[DavidIsby]

BUY MY C-47 book. I know it's only an Osprey. Anyway, here's an excerpt:



Operation Ladbroke 9-10 July 1943



On the night of 9-10 July, Operation Ladbroke was mounted from airfields in Tunisia near Endifiaville; 105 C-47s from the 51st TCW (plus 28 RAF Albemarles and seven Halifaxes) towed 137 largely British-crewed CG-4As and eight Horsas carrying glider troops of the British 1st Airborne Division to landing zones near Syracusa. The mass take-offs led to brownout conditions on the airfields, increasing the interval between aircraft. As the C-47 formations were directed up the narrow corridor between naval task forces, they started to become intermingled as a result of unexpected high winds aloft. Radio silence – ordered for all missions – prevented reorganization. Other C-47s had to take evasive action to avoid potential mid-air collisions; a quarter to a third of the intercom connections between C-47s and gliders failed



The gliders were to have been released some 3,000 yards offshore, relying on their 1,400-1,800 feet altitude and the 15-1 glide angle of a loaded CG-4A. But with only a low half-moon, the release point was difficult to judge. Many C-47s, lost, released too far offshore. Others were diverted by ground fire. Some, allowing for the high winds, released their gliders at 3,000 foot altitude or higher. Many gliders released themselves. About 80 gliders ditched, with the loss of over 250 men; one was shot down. Only 54 gliders made it to land, 12 of them – some damaged by flak -- near their LZs. A few glider troops landed near the key objective, the Ponte Grande bridge outside the city. But they were able to hold it long enough (before being surrounded and overrun) to prevent the Germans from demolishing it; it was re-taken by Allied ground troops the next day. There were no losses among the transport aircraft