The Great Glider Grab - Salvaging Operation Market Garden Gliders 1944

My cousin was a private with the 101st, 506PIR. Operation Market Garden was his first campaign drop and his last - he died on Sep 20, a few days before his 19th birthday. He is buried at Margraten where his grave is well cared for by the locals. Thanks for honoring these vets with your excellent stories.

A security guard at one of my jobs 25 years ago was in the Korean War. He recovered tanks damaged in battle. He said he still had nightmares of what he saw inside the tanks. You don't have to be in "battle" to have PTSD. I have so much respect for ANY soldier.

Interesting note: A British group had the idea to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day, by making a glider from the blueprints used to make the original aircraft. Their plan was to fill it with volunteers who would be towed by a C-47 across the Channel and land in the glider, just like on June 6. When they approached the British government for approval, they were denied permission because they deemed the glider unworthy and unsafe for human occupancy. True story.

I was fortunate as a young man to have many elderly customers share their life experiences with me. One fought in the Spanish American war, joined the Navy afterwards and got caught up in the Boxer rebellion. Another was General Pershing's driver, and another customer told me about seeing Queen Victoria' s diamond jubilee as a young boy. He was 93 when he told me. One story that stuck in my mind was a WW2 veteran who washed out as a glider pilot. He felt ashamed of being a failure but admitted that have probably would have been killed at Normandy. I hold each of these stories dear in my memory and glad to have met these men. My advice to young people is to spend a moment to listen to old folks tales. History is being written everyday, but these are the people who lived it. I love this channel as there are so many thoughtful comments.

My late father was at Arnhem (L section 1st Airborne Divisional Signals) and he used to tell a story that during one of the exersizes on the lead up to Market Garden, there was a shortage of gliders, and an officer challenged why a particular glider was supposedly unservicable. He insisted it be hooked up to a tow plane, took it up, cast off the tow rope, carried out a few manouvres, then dove it at full speed and looped it before landing it. At which point he declared it servicable, and it was issued to ... my fathers radio crew. Needless to say they spend the whole exersize flight looking nervously at the 4 3/8th inch explosive bolts that were all that held the tail in place (see 4:00 and 4:12 where tail units have been blown off for a fast exit). He ended up being one of the few who made it back across the Rhine from Oosterbeek and the only survivor from his crew.

My father flew a Horsa in Operation Varsity in 1945. He was RAF and volunteered to join the Glider Pilot Regiment which was of course Army. He and his RAF colleagues insisted on wearing their Air Force blue uniforms and wings. He is 97 and remembers every detail as if it were yesterday. They were an extraordinary group of young men. Your videos are wonderful and much appreciated.

Interesting video as always. Randomly met Babe Heffron and Bill Guarnere about 17(?) years ago. They were part of a tour along with some cast from BoB visiting bases in Europe. They were just sitting at a cafe on a nice afternoon (we were really surprised no one else had recognized them). All were super great about chatting with us and taking some pics with the kids. Of course we felt very fortunate to meet and thank them.

Imagine going to war against a well-armed, well-trained, and determined enemy in an aircraft with no engines, that had already been used, patched up, and "recovered". Truly, the Greatest Generation.

My Grandad went into Burma on one of these things, he called them crates.. He also said he met Jackie Coogan (not sure if he was his pilot or not) who was one of the pilots... Uncle Fester in the original Adams Family... :)

One of the best components of a Dr Mark Felton video are his excellent pronunciations. He is the standard that I compare other history videos with. Thank you Sir for your superior content!

The final scene of "Objective Burma" has Errol Flynn and comrades in a glider that gets snatched up by a passing Dakota. It really surprised me because I had always considered gliders to be a one-shot weapon.

Recovery and salvage are really interesting topics and rarely covered. Thank you! Timely for the circular economy as well.

My uncle Jess was gliders 101st airborne, there was a drop of over 400 gliders, 14 were reusable, without repairs! His brother was 82nd airborne.

Very interesting subject to cover. Peeking behind the curtains during (and often closely after) the war sometimes is more interesting than putting a spotlight on things that have been covered thousands of times.

Here in Brevard County Florida there are some remains, aluminum chunks, out in the Saint Johns River area of gliders from the Banana River Naval base that were used for training from WW2. Thanks Mr Felton.

The figures are outstanding , the research astounding , Mark your 10 min video is truly remarkable!!

A relative and I visited The Silent Wings Museum in Terrell, Texas before its relocation. The museum had interesting displays of memorabilia and a restored glider. The glider pilots were often chaps disqualified from flight school due to eyesight or other reasons. But in reality, they were exceptionally capable, sticking one-try landings while overloaded with men and equipment. As an aside, my relative had grown up working in the fields not far away, watching the English fliers train to return home for the war. As always, another excellent Mark Felton video.

My grandfather took part in Operation Market Garden as a British paratrooper and his task was to take the railway bridge which I believe the Germans blew up sometime during the battle, luckily he survived the battle but unfortunately spent the rest of war as a P.O.W

Timeless! Although I somehow missed this episode 2 years ago, it is just as interesting today as it was then. Thanks for posting these interesting and educational videos. 🙂👍

What better way to than glide into another fascinating subject from WW2 than with Mark Felton at the controls.