Hello all, My name is Charles Bass. My reason for joining the forum stems from my father's service in the U.S. Army Air Corps in WWII. He was a glider pilot. On D-Day evening he flew a Horsa glider into Normandy as part of the third serial of Mission Elmira. His was one of 50 gliders in that serial. Once over land, enemy machine gun fire disabled the glider wing flaps. As a result, according to my father, he was able to get on the ground ok, but was going very fast, the landing field was quite short and the glider ended up crashing into a tree which was part of a hedgerow. The glider was destroyed and he was seriously injured, but survived. One of the 7 troops on board was killed. For the past year, as time permits, I have been researching and gathering information on this particular flight, and would like to continue to do so. At this point, I guess my main objective is to try to locate as closely as possible the place where my father landed. I realize that it is highly unlikely that the precise spot can be determined, but I would like to get as close as I can. The more information I can gather, the better my chances for narrowing down a landing area. I would seriously considering a trip to Normandy if I can feel reasonably confident that I can get near to where that flight ended. As part of my effort to learn what happened, last year I was able to join the National WW2 Glider Pilots Association as an affiliate member. I attended the annual reunion in Sept. and thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with a number of the remaining glider pilots who were able to make the trip to Kansas City, Mo. Even got to take a flight on a C-47 that was brought in just for the reunion. From looking through this forum site and reading some of the posts, I am quite impressed and humbled by the apparent wealth of knowledge of many of the members. Looking forward to advancing my research.
Welcome Charles I look forward to anything you can add to our knowledge of glider operations in Normandy, my late father was in the RAF at B.11 Longues-sur-Mer, hard by the gun battery, as a telephonist, before moving on to Belgium, Holland and Germany, eventually ending up in Denmark just post VE-Day. I am presuming that as only 7 troops were on board it probably contained a jeep and trailer, or similar loading, as I cannot see a Horsa just being used by a crew and 7 fighting troops when it had a capacity for at least 25 fully armed and equipped personnel, and they needed our people over in Normandy in large numbers. I wonder how your father felt about using a British Horsa instead of a Waco as a lot of his colleagues did, although of course he was only one of many US Glider pilots flying the Horsa, as your research on this site will have shown. For some information on the the British Glider Pilot regiment see http://www.89fss.com/affiliated/gpr.htm Allan
Thanks, Allan for your response to my post. Yes, you are correct about the glider load. In addition to the 7 men, they were also carrying a 1/4 ton truck and a trailer. It reportedly took 3 hours to remove the truck from the wreckage. As for my father's feelings about flying a Horsa, rather than a CG4a, you know he never said anything about that to me. I doubt that it bothered him. But, like most of the WW2 soldiers, he really didn't talk that much about his service He did tell us (family) that he flew a glider in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, and that he crash landed as a result of enemy fire, and that one of the 7 troops was killed in the crash, but that was about it. And, unfortunately I did not have the presence of mind to ask the many questions I now have. Oh well, that's kind of why I'm now trying to dig into his past. Charles
Hello, Charles The exchange of information and ideas is what makes this site so interesting to me. Thank you for joining the forum and sharing your father's story. I'm sure everyone will do their very best for you. Alane
Welcome Charles: My dad wasn't a pilot, but a passenger in one of the Horsa gliders of which you speak. He was part of the Keokuk Mission.
Thanks for the reply. As you know, Keokuk was the mission immediately before Elmira. I also spotted the picture of the line-up of tugs and gliders in preparation for Keokuk that someone sent to you earlier. Nice pic. I have been unable to find any similar picture of the Elmira mission, but will keep trying. Charles
Hello Charles Whilst trying to do some research for you on the Elmira mission I noticed on http://forum.armyairforces.com/Mission-Elmira-436-TCG-82nd-Tr-Cr-Sqd-Glider-Crash-m232914.aspx that you have your father "Charles C Bass, Jr., piloted a CG4a Waco Glider during Mission Elmira. He was part of the 436 TCG, 82nd Tr Cr Sqd - 82nd Abn Div Arty.", what is it now that convinces you that your father flew a Horsa and not a Waco in to Normandy? See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Elmira http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/aeropus/data/9tcc_03.pdf http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/aeropus/en_page.php?page=glide As part of Serial 32 your father took off from RAF Membury - which now forms part of Membury Services on the M4 motorway from London to South Wales and you might be interested in these links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Membury and http://www.lambourn.info/main.asp?pid=218&child=0&parent=221,218,304,305,308,217,387,258,157,388,273,170,236,172,310,313,318,307,&lang= http://www.ramsburyatwar.com/memburyairfield.htm http://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/membury http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/berkshire/membury01/html/page01.htm I hope that this helps fill in some background information for you. Allan
Very sharp of you to have noticed. I have meant to correct the original post but haven't figured out how to do it. Anyway, I had originally just assumed that my father had flown a CG4a. However, when I submitted an application to join the National WW2 Glider Pilots Association last year, I indicated that he had flown the CG4a and then quoted a statement that he gave to the US Army Retiring Board for Officers relating to the crash landing, in which he said in part : "My control flaps wouldn't work, so as a result..." A very observant official of the National WW@GPA actually telephoned me to explain that the CG4a did not have wing flaps and thus my father must have flown a Horsa. This has now been confirmed by several sources - no doubt it was a Horsa. Thanks for inquiring and thanks for the Membury links. Appreciate your response. Charles
Hi Charles, I wanted to welcome you to the forum also. Very interesting how you had learned your father flew a Horsa. It must be so interesting that as you dig further you learn more and more. I have sent Pat Curran an e-mail in regards to your length of post question. He is best able to answer those questions and always feel free to contact him through private message too. I dont know if you had a photo attached to your post. Sometimes photos take up a good portion of space and I have often had to send a photo to him for resizing into a post. I look forward to learning more about your father while your research continues ! Respectfully, John Szweda
Hello Charles Thanks for the explanation - pleased to help with the Membury links, will still keep searching for anything relevant on the Elmira Mission. Happy Christmas to you. Allan
Hi Charles, A belated welcome to the Forum I have checked my Elmira tables and there does seem to be one good candidate with 1x 319th Field Artillery Battalion trooper KIA from a load of 7 personnel: If this is correct, then you are looking at a search area of five square miles centered on LZ 'W'. If you are still having difficulty opening a thread, let me know. Regards, Pat
Hi Charles and welcome. I haven't frequented the forums for a while due to lack of time, but noticed your father's story resembles most of what I am researching for another glider pilot son of the US. You can read more about it on the dedicated website we have opened for it: http://avclassic.com/ww2glider/ We too are looking for the landings spots in 3 different theaters.
Hi, and thanks for the welcome. I looked at the website and found it all to be quite interesting. The letter from "Daddy Bill" is amazing, as is the work you have been doing to locate his glider and answer surrounding questions. I keep picking away at various resources in an attempt to locate the site of my father's crash landing and hopefully will be able to narrow things down a bit more than they are now. My post and follow up comments on this effort are located at: Researches Currently Underway/Air Forces/American/Troop Carrier (incl Glider)/Elmira Horsa Glider. Charles