Glider Infantry question?

The original Table of Organization for an Airborne Division called for two regiments of glider infantry and one of parachute infantry. This was later changed two two of each for most airborne divisions, and one of glider infantry and two of parachute infantry for the later-created airborne divisions.

No jump pay, no flight pay, no spiffy wings or bloused trousers, no jump boots. Eventually they were authorized a one-wing insignia. You crash landed into combat with a guy who washed out from powered flight training at the controls. The aircraft of course had no power and so were committed once a landing spot was selected no matter what obstacles appeared as you got closer.

There were two different types of glider in use by US airborne forces, both mostly plywood and completely unarmored. They landed in excess of one hundred mph and encountering any obstacle on the ground was very often fatal.

The gliders were big enough to accommodate a loaded jeep and trailer or a 75mm pack howitzer. The airborne division TOE originally called for one Airborne Field Artillery battalion, later changed to two, equipped with the 75mm pack howitzer. This was a relatively light, flat trajectory weapon, but the heaviest organic weapon of the airborne divisions. This meant that the airborne divisions had to be reached by ground forces swiftly after landing behind enemy lines as they had no sustained or heavy combat power.

Probably the most spectacular glider exploits of the war were by the Germans. In the early days of the attack in the west the Germans landed gliders on the roof of the Belgian fortress of Eban Emauel and captured it with about fifty men, removing a truly formidable obstacle. The Nazi special forces under Otto Skorzeny who rescued Mussolini from his captivity in a mountaintop resort hotel made into a prison landed on the mountain top in gliders. You may have seen aerial photos of gliders spread randomly around a Dutch farm field where they landed during the Market-Garden Operation. There are interesting photos from a Dutch airline pilot who noticed in flying over that field in recent years that the shadowy outline of those gliders is visible from the air today, perhaps because they were burned by the Germans after the Operation failed.

http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchr...

The Paratroopers looked down on the glider infantry--untuil D-day when so many of them crashed landed with disasterous results, that it was recognized ars a nice idea on paper, but as being more dangerous in practice than jumping with a parachute.