Combat gliders were among the most controversial and dangerous U.S. aircraft of World War II. Silent and engineless, the fragile contraptions of plywood and canvas were towed at night behind cargo planes and released for what were often clandestine missions.
Their nickname says it all -- "flying coffins."
As the world's first "stealth" aircraft, gliders played an important role in America's war effort. On June 6, 1944 -- D-Day -- 500 were in the vanguard of the invasion of France, dropping behind German lines in an attempt to secure vital bridges before the beach invasions.
It may surprise Minnesotans to learn that our state was one of the most important sites for the manufacture of CG-4 gliders. Between 1942 and 1944, 4,000 Twin Citians worked around the clock to build more than 1,500 of the 14,000 manufactured nationwide.
"Gliders made in the Twin Cities landed in small clearings in impenetrable jungles in Burma, retook the island of Corregidor, and participated in D-Day," said Jim Johns, a retired Army aviation officer and glider specialist. Today Johns, of Bloomington, and four other local enthusiasts are restoring a CG-4 glider and plan to return it to the people of Minnesota.
The combat glider was largely the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, according to Johns. In 1940, Hitler's forces astonished the world by capturing Fort Eben Emael in Belgium, once considered impregnable, with only 10 gliders and 78 troops.
After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army hoped to duplicate Hitler's success. But American aircraft manufacturers rejected the Army's request out of hand. "They were interested in modern planes -- speed, high performance engines," said Johns. "The idea of going back to the Stone Age of wooden aircraft just didn't seem to make sense to them."
As a result, the Army had to turn to companies with no aeronautical experience -- including Ford Motor Co. and Steinway Piano. In St. Paul, the Villaume Box and Lumber Co. quickly got into the act. Founded in 1882, Villaume was a specialty firm known for installing the beautiful wood paneling in the St. Paul City and County Courthouse.