Have You Read - Glider Pilots In Sicily By Mike Peters

Glider Pilots in Sicily​

Mike Peters​

RRP: £25.00 • ISBN: 9781848846838 • 320 Pages • Hardback​

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Purchase this title from Pen and Sword Books for £18.75 when you quote 441657​

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk • 01226 734222​

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• Lifts the veil on the first ever near catastrophic use of towed gliders in combat action.​

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• Describes the birth of airborne and air landing forces.​

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• The lack of training and expertise led to the deaths of hundreds of troops by drowning during the invasion of Sicily.​

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• Inspiring accounts of gallantry by the survivors. The Glider Pilot Regiment had the highest casualty rate of any British unit in WW2​

Glider Pilots in Sicily is the well - researched book by historian Mike Peters, who lifts the veil on the first large scale British use of glider’s in action. This occurred in July 1943 as a key part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Sicily from bases in North Africa.


Flying in large numbers of troops at night over sea against a well trained enemy would be a challenge at any time. But as the author reveals, the newly formed airlanding forces and the pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment woefully lacked the necessary training and experience. The result was little short of a total disaster, with over 300 men lost at sea and few troops landing successfully enough to carry out their missions.


Thanks to shining examples of collective and individual heroism by survivors, a total catastrophe was averted. The successes and failures of this overly ambitious venture make for fascinating reading and classic military history. The book also covers the formation of air landing and airborne forces.

Mike Peters is a serving Army Air Corps officer. During his thirty years’ service he has had operational experience in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout his career Mike has worked closely with the veterans of the Glider Pilot Regiment. As a result he is an honorary member of the Glider Pilot Regimental Association, and has been awarded the AAC Silver Medal. In his spare time Mike leads battlefield tours all over Europe and is the current Chairman of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. He specialises in tours of the airborne battlefields of Crete, Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing.
He published his first book, co-authored with Luuk Buist, Glider Pilots at Arnhem with Pen and Sword in 2009 and has been involved with DVDs on the GPR and Pegasus Bridge.

 

No but I'd like to.

The problem I have with ordering direct from P+S is the price never includes P+P. The same title from Amazon is £16 and includes P+P. Now we all have our opinions on Amazon but with the economic climate being the way it is then for me the cheapest option must always win. I was lucky enough to get Glider Pilots at Arnhem for Christmas and its quite superb. I very much doubt for a even a single minute that it was ordered via the P+S website.

 

I certainly understand this.

I hope you do buy it and let us and other fellow readers with similar interests know what you think.