What was the name of the gliders used at the D-Day landings to drop paratroopers?

Answer 1

The CG-4A gliders were used to land troops during D-Day. They did not serve as jump platforms for paratroopers.

Names of the D-Day Gliders: The CG-4A was often called the "Waco" after the name of the American aircraft company that built it. It was the smallest and most numerous of three main types of glider that were used during the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, code named Operation Overlord. The Waco typically carried around 13 troopers (one squad) with their equipment, or a Jeep or light artillery piece.

Two other, larger gliders were also used during the early morning hours of D-Day: British built AS-51 Horsasand Mark I Hamilcars. The Horsas were built by the Airspeed company and could carry as many as 28 troops or a jeep plus a light artillery piece. The Hamilcar Mk I's were the largest, built by General Aircraft, and were capable of ferrying in as much as 7 tons of cargo, which might include a light tank.

The vast majority of airborne troops jumped in singly in the pre-dawn morning of D-Day, but the disadvantage was that this was essentially a night drop and it was difficult for the men to link up in the dark. The perceived advantage of carrying airborne troops in gliders was that the troops would arrive on the ground as a unit instead of being spread out all over the countryside. Gliders were used because they had an advantage over powered aircraft in that they could land in shorter spaces, plus they came in silently, making it hard for an enemy on the ground to track them.

The disadvantage was that, being unpowered, the gliders often had little choice in where to land and many crashed, killing some or all of the troops aboard. This was especially true in the dark on the morning of D-Day, when many got into the Normandy hedgerows which were much higher than Allied intelligence had realized and so caused many fatal crashes. On the other hand, the vital antitank light artillery and the jeeps that were brought in by glider over two days made an important difference in the Allied toehold on the Normandy beachhead. For example, two more glider landings late in the day on June 6 brought in two battalions of artillery with 24 howitzers belonging to the 82nd (All American) Airborne, and on June 7 the entire 325th Glider Infantry Regiment was delivered.

The heyday of the gliders was WW2. By Korea, in 1950, they had been replaced by helicopters, which have the advantage of being able to extract troops as well as deliver them.