THE LUFTWAFFE'S GIANT GLIDER


______Among Germany's many military innovations during World War II was the use of combat gliders to deliver soldiers and equipment behind enemy lines. Early in the war the Germans took the strategic Belgium fortress of Eban Emael with a gliderborne assault, using shock and awe to capture a citadel that was thought impregnable to any conceivable attack.
______By the end of 1940 Germany had defeated Poland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and France. The only enemy still standing up to Hitler was England and German preperations for a cross-channel invasion began. The invasion would be by sea and air, and plans were made to use gliders to move a significant number of troops and equipment to England.
______The Me321 was the result of invasion planning. The gliders used at Eban Emael could each deliver a platoon to their attack point; the Me321 would deliver an entire company of men, or light artillery or even small vehicles. The giant glider could theoretically deliver a staggering 45,000 pounds of cargo. It's 180 foot wingspan and 33 foot height made the Me321 bigger than many heavy bombers and powered transports of the time. What made it even more remarkable was that the machine was built almost entirely of wood; very little metal was used.
______But the glider's great size and cargo capacity begged the problem of how to get it airborne. At first three Me110 twin-engined fighters were yoked to the glider. This proved to be exceedingly dangerous, even when much of the initial power was provided by rockets since an engine failure by one fighter pretty much doomed the entire flight. So a five-engined, twin-fuselage He111 bomber was built for the task.
______As it turned out, all the effort put into the giant glider turned out to be misdirected. The invasion of England was called off when the RAF stubbornly beat off German attacks and prevented the Luftwaffe from gaining air supremacy, an absolute precondition for any landing on the British Isles.
______Despite the loss of their primary mission, the giant gliders were not scrapped. Some were used on the Eastern Front, where great distances and poor roads made transport of supplies difficult. Others were converted to Me323s by the addition of French airplane engines (heck, the French had surrendered and THEY sure didn't need 'em) and a special arrangement of wheels. The Me323 Gigant became an excellent heavy lifter, providing service in the Mediterranean and Eastern Fronts. It could carry two 4-ton trucks, or an 88mm AA gun with prime mover, or 52 drums of fuel, or the typical weekly beer ration for a standard Panzergrenadier regiment.
______In fact, many features of the Me323 continue to be used in modern transports, including the use of clamshell doors.

WHO WERE THE ASKARI?