James E. Mrazek - Airborne Combat: The Glider War/Fighting Gliders of WWII

Acknowledgments

BOOK ONE

I am indebted to many people for their contributions and for their assistance in preparing this exhaustive (and exhausting) work. Ever since I served as a gliderman during World War IIwhere I collected some of the first data about transport glidersI have gradually compiled material from many sources and had the help of many people. I trust that I have not omitted attributing contributions from any person or source whatsoever, but if I have inadvertently done so, it has not been intentional.

Regrettably, some German material I had used in the manuscript was lost when I mailed it to the U.S. from England, where I had been working with the publisher. The data from the material had already been used, but the names of individuals and archives in Germany who had so generously provided the information were recorded in the correspondence lost with the material. Thus, I may not have given credit to those sources.

United States

General John R. Alison, wartime deputy commander, 1st Air Commando Group

The late Captain Homer Ambrose, U.S. Navy, Ret., editor

Captain R. S. Barnaby, U.S. Navy, Ret., test pilot and wartime chief engineer, Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia

Robert Bovey, wartime glider pilot

Richard M. Bueschel, author and Japanese and Chinese aviation historian

Eleanor M. Burdette, reference librarian, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), headquarters library, Washington, D.C.

Jack Coogan, actor and wartime transport glider pilot

Colonel Carl F. Damberg, U.S. Air Force, wartime chief, Aircraft Laboratory, Wright Field, Ohio

Major Fred Demousse, U.S. Army, linguist who assisted in translating of Russian material

The late Major General Frederick R. Dent, U.S. Air Force, wartime chief, Glider Branch, Wright Field, Ohio

Dr. Cortez F. Enloe, Jr., military surgeon on the staff of General Orde Charles Wingate

Marcia Frances, U.S. resident of Vienna, Austria, who translated German material

Rene Francillon, Ph.D., author of Japanese Aircraft

Royal Frey, curator, U.S. Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio

Virginia G. Fincik, archives technician, 1361st Photo Squadron, Aerospace Audio Visual Service, U.S. Air Force

Colonel John R. Galvin, U.S. Army, author of Air Assault

Elsie L. T. Goins, Office of Naval Aviation History

Jane S. Hess, head, General Reference and Cataloguing, NASA Langley Research Center Library, Hampton, Virginia

Colonel Joe A. Hinton, U.S. Army, wartime chief, Airborne Section, General Staff, G-3, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF)

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Lansing, U.S. Army, German linguist, assisted in translating German materials

Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Mikesh, U.S. Air Force, assistant curator, aeronautics, also Louis S. Casey, curator of aircraft, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Rose F. Mrazek, authors mother, translator of Czech material

Colonel Mike C. Murphy, U.S. Air Force reserve, wartime glider pilot and glider staff officer, AAF, the Pentagon

Lieutenant Colonel Dan Harris, U.S. Army, Ret., Japanese linguist

Thomas E. Holman, archivist, Military Archives Branch, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Colonel O. W. Howland, U.S. Air Force Reserve, Ret., wartime commander, 435th Transport Carrier Group

Key K. Kobayashi, assistant head, Japanese Section, Orientalia Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Colonel Edward H. Lahti, U.S. Army, Ret., wartime commander, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division

Charles B. MacDonald, author of Company Commander and deputy chief of history, Office of Armys Chief of Military History, Washington, D.C.

General Anthony G. McAuliffe, commander of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne

Leeds Mitchell, author and wartime transport glider pilot

Dr. Hector Nadal, wartime surgeon, glider-borne medical unit

Herbert Naylor, multilingual linguist

Colonel Virgil Ney, U.S. Army, Ret., author and military historian

Rudolf Opitz, wartime Luftwaffe assault/transport glider pilot residing in Stamford, CT.

C. Parker, president, Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation, Minneapolis, MN. During World War II: partner, Auchincloss, Parker and Redpath

Lady Alice Pennington, linguist, widow of Sir John Pennington, concert orchestra conductor

John A. Powers, wartime transport glider pilot

Colonel Robert Rentz, U.S. Air Force, Ret., wartime transport aircraft pilot

Michael Rosen, historian

Max Rosenberg, deputy chief of history; Carl Burger, chief, Histories Division; David Schoen, chief, Support Division; Mary Ann Cresswell, archivist; Office of U.S. Air Force History, Washington, D.C.

William T. Sampson, wartime transport glider pilot

Lloyd Santmyer, wartime test pilot

Paul Schweizer, president, National Soaring Museum, Elmira, NY, and president of Schweizer Aircraft Corporation

Albert F. Simpson, Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

Ted Solinski, editor of Nashville Tennessean and wartime transport pilot

Michael Stroukoff, Jr., son of the designer of XCG-I4, -14A and the XCG-20

Colonel Floyd J. Sweet, U.S. Air Force, Ret., NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., wartime commanding officer for a period, AAF Training Detachment, Twenty-nine Palms, CA, and later glider project officer and test pilot then chief, Glider Branch, Wright Field, Dayton, OH

Dorothy Taylor, manuscript typist

Major General Louis A. Walsh, U.S. Army, Ret., contributor, information on Japanese transport gliders

Paul L. White, archives technician, National Archives

Arthur A. Whiting, wartime aeronautical engineer for Curtis Wright Aircraft Corporation

Robert Wolfe, chief, Captured Records Branch, Military Archives Division, National Archives; also George Wagner, reference specialist, same office.

and

Thelma, my wife and editor, who assisted me immeasurably during the writing

Germany

Edmund Auer, Luftwaffe test pilot, engineer

D. C. Consbruch, Zentralstelle fr Luftfahrtdokumentation und Information (ZLDI)

Hans-Karl Becker, wartime assault, transport glider pilot

Werner Davignon, historian, Luftwaffe chief navigator, air transport group

Wilhelm Fulda, Luftwaffe assault, transport glider pilot and captor, the bridge at Corinth, Greece

Generalmajor Walter Gericke, Bundeswehr

Oberst Walter Hornung, Luftwaffe air transport group commander

Heiner Lange, Luftwaffe assault, transport glider pilot

Alexander Lippisch, aeronautical engineer, pioneer German aircraft designer

H. J. Meier and W. A. Thurow, Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke GMBH

Generalmajor Friedrich Morzik, Luftwaffe , wartime commander of Germanys air transport on the Eastern Front

Eugen Moser, Luftwaffe assault, transport glider pilot

Dr. Sack, Zentralbibliotek der Bundeswehr der Leiter

Hanna Reitsch, wartime Luftwaffe test pilot

Dr. Friedrich Stahl, Bundesarchiv-Militararchiv , Freiburg in Breisgau

Generaloberst Kurt Student, Luftwaffe , pioneer in the use of the glider as a military weapon

Dipl. Ing . Heinz Trautwein

Woldmer Voigt, head of the Departments of Advanced Design and Hardware Design, Messerschmitt, Augsburg

Oberstleutnant i.G . Volker, Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt , Freiburg

Helmut Wenzel, wartime paratrooper, key figure in capture of Fort Eben Emael

Oberst Rudolf Witzig, German Armed Forces, captor of Fort Eben Emael

and

Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm and Hamburger Flugzeugbau GMBH ein internehmensberger der Messerschmitt; Heinkel Flugzeugbau, Vereinigte Flugzeug Werke (Speyer)

United Kingdom