They could fall out of a plane under silk while clutching a rifle and some of them would survive long enough to disrupt the enemy rear while the tanks made their move, that was good enough. Did Stalin care if they died in droves from accidents and scattered landings in a combat drop? Also no. Were they anything like "paratroopers" the way we use the term in the well trained elite sense? Nope. No joke, by 1939 they had cycled IIRC 1.2 million people through basic parachute training, presumably the majority of whom had also had at least basic infantry training, while many others were receiving intro pilot training. The Soviets were paratrooper pioneers and in the 30's they replaced decadent capitalist youth entertainment with what amounted to ROTC and semi-compulsory combat training. Deep battle was shot to shit until the Red Army could be rebuilt, and before this could occur Stalin further paralyzed the Army by moving it forward out of its border fortifications into the open in Poland and tying their hands on Der Tag by refusing to accept that Hitler was about to sucker punch him while his Army was still neutered.Īnyway, part of deep battle was shitloads of paratroopers. They got all ate up with "l'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace", which is why, in part, the Soviets built an enormous horde of fast light tanks but ironically Stalin couldn't risk sharing the country with officers capable of l'audace, so he murdered Tukhachevsky, his entire staff, most of their families, and the competent half of the officer corps in 1937-38 and replaced them with inexperienced terrified lackeys under the thumbs of political officers, all of whom were totally incapable of l'audace by design. Stalin was evidently planning to invade Central Europe sooner or later and deep battle was primarily influenced by the highly aggressive "Red Napoleon", Marshal Tukhachevsky, so it became extremely unbalanced towards the offense. >A drone glider is still quiet and could be made out of cheaper materials that might have a lower RCS.īy the mid 30's the Red Army was focused on developing a strategy designed to disrupt the enemy from the frontlines to a great distance in the rear called "deep battle", aka the Soviet Blitzkrieg. >With GPS navigation single gliders could still allow concentration of troops (and prevent collisions). >If you have a chute (or really smart landing behavior and good data about the landing site) you could land paratroopers at MUCH greater ranges than you can achieve by parachute alone, and probably with fewer injuries than by parachute. >If you don't want to risk a transport plane or helicopter, a drone glider would make a great re-supply vehicle.
![silent wings the american glider pilots of wwii silent wings the american glider pilots of wwii](https://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/hdphotos/1006/001006/001006_475x267_673256_056.jpg)
>Now that we have micro-electronics and GPS/INS you don't even need a pilot. This was a problem that also plagued plenty of powered aircraft in different ways (B-29 and B-24 being notorious).Ĭall me crazy but I actually think that gliders might have a place on the battlefield today: Let's also be honest, the CG-4s of WWII were designed and built in a rush, and they didn't have CAD back then to pick out and solve design flaws before they killed somebody. I mean things like friendly fire, weather forecasting, navigation (particularly at night), and the power of the tow transport aircraft. Those are all great points, and I agree that in the modern era helicopters have taken over that role, and the V-22 offers even more capability (although at much greater expense).īut I think that a lot of the failure of gliders had more to do with how they were used and certain operational problems that we can solve a lot more easily today than you could in WWII. It's a fascinating place with great exhibits of aircraft made primarily from plywood and canvas.
![silent wings the american glider pilots of wwii silent wings the american glider pilots of wwii](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4f/f7/2d/4ff72d088afa9581b3e8798cbc06e6c8.jpg)
The former Army Air Field is now the home of the Silent Wings Museum dedicated to preserving the history of the WWII glider program. If you ever find yourself in Lubbock, TX, with a couple of hours to kill (after you've been to the Buddy Holly museum downtown), drive out to the Lubbock International Air Port (LBB) which is the former site of South Plains Army Air Field where WWII glider pilots were trained between 19.