I know my dad had about 6 flights in Horsa,s, 3 of those operational. Can you narrow down the 3 operational ones? Sicily, Normandy, Rhine crossing etc?
Sorry. it,s only 2 . Normandy and the Rhine, Operation Mallard and Varsity respectively. His other major engagement was in the Ardennes where they travelled by boat and lorry. I may be wrong here but on the first op He may have had a false start which would of been op Tonga and had to return to Tarrant Rushton where he left at 7pm on op Mallard (so still 3 op flights).
I'm wondering what WW2 paras thought of glider troops ? Fellow airborne or not quite as good as them ? I know what modern paras think of non-paras.
The general impression I get is they had a great deal of respect for them and I've seen a fair few mentions of "you wouldn't catch me in one of those things" they seemed to think they were in a better position having parachutes if something went wrong where the glider boys had nothing
Just thinking about another aspect of it - I think during the war you volunteered for "Airborne Forces" not for Parachute or Glider - a good friend volunteered with 2 others from his Battalion of the Royal Scots, all got selected and 2 went to the Parachute Regiment and Jim went to 1 Border but it was just luck of the draw after the initial interview where they had shown they had the right stuff - so its possible at the time the men saw themselves as the same but just with a different method of delivery. I could be wrong on this though and volunteering may have changed later in the War
