Help Identify Grandfathers Glider - Joseph Clowry

I am hoping somebody on the forum could help ID the landing location of my grandfather's glider. After postponing my trip last year, I am hoping to go back to Normandy this summer with my family. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away while I was in high school and I never took the chance to ask much about his time during the war. I’ve been to Normandy a couple of times and started to wonder where my grandfather was. Luckily I found articles he wrote in a few books I’ve purchased. I think it gives pretty good clues to where he was and might help me retrace his footsteps. My grandmother is still alive and has some items from the war. However I haven’t been able to visit or look at those items for the last year due to covid. Soon I’ll see if I can gather more clues when I drive up to see her.

This is what I know

Joseph G. Clowry HQ Btry., 319th Glider FA BN, 82 Airborne Division)

One article he wrote details a bit of information:

“Outside the engines of the tow planes were warming up and the noise was such that any verbal communications had to be shouted. At last this was it, this was what we had been training for and were ready to go.

Sitting there, there was a feeling of anticipation. How would the fight go, the landing and after? There wasn’t any external or internal signs of fear - this was a great adventure and, after all, what could happen to a twenty-two year old. It could happen to the guy across the way, or the one next to you - just never you.

Soon the roar of the lead C-47 was heard as it inched forward slowly on the runway at Membury airfield. The tow line began to uncurl like a serpent from its preset configuration and the lead plane was off at 20.37 hours.

Then it was our turn, the tow-rope unravelled, tightened and with a slight jerk our Horsa glider began to roll forward. We gathered speed and soon the rumble of the wheels on the runway was silenced and we were airborne. The glider lifted off first and the taut tow-rope lifted the tail of the tow plane. We were veering off and climbing to the present altitude for assembly.

Our serial was completely airborne with the 418 airborne troops, thirty-one jeeps, twelve 75mm pack howitzers, twenty-six tons of ammunition and twenty-five tons of other equipment.

The troops carriers were unaware the 82nd Division was diverting our flight to landing zone “O” because of the supposedly better landing conditions and that landing zone “W” was dominated by German weapons. The glider pilots had been briefed to turn 180 degrees to the right after releasing instead of the previous directed left turn because of the German strength was to the right. This turned out to be a mistake because at “O” the German strength was to the right.

“The two serials joined up and in a column of fours headed across Southern England in a ten-mile wide corridor, out over the English Channel headed for France. For the 200 mile flight we were accompanied to the French coast by groups of Allied fighter planes. Whereas the parachute drops approached Normandy from the west of the Cherbourg Peninsula, the gliders came in directly over the “Utah” Beach area, roughly from the north.

I peered out of one of the port-holes lining the length of the Horsa and I could see the lines of tow planes and gliders droning on over the increasingly darkening water below. We passed over the armada of fighting ship; the larger ones, parallel to the shore, belching great balls of yellow and orange flames towards the shore.

As we approached “Utah” Beach the rushing noise of the wind passing over the wings and the side of the glider increased. The gliders were usually towed at about 100mph, but as we approached the shore the C-47 pilots increased their speed to what felt to be about 125mph so that they could get in and out as fast as possible.

The sun had set a few minutes before we crossed the coast and as we headed inland the ground began to get darker and it was more difficult to make out the objects below, even at 500 feet. I could see what appeared to be a group of fireflies milling about on the ground in the darkness and then ascending in single file, increasing in velocity as they approached in streams until, with a swish, whizzed by the window. Realising they were tracer bullets, I felt that I had nothing to worry about because they could be seen. It was the other four or more bullets between each tracer that you had to look out for. The intensity of the ground fire increased the more and more fireflies went streaming by. The glider pilot finally cut loose, the noise of the rushing wind became silent and started a 180 degree right bank we began to descend into the darkness. I continued to peer out of the porthole, searching for any recognizable land feature. That was the last thing I remember.

The next thing I recall was total darkness and the continual sound, of what seemed to me, of crunching and splintering caused by someone tearing away the plywood from on top of me. Then some dim shadows with arms extended to assist in extricating me from the wreckage.

There were two other men, one sitting each of me; so that I was sandwiched between them and they must have absorbed some of the impact. I recall seeing a Fourth Division insignia on one of the rescuers. While laying on my side, I splotted, abou ten to fifteen feet away, the jeep tipped over on its side with a complete oval-shaped section of the glider floor still attached to it by the tie-down ropes. I felt relief that it had not landed on me.

Blood was running down my face and my entire body was sore and aching. I had a swelling and gash about an inch above the outside corner of my left eye and a number of slashes across the top of my head in an ear-to-ear direction. Someone bandaged me up with two compression bandages; one across the top of my head and tied under my chin; the other over my left forehead and tied at the back.

Amid the usual din of war I made my way, in the darkness, to a nearby stone wall. I pulled up about me an abandoned parachute and leaned back, hardly moving to prevent antagonising the soreness I felt all over. There I sat to see what the six hours of summertime darkness might hold in store.

When daylight came, I made my way to an Aid Station that had been setup at a nearby crossroads. The tent, marked with a Red Cross, had wounded lying on stretches around it, tagged and waiting to be evacuated. I was cleaned up a bit and tagged. Orders were that anyone with a head wound was to be evacuated immediately. Waiting outside the tent I noted a P-47 fighter plane that had seemed to have been hit by enemy fire and was obviously in trouble. I recall subconsciously asking myself why the pilot didn’t bale out. I was relieved when I saw a human form calling from the plane. I waited for the chute to open, but the figure continued to plummet earthwards and disappeared into the trees down the road.

When we reached hte beach a DUKW took us out to an LST waiting off-shore. Back in England remember being in a cot in a circus-like ten and being checked over by a nurse. They shaved my head around my wounds. I was then sent to the 62nd General Hospital further inland from where I was later released to return to Market Harborough to await the return of my unit from Normandy.

Both the men on either side of me in the crash suffered broken vertebrae in their necks. The glider pilot had a bullet in his leg. The Lieutenant who had acted as co-pilot sustained a broken back and was unlucky enough, while waiting on the beach to be evacuated, to be strafed and killed.”

I feel like I have a bit of info to go on. If anybody could answer the questions below I’d really appreciate it.

1. I’ve seen the maps of the glider landing sites in landing zone “O”. In another article he states they hit a tree on the way in. I’m guessing it was in a field near La Londe Farms. Maybe near the intersection of D115 and D17. I really like to find the exact location.
   
   
2. Any idea of where the stone wall could have been? It’s mostly hedges in that area. I see a stone wall that looks like it was extended longer at the intersection of D115 and D17. Maybe there was one at the farm. I’ve looked on Google street view and haven’t seen many stone walls (assuming part of it is still there).
   
   
3. Where was the Red Cross tent? I can’t find much info about that.
   
   
4. What would have been the most likely route back to the beach?
   

 

Thanks John, I really appreciate you taking the time to write back. I don't have the names of anybody in the gilder. I've search for a First Lieutenant that was killed in action on June 7th in the 319th but couldn't find anything. I was hoping if I found his name it would be another clue.

This is what I know about the cargo they had onboard. He wrote "Part of our waiting period was utilized in loading our assigned Horsa with the Jeep and trailer, which it towed. The trailer carried such items as switchboards, field telephone, reels of wire and other communications equipment. The jeep and trailer were secured by by rope to lashing rings screwed into threaded holes located throughout the glider floor, and then springs on both units were blocked with wood wedges to keep them from vibrating and breaking loose in flight..."

I'll definitely post any additional information I get. Over Memorial Day weekend I'm hoping to make the trip (8 hrs away) to see my grandmother and see if I can find anything else.

thanks,
Carl

 

Thanks Neil, I really appreciate you taking the time to post and send these pictures. I was thinking of driving by the RAF Membury in June (assuming we are allowed to travel then). It doesn't look like there is much to see outside of the old runway. I assume we can't really just walk out onto it. What/where do you recommend we see, if anything. Also I see you do a lot of research for this site and others. Who do you recommend contacting to find out any additional info. I'd really like to find the flight manifest.

thanks again,
Carl