All, A couple of quick Horsa queries. 1) I remember many years ago seeing a picture of a Horsa which had struck a tree on landing and pretty much cleaved off the port side of the cockpit entirely leaving almost a cross section of the glider. It might of been in Normandy and may of been one of the USAAF gliders. Does anyone happen to know the picture because I cannot find it in any of my books and I know I've seen it somewhere. 2) Does anyone know the operational history of Horsa DP649? It seems it was fitted with a Rebecca reciever at some point (possibly pre-1944) and wondered if it was used operationally. 3) Operation Varsity - a Horsa Mk.II carrying a jeep + crew lands clips on the bank of a small stream/river with enough force that the nose detatches at the hinge and rolls away from the fuselage with the pilots inside. Anecdote or is ther any record of such? Cheers // HT
HT 1. I think the photo you're describing is of the Horsa crash in which Maj Ian Toler broke his ankle. This was an exercise not an operation. There's footage and frames, which I've got somewhere. 2. Can't help on this one. 3. I've not seen anything about a glider on Varsity. I wonder if this is the glider of Sgt John West and Sgt James Bonham, Horsa Chalk No. 124, on Market Garden not Varsity. The glider had on board four members of 1 Troop Anti-Tank Battery Polish Parachute Brigade and a six-pounder gun and jeep. Just as they cast off from their Halifax tug, at 1500 feet, an anti-aircraft shell exploded close by. The glider went into a vertical dive. Eye-witnesses on the ground said it levelled off around 500 feet, but the G forces on the aircraft broke its back. It fell to earth and ploughed in. Both pilots were killed on impact. Steve W.
HT, A short anecdote somewhat similar to your #3 occurring on Operation Varsity: "With some difficulty we managed to open the glider’s nose and get our load out and away to their RV. As we were doing this another Horsa landed nearby, its nose broke off and rolled into another drainage ditch. Shortly afterwards 2 very irate glider pilots managed to extricate themselves with much swearing!" http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/329990-gaining-r-f-pilots-brevet-ww11-101.html Regards ...
Steve, 1) No, it's no Ian Toler's minor "dink" at Cirencester. I've copies of that film/stills myself. This was a much more severe crash in which I think the pilot was killed. My abiding memory was US soldiers walking past the wreckage and the port side of the cockpit has gone from the front up to about just past the front loading door. 3) It's definitely Varstity. The anecdote was told to me by an ex RAF GPR pilot who flew the op. I'm not wanted to embellish too much at this point as I don't want to embarrass him if his just "spinning a yarn". Actually my motivation is to see if I can find a picture of his glider or at least pin-point where he landed. As mentioned, the description was that they were coming into land, realised they were going to undershoot, *just* caught the bank of the stream/river but the impact caused the nose to detach and they carried on down LZ rolling end over end before coming to a halt upside down. The fuselage stayed in place and when they extracted themselves the guys they were carrying had managed to get the Jeep unloaded and drove off past them giving a cheery wave.
Cee, Thanks for that - I just went over to PPrune and read the story. Seems to align nicely with what the chap told me. Seems "ExAscoteer's" father may have actually witnessed this chaps crash.
HT, I vaguely remember reading an account of a Horsa being sliced open lengthwise with disastrous results for the on-board troops. I can't find the story now and it could have been a separate incident from your #1. If you haven't done so already try Google Images. There are a number of photos on the web showing American troops dealing with crashed gliders. None of them strike me on first blush as being the one you are after. Perhaps the Duxford Radio Society would have a clue or two on the use of rebecca receivers in gliders ...? Regards ...
Cee, Couldn't find the book I first saw it in but I found the picture at the bottom of this page: http://jn.passieux.free.fr/html/As51.php As for Rebecca - I'll try the DRS. I have the mod engineering mod sheets for fitting it and the drawings of the parts from the Horsa components catalouge and even a few pictures of gliders with it fitted, but no evidence of it's operational use. T The interesting thing, someone on the forum posted some data plate pictures a while back on the forum and one of them has the Rebecca mod number stamped into it. That said, having the mods made to the glider to carry Rebecca doesn't guarantee it had it actually fitted. The Rebecca mod was only mad to glider as a special operational requirement.
HT, Ok, glad to hear you found it. As a follow up there's also a pic here which was taken from the following collection. I'm not sure if any of the other images are part of the same story? Index of /st_mere_eglise/1009 What an unusually clean slice though. I don't even want to think how the occupants fared on that crash. Regards ..
