GLIDER PILOTS IN SICILY

2-200860

The British Airborne landings on Sicily are the least known and, without doubt, the most fraught with political and technical strife. Newly formed Airlanding troops were delivered into battle in gliders they knew little about. The men of the Glider Pilot Regiment (GPR) had self-assembled the gliders while living in the empty packing cases. They accomplished this complex and technically challenged task while living on fly-ridden, dusty North African airfields. After only a few hours of conversion training, they took off for a night flight across the Mediterranean Sea that was to end in near-catastrophe.