on Belgium’s Fort Ében-Émael, where 78 German Airborne troops landed atop the fortress in their DFS 230 gliders and quickly neutralized it. The German glider-borne assault force dealt a mortal blow to the Belgian military with that one bold move.
The Nazis' success with this maneuver prompted the US Marine Corps and Navy to begin investing in an assault glider program of their own in the fall of 1940 (the glider was amphibious, of course). In February 1941, just shy of a year after the assault on Ében-Émael, the US Army Air Forces also launched a Glider Program. They anticipated this effort would deliver 1,000 Army Glider Pilots who could perform similar assaults. Likewise, the Army requested proposals from aircraft manufacturers to design and build a glider capable of carrying these daring pilots and their 13-man squads into combat. However, most of America’s established aircraft manufacturers considered themselves either too busy or too lacking in assembly line space to even consider the Army’s side project.
Only the Waco Aircraft Company delivered a prototype which met the Army’s specifications. Their design could carry 13 fully-armed soldiers plus the two aircrew, or a Jeep plus four passengers, or a 75mm Howitzer with 18 shells and three passengers. These configurations considered everything which the Army imagined might be needed to mass forces in a critical area during an airborne assault that might scatter paratroopers all over the countryside.
The glider itself was designed to be reusable, however, many theater commanders considered them disposable. The Army Air Forces Command had made arrangements to allow gliders to be collected from the field and reused. However, once on the ground during an airborne assault, glider troops often set fire to, or otherwise destroyed, their gliders before moving forward as they didn’t want to leave anything for the enemy to make use of.
Waco, joined by 16 additional companies, rapidly built a fleet of gliders for training and overseas deployment. Training gliders had to be specially developed, since contemporary sporting gliders were insufficient at mimicking the ‘feel’ of an assault glider in flight.
The Allied invasion of Sicily, Operation HUSKY marked the first use of the newly developed Waco glider, however, American gliderborne troops were withheld from the assault due to the terrible misfortunes which befell the British glider force (Mission LADBROKE). Towed at a speed of 150mph by their US Army Air Forces C-47 tow planes, the gliders transited the Mediterranean from North Africa, traveling more than 450 miles. During this trip they were shot at by their own fleet, and when they arrived haze, clouds and smoke from the battlefield combined to make it exceptionally difficult to find the Landing Zones. And, in a colossally tragic mistake, roughly half of the tow planes released their gliders too soon, forcing sixty five of them to ditch at sea; 250+ men from the British First Air Landing Brigade drowned as a result. It was an inauspicious combat debut for the Waco.
The first American use of the CG-4, and indeed its most successful operation, happened half a world away in Burma. Assigned to the 1st Air Commando Group, Gliders carried supplies to Brigadier General Ord Wingate’s “Chindits”, a division-sized guerrilla force deep behind enemy lines. And the task asked of the glider-men? Oh they ‘just’ had to penetrate 170 miles into Japanese-held Burma, fly over 8,000 foot peaks (navigating only by moonlight - did we mention it was a nighttime mission?), and then seize and hold an area of the jungle labeled ‘Broadway’. A walk in the park, right?
An accident during training had led the American glider crews to worry that their British Allies might not fly with them, however, a British officer dissuaded them of that notion saying; “Please be assured that we will go with your boys any place, any time, anywhere.” The later half of that statement soon entered history by becoming the 1st Air Commandos’ motto.
March 5, 1944 would be the day. The 77th Indian Brigade (infantry) flew with the 900th Army Field Unit (construction engineers). They loaded their gliders with ammunition, mules and, perhaps most importantly, Bulldozers! These 400 men then had to secure the area and turn Broadway into a 5,000ft x 300ft airstrip by the following night! They had it done just in time to begin receiving the 9,052 troops, 1,359 mules and 254 tons of supplies which arrived over the following week. And can you guess what served as the control tower at this ramshackle field? A crashed glider of course!
D-Day
11 months after the disastrous Glider operations during Operation HUSKY, the Allies were set to attempt a similar airborne operation in Normandy. British and American forces were both going to use gliders on this mission and, although they still encountered challenges with reaching the correct Landing Zones, their white and black invasion markings did at least prevent them from taking friendly fire on their journey; by and large, the troops met their objectives upon landing. This is where the ‘Guts’ came in – the American pilots took their gliders six to ten miles inland from the enemy held beaches. They flew in a mixture of Waco CG-4s and roughly 300 Airspeed Horsas (a larger, British glider design).
Mission CHICAGO carried 155 men, a bulldozer, and sixteen 57mm anti-tank guns. It became infamous to some degree, because General Don Pratt of the 101st Airborne Division was killed during its landing operations. The first American general to die in battle at Normandy, Pratt had insisted upon leading his men personally. Initially refused permission, further effort from the General saw his commanding officers relent - so long as precautions were taken. While the armor plating they added to his glider badly affected its handling characteristics, the extra mass also meant that it could not slow down sufficiently upon landing. It landed perfectly in the designated field, but skidded over the wet grass into a row of mature poplar trees. The sudden impact broke the General’s neck (he was sitting in a jeep) while a branch fatally impaled the co-pilot, 2nd Lt John M. Butler. The Pilot, Lt Col Mike Murphy, described as the best pilot in the Airborne Forces, also became a casualty in the crash, breaking both of his legs.
Just behind CHICAGO, Mission DETROIT arrived over its Landing Zone at 4:07am. Carrying men of the 82nd Airborne Division, DETROIT landed artillery units and a large number of Jeeps. However, only 11 of the 23 Jeeps and 8 of the 16 57mm guns arrived in working order. This did not stop the men from using whatever they had to defend Sainte-Mère-Eglise however, an action in which proved vital to the success of the entire mission.
KEOKUK, the first Daytime Glider Mission, and ELMIRA followed, taking off at around 6:30pm on June 6th, 1944. GALVESTON and HACKENSACK took place on June 7th, landing more and more infantry and supplies for shoring up the embattled airborne positions.
Private First Class Charles N. DeGlopper’s experience provides us with an opportunity to better understand what awaited the Glider-borne soliders on the ground. Landed as part of HACKENSACK, DeGlopper was a member of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne. Following their landing on June 7th at 9am in broad daylight, the men of the 325th rallied up (nearly 90% of the regiment gathered within just a few hours) and headed for Chef-du-Pont.
Their objective was to capture La Fière Bridge, which they intended to envelop from both sides. As a result, some of the soldiers were ordered to ford Merderet river to gain a better position. Elements of DeGlopper’s unit managed to breakthrough an outer ring of machine gun defenses, but this left them cutoff. Detected by the Germans, they began taking heavy fire. DeGlopper’s Medal of Honor citation exemplifies the extraordinary bravery and self-sacrifice of so many other young men that day…
“Pfc. DeGlopper volunteered to support his comrades by fire from his automatic rifle while they attempted a withdrawal through a break in a hedgerow 40 yards to the rear. Scorning a concentration of enemy automatic weapons and rifle fire, he walked from the ditch onto the road in full view of the Germans, and sprayed the hostile positions with assault fire. He was wounded, but he continued firing. Struck again, he started to fall; and yet his grim determination and valiant fighting spirit could not be broken. Kneeling in the roadway, weakened by his grievous wounds, he leveled his heavy weapon against the enemy and fired burst after burst until killed outright. He was successful in drawing the enemy action away from his fellow soldiers, who continued the fight from a more advantageous position and established the first bridgehead over the Merderet. In the area where he made his intrepid stand his comrades later found the ground strewn with dead Germans and many machine guns and automatic weapons which he had knocked out of action. Pfc. DeGlopper's gallant sacrifice and unflinching heroism while facing insurmountable odds were in great measure responsible for a highly important tactical victory in the Normandy Campaign.
“The combat glider, the only aircraft built to crash.”
General William C. Westmoreland let slip the above remark when commenting on the Waco. Even so, the type’s effective impact upon operations behind enemy lines at Normandy was clear; it had worked! Allied operational planners continued to employ the glider-borne assault forces in future missions, first during DRAGOON (the invasion of Southern France), then in MARKET GARDEN (the landings in Holland), and finally during VARSITY (the crossing of the Rhine).
While MARKET GARDEN, as an operation, was a failure, the initial glider-mounted assault was highly successful, with some gliders landing on target some 64 miles behind enemy lines. During the Battle of the Bulge, 11 Wacos landed inside Bastogne to deliver desperately needed medical staff, gasoline and artillery shells. Gliders also landed near the Bridge in Remagen, Germany then in a daring operation, loaded with 36 critically wounded soldiers, they were snatched off the ground by tow planes and flown to hospitals in France.
During Operation VARSITY, the largest airborne operation in history, 906 Gliders flew to the German side of the Rhine River. The gliders, their tow planes and those aircraft carrying conventional paratroopers created an airborne cascade in the sky over 200 miles in length!
In the Pacific Theatre, glider landings took place in New Guinea, and during the liberation of the Philippines. Their widespread success and regular use meant that the original order for training 1,000 glider pilots eventually ballooned to around 6,000 men by the end of WWII. Too often these men are sidelined in the popular re-telling of the war, their efforts lumped into the generalized chaos which is often used to describe its airborne operations.
The absence of assault gliders in present day military service is often used as evidence to declare the concept a technological dead-end. However, if we examine their capabilities in air mobility, massing of forces, or the tactics of vertical envelopment, what we actually find is that the Glider Force was replaced by Helicopters. Even the snatching of critically wounded personnel or the relieving of embattled strongholds from the air are all missions we see reflected in modern heli-borne units.å
So What Now?
If we believe that our Museum’s flying aircraft are more than the metal, fabric and wood which form them. If we believe that each of them is a distillation of the American spirit, and that each is kept flying as a monument to the sacrifices made by the whole country in the cause of freedom, then we should all want to see a Waco CG-4 back in the air.
Thankfully a number of gliders are preserved at Museums around the world, with one of the finest examples being at the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas. That Museum is located at the site of South Plains Army Air Field, one of the United States’ most important glider training hubs during World War II. Occupying an old airport terminal building, the Museum provides visitors with a chance to learn how glider pilots were trained, see a Waco glider up close, and examine the impact these men had upon the broader conflict.
Furthermore, Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California is working on an airworthy CG-4 restoration, and there is at least one additional example which may one day become a flyable aircraft. But for right now, the thing for us to do is remain on the lookout! To look out for opportunities to receive a project as a donation, or to partner with one of the groups which currently owns one.
We have a wonderful grass field here to operate a CG-4, but do we presently have a proper place to keep one? And perhaps most importantly, we are going to need an appropriate tow plane…
