Quote:
Originally Posted by DRG
I am surprised they were burnt. Nothing says " here we are" like a bunch of burning gliders
|
Well, gliders need a lot of space to land safely, especially if you're landing more than one. If you're a German patrol in an area, finding a bunch of gliders in an empty field is going to be a big alarm signal "ACHTUNG PARTISANEN"
Presumably what they did was try and chop them up with axes for firewood (since they were wooden) and drag away as many pieces that could be rendered draggable, and then burn the remainder.
I would imagine that as long as you kept the fire below a certain size, the Germans wouldn't investigate -- it's 1942 and canned propane for camping stoves isn't yet a thing for a long time; and there would be a lot of civilian population out and about doing things.
EDIT: The SOP for Soviet Glider Landings for Partisan support was to have an "airfield" that was carefully prepared in the daylight, and then wait for nighttime, and when the friendly plane was overhead that night (presumably flashing running lights in a code pattern), light a series of bonfires to lay out the path of the "runway" for glider landing.
Another thing I realized regarding bonfires -- gliders are pretty big and have a pretty regular shape -- they'd be easily spottable from the air, and not every airfield is going be laid out allowing gliders to be draggable into the woods or placed under cover before the morning Fiesler storch observation flight by the Anti-Partisan Group.