Silent Wings

"Silent Wings" is a documentary about the American WWII glider program. It's new--released this month, in fact--and is available on DVD. In two hours, it covers everything from the beginnings of WWII glider efforts in Germany and the late American start, through the D-Day drops and a final effort across the Rhein in the war's last days. Other major operations are also touched on.

Overall, I am left with the impression that landing troops in gliders was fantastically dangerous. Thirty to forty percent casualties were routine. The gliders were vulnerable to flak, tended to crash on landing, and were easy to knock out with obstacles on the landing-fields. On balance, if I had to hit the dirt under fire, I'd take my chances under a parachute rather than landing in a glider.

So what's good about this DVD? Well, there's a lot of information about a good dozen operations. I had heard and read about some of them (Eben Emael, Crete, Normandy), but the rest were completely new to me (Sicily, southern France). The interviews with pilots on both sides who actually flew the ops are also interesting.

And the bad? There's a lot of reverent talk about the American GIs' heroism, and the vast and worthy task they were undertaking. The fact that this is mostly true does not keep the sentiments from tiring in the telling and retelling.

Final recommendation? B -- if you're into glider history, you'll want a look, but I doubt you'll want a second.

-- Johan Larson