Post D-Day Glider Retrieval

Many times I'm asked if the wartime gliders were ever made to be used again, before I can answer someone else (with a bigger mouth) usually answers by saying...

"No! They were designed to be crash landed, can you believe that?!" 

At this point I wait patiently and then quietly inform that in certain cases, if the damage wasn't too bad and the area allowed for it then the aircraft could be salvaged and returned to duty... proof below...

Men of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

A carpenter of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing the centre fuselage bulkhead of a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

Image courtesy of Flight Magazine Archive as previously reported on this site.