Army Air Corps Museum, Middle Wallop, UK.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Cricket player becomes a Glider Pilot!

[Adrian Stevenson]

US Waco Glider, known as the Hadrian in British service. Mainly used in Sicily and Italy. Shown with the US 75mm Pack howitzer widely used by the RA Light Regt's.

[CARL]

Some really interesting artifacts there Ade, and nicely presented too. The museum looks a great place to visit, thanks for posting the thread.

Here is an interesting story published a few years back by the Daily Mail Online, addressing the discovery of one of the 500 Rupert dummies dropped over France.

Playing the Nazis for dummies! The army of 3ft-tall paratroopers dispatched over northern France on the eve of D-Day which caused chaos | Daily Mail Online

Regards,

Carl

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Thanks for the post Ade. Back in 1973, our battery - 9(Plassey)Bty went and stayed there while we did our conversion course to the Rapier guided weapons systems. In those days that Auster AOP was on static display on the outside - there being no museum at that time. Many thanks for posting the pictures.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks guys. The museum is well worth the £10 to get in (I got in for free of course )

Training autogyro.

All glider pilots were volunteers from other branches of the Army. Standards were VERY high. Many men who failed the course later joined the Parachute Regt.

[Adrian Stevenson]

25 prd Field gun. The mainstay of the RA Medium batteries in WW2. A special lightweight version could be air landed by Horsa glider but these were rare.

[Adrian Stevenson]

The Airspeed Horsa. The work horse glider of the British Airborne Forces in WW2.

Early versions were loaded through a side door, while the later MKII had a hinged nose to allow a Jeep, 6 prd A/T gun, 75mm pack, etc to loaded directly with ease. Both versions had a hinged tail to allow quick unloading from the rear.

Flying was a two man job with Pilot and co pilot navigator.

[lebus12]

Very interesting, Ade. On the site a friend is buidind such glider.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Another training aid. All pilots had to master flying an engined aircraft first.

[Adrian Stevenson]

The Hotspur.

The was our first large glider. This is a replica as sadly no originals survive. Mainly used for training.