Glidermen of Neptune

the long version

Although the word gliderman does not appear in the dictionary, a brave group of World War II soldiers known as glidermen flew into combat inside unarmed and unarmored canvas-covered gliders known as "flying coffins.". Charles J. Masters tells of these men and of their fragile aircraft in a war of mechanized chaos. In copious detail, he describes the gliders and the Americans who boarded them during the American D-Day glider attack, a mission that was part of the overall cross-Channel plan code-named "Operation Neptune.". The son of a gliderman with the 82nd Airborne Division, Masters had unique access to the surviving glidermen and comrades of his father. During the course of his research, he located and interviewed 106 of the men who had flown the D-Day mission in gliders. Often harrowing and always riveting, the stories these men told an eager listener and researcher are very much a part of this narrative. Masters has also assembled the finest existing collection of photographs of the American D-Day glider attack. These photographs - many of which have never before been publishedafford the opportunity to examine the inside of the combat gliders used on D-Day, to observe the glidermen in action, and to witness the often tragic consequences of the glider attack.