Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin: The Glider Pilots of World War II

This is a fascinating read that brings waves of angst, pride, heartbreak and inspiration as these unsung heroes face incredible odds from Normandy to the invasion of Germany. I knew nothing about the volunteer glider pilots of World War II. That they would volunteer for one-way missions in an aircraft not yet invented at the start of the war is mindboggling. This book, filled with their personal accounts, was a real eye-opener for me. I donate most of my books. This one, I will keep and reread. Strongly recommended.

This fascinating book was thoroughly researched and detailed yet reads like an exciting novel. I worked for a former WWII glider pilot in airport operations in the 1960's and he was completely unflappable regardless of weather, scheduling, personnel or other SNAFU. He had landed D-Day. Operation Market Garden and Operation Varsity all of which are well-covered in this book. Now I completely understand why nothing seemed to bother that boss.

Most people probably don't know much about glider operations, even if they know about World War 2 in Europe. This book fills part of this gap, by discussing in detail about US glider experiences including recruitment, training, operations, and organization. The technical and doctrine discussions are good, and the storytelling is well done. Films like the Longest Day tend to show glider operations as fairly straightforward. Plane is released, it comes down, and slides to a landing. Band of Brothers (I think) showed one or two that didn't land so well - but this book really presents all of the problems from take-off to the after-landing combat. But the storytelling does lean towards the "what went wrong" and soldiers dying, even when this was only 10% or so. The author leaves the impression that the glider operations were nothing but a disaster, based on the stories of gliders that get shot down, crash on landing, etc. But then in the last paragraph he might say "but overall it was a great success". One thing the author did well was not dwell on overall histories of the concerned battles. There are certainly no lack of books on the war, and wikipedia, so there is no need to explain each battle in detail. Lastly, I might have liked to learn about more about other army's experiences with gliders, including the Germans. I felt that the author blew over these, even though I think it is relevant to compare at least in Europe each army's experiences.

Flying Coffins gave much deserved recognition to a brave group of Americans further country in such a valiant and challenging way. The author tells what could be a hard to handle subject in an highly efficient and effective manner. But he only whetted my appetite temporarily on the subject, and I would now like to see a follow on history of the infantry men who were the passengers inside the gliders on my way to fight for their country. that would complete the history of that style of warfare, style of warfare they should never be repeated

Really enjoyed this book. I had a hard time putting it down. Easy to read and informative. Hight recommend.

What a great book about little known or written about heroes during WW-II - Glider Pilots. I take small groups to Normandy every year and it always amazes me how the pilots were able "crash" land engineless aircraft in small meadows so successfully under the worst of conditions. Being as how my Dad trained many of the Glider Pilots used during D-Day, it made this book an even better attraction to me and is now a proud part of my library. Well done, Scott!

I enjoyed the story in this book and it taught me some history about the men and equipment used in the war that I did not know about.

Fascinating story of our brave patriotic hero’s of WWII.

Read similar books previously where you get information of landing problems. This book gives a more in depth description showing how the troops in these Gliders were totally reliant on their Pilots. It struck me that from Scicily, Normandy, Holland ,Germany the Allies didn't learn any lessons and Troops were Sacfrificed needlessly. Excellent book.

It's OK, not a massively gripping read