Army Air Corps Museum, Middle Wallop, UK.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 09:20 AM

Hi Guys, as some of you know, I do work with the regular British Army providing displays and presentations of WW2 material, both British and Soviet.

Last month I was asked to do a small presentation on the British Airborne soldier as he would have appeared during the campaign in Greece in 1944. This involved a trip to the Army Air Corps museum down in Middle Wallop. Over the years I have corresponded with the museum and always found them most helpful with any questions I have asked. But I had not actually visited the museum, so the invite from the Army was a great chance to finally see the museum.

I arrived early so as to give myself time to view the museum prior to the work part of the day. After a light lunch with a former Lt. Col of the Parachute Regt, I had a good look around. They have some very nice display covering the whole history of Army flying, with plenty of original artefacts on display. My main interest was of course the Glider Pilot Regt.

The Army are always looking to learn from the past due to the ever changing nature of warfare in the 21st Century. Battlefield tours are an excellent method of teaching and the officers were off to Greece to study the German operation at Corinith and the later British experience in Greece in 1944. Ideas that were good 70 years ago but have been superseded by new technology over time, might, with a fresh look, be updated for possible use once again? To that end, a demonstration was put on by two pilots from the Army Gliding club. The demo was to land two gliders directly in front of the class of Officers attending the event. The gliders were released several miles away and came in, silently of course, to land just in front of us. A nice bit of flying.

Cheers, Ade.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 09:55 AM

These three exhibits are outside.

Soviet made anti aircraft tank captured during the Gulf War.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:15 AM

We now move inside.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:18 AM

Interesting uniform displays. I found it surprising that an officer of the Tank Regt was allowed to transfer to the GPR. Trained specialists were not encouraged to volunteer for the Airborne Forces.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:21 AM

Replica "Fleep" or flying Jeep. The idea being a Jeep could be towed behind on aircraft and landed without use of a glider. It only ever made the prototype stage.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:24 AM

It was vital that the gliders were loaded correctly and were balanced. Here is a Horsa glider loading gauge.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:28 AM

The uniform of the Glider Pilot Regt. The BD blouse was worn under the camo Denison smock. Shown here is a 40 pattern austerity blouse.

Unlike their US counterparts, our Glider Pilots were expected to fight upon landing and fight as Infantry.

As aircrew and following RAF practise, all Pilots held a minimum rank of Sgt.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:34 AM

"Rupert" decoy dummy parachutist as dropped on D - Day 6th June 1944. Dropped to simulate parachute landing and to draw the Germans away from the real drop zones.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 05-17-2015, 10:38 AM

Flying helmets were worn by the Glider Pilots. The standard RAF B type helmet is shown along with the special GPR crash helmet. These are now rare and very expensive!