@ Sainte-Mère-Église, France
April 2025
Visited the Airborne Museum, located in this small town in the Normandy region. The Museum features this fully restored Waco CG-4A glider (the only one displayed in France), the iconic, wood-and-fabric troop transport used extensively by the U.S. during the WWII Normandy D-Day landings. During the D-Day landings in June 1944, the CG-4A played a vital role in reinforcing the 82nd Airborne Division around Sainte-Mère-Église. Glider missions delivered personnel, Jeeps, anti-tank guns, and supplies to the paratroopers that secured the town. This was the first time I have seen a CG-4 up close and this display was done marvelously.
Flight testing of the glider began in May 1942 with more than 13,900 delivered. From 1942 to 1945, the Ford Motor Company built 4,190 CG-4A gliders, more than any of the other 15 companies that built them. The last known use of the CG-4A was in the early 1950s by the USAF to deliver science personnel to, and up from, floating Arctic ice floes.