The Many Uses of the Jeep
The Impact of the glider borne jeep in the field
Just when you think the Jeep could not achieve anymore firsts, information about the "Rota buggy" pops up. Had it been successful, this flying jeep could have reduced and/or possibly eliminated the need for jeeps to be transported in gliders.
The jeep was selected for testing as an independent flying vehicle due to its durability when dropped by parachute. The Rota buggy needed two people to operate it namely a driver to steer it and a pilot to fly it. Prototypes were tested and after being towed by a Bentley - without leaving the ground - the Rota buggy was towed behind a bomber, once again staying on the ground. Needless to say, there were issues with the turbulence. Eventually flight was attempted. The flight was successful in that the personnel in it lived but the Rota buggy was very unstable in flight and never made it into battle. You can explore more about the Rota buggy at the Army Flying Museum site https://armyflying.com/the-collections/hidden-treasures-tour/the-rotabuggy/
This brings us back to the more successful Jeep Willy or the "Blitz Buggy" as it was known at the time. During the war in the European Theater of Operations, American glider pilots flew a total of 1,504 jeeps to the landing zones in the Invasions of Normandy, Southern France, Holland and Varsity. They did not transport jeeps in Bastogne. An empty jeep weighed 2,154 pounds (no fuel or oil). The CG-4A (British Hadrian) had the capacity to carry a single jeep while the Horsa Mk I and II could carry two jeeps.
In the CG-4A jeeps were secured with lashings and a pulley system designed to prevent the pilots from being pinned in the cockpit if it was propelled forward in a landing breaking the tie downs. Glider pilot interrogation reports discuss some of the hazards of hauling the jeeps.
In the final approach to landing, we saw a field in which the Germans had set up posts twenty to fifteen feet in height and about one foot in diameter, with wire strung from the top to the bottom of these posts. I pulled the nose of my glider up to prevent it from crashing into these obstacles but landed in a field constructed somewhat in the American manner. I then pulled the nose release back to prevent the jeep from crushing in the nose of the glider if it broke loose. Upon landing and hitting these posts we assumed that the jeep did break loose because the nose flew up and the jeep went out with 1st Lt. [Lt. Corn] and bicycle in it and we never saw them again. I was pinned in the nose of the Glider by my safety belt. The nose then came off. Horton was thrown clear of the glider in landing. He came back and got me out. At this time the machine gun nest began to fire on us that was about 60 yards away. we were trying to locate the jeep and Lt. Corn with the light of the flares to aid us but we could not locate the jeep or Lt. Corn. ... F/O Wharton received a bruised leg and lost three teeth. ... F/O Locke received an injured back, sprained ankle and a cut over the eyes. Our glider was torn all to hell - it had both wings torn off and the nose section damaged. (Suicide Jockeys: The Making of the WWII Combat Glider Pilot)
The force of the glider crashes were so strong it could bend a jeep in half.
No shots were fired directly at us until after making landfall, and then all hell broke loose. Looked like five guns were pyramiding a cross fire and we had to fly through it. We were hit often. We descended through the overcast and emerged about two miles from the L.Z. A couple of F.W. 190’s or ME- 109s strafed us . . . The 2nds fire got the controls on our right aileron. It also hit the towrope and the rope was spinning and unwinding. By this time, we were pretty close to the LZ and was receiving ground fire which blew off our rudder control. I saw a field, tried to turn but had no control. I got the left wing down and made a shallow bank at 180°. . . We hit the bank on the opposite side of the field and busted the nose of the glider. The jeep broke loose, rolling forward pinning Dick (copilot) and myself against the nose and the bank. My passengers, Airborne Captain Nick W. Russel and Cpl. Floyd E. Mapes, were in the jeep. The jeep bent in middle and pinned them in the seat. Schank and Stone had landed in the same field about 400 feet north of us and sent one of their Airborne passengers, a sergeant, to help us. He helped to get me out and I don't remember all the details of this particular time. He then worked on Dick and finally got him out. I snapped out of it about fifteen minutes later and we laid Dick out after finding that he had broken or fractured his ankle, he was unable to walk and pretty groggy. ... The Corporal was then released from the jeep without too much trouble but the Captain was unconscious and pinned for about an hour while we worked to get him out. He was in great pain and semi-conscious. We finally got him out by cutting a hole through the roof and sliding him down the wing which had bent around close to the fuselage. We used the aileron for a stretcher and removed the Captain with the aid of a few paratroopers who had joined us. Schank and I carried Levering on a gun to a hedge row and ditch for cover. Meanwhile there was fire in most all directions, although we were receiving no direct fire. We got a couple of Bazookas and hand grenades and holed up in the ditch. The Captain was given two shots of morphine without effect. Later we gave him another. He had a broken hip, crushed knee, broken leg, chest crushed and face all banged up. The Corporal walked up but later passed out. We didn’t know where we were and remained in this spot for about four hours. I gave a French kid that came along two hundred (200) francs to take a note seeking aid to the Americans who were, he said, over the hill behind the German lines. But after an exchange of notes no medical aid was available. (Suicide Jockeys: The Making of the WWII Combat Glider Pilot)
Despite the dangers of delivering jeeps via parachute or glider, the speed at which the jeep could travel to bring aid, weapons, rations, etc. compared to travelling on foot or by horse made a massive difference on the battlefield. It had an incredible advantage over trucks in that it could operate on a multitude of terrains, had a smaller wheel base which enabled it go over and through ditches rather than straddling them and was less likely to become stuck. It worked as well in the desert as it did in the mountains and was able to handle sand, snow and mud, went over rocks and through water to wherever it was needed. This included operating on railroad tracks.
Jeeps were heavily used use to transport the wounded from the battlefield to an aid station or to be medically evacuated. The jeep was smaller than the WWII ambulance and it's easy to see why it excelled at getting into tight battlefield areas or debris strewn terrain.
Red Cross jeeps had flags mounted on them and were painted with insignia. To transport the wounded there appear to have been a number configurations for the attachment of stretchers. Some jeeps had attachments or brackets placed on the hood of the jeep for a single stretcher and another on the rear of the jeep making carrying space for two stretchers.
Others configurations show the mounting on the hood for a stretcher but in the bed of the jeep a scaffolding type arrangement was set up that allowed for two stretchers on the top level, two underneath with space still reserved at the lowest level in the bed of the truck.
Jeeps also served in an offensive capacity. Modified with gun mounts, there were experiments at one time to utilizing them as rocket launchers.
An often-unknown modification was an attachment to the front hood of the jeep that would catch and pull-down barbed wires set at a level to decapitate enemy soldiers.
Additional lesser-known modifications included soldiers turning their basic jeep in to an armored vehicle.
Jeeps served as "follow me" v to control ground traffic of planes on the airfield. Some were painted in a checkered pattern and could be easily spotted from the air or on the ground.
By the time of Operation VARSITY, the newly formed Glider Combat Control Teams each had a jeep and trailer fitted out as a portable communication station so the teams could report changing conditions on the landing zones, in the battle areas, smoke patterns, movement of the enemy and changing fronts as well as serving as a mid-point relay stations to ensure messages were transmittable over long distances.
You can read more about Glider Combat Control Teams here https://forgottenarchivesofhistory.substack.com/p/the-red-glider and here https://forgottenarchivesofhistory.substack.com/p/a-bit-more-of-glider-combat-control.
The need for and the importance of gliders in WWII had been strongly debated, however, what is missing in this debate is a clear understanding of the purpose the cargo and the glider pilots themselves served and the impact they had on the outcome of the missions.
Next up - artillery weapons.