MovieChat Forums > Battleground (1950) Discussion > Question about what someone labled as a ...

Question about what someone labled as a goof

posted 19 years ago by truffleshuffle03
2 replies | jump to latest

Someone put this as a goof That glider soldiers didn;t get extra pay like paratroopers. I'm not totaly sure about this but i watch alot of the history channle and i can remember actualy watching something about the soldiers that were in the gliders and that they actualy did get paid extra because of how Dangerous it was to ride in one of those gliders and that almost all the time when they landed they either got broken bones or died and that it became harder to find soldiers to go into the gliders so they started paying the men more money. Its been awhile since i saw the episode talking about the gliders but I have always thought that they got a hazzard pay type thing.

JOHN WAYNE: "You look more like a black-eyed Susan to me.

[–] A-20-Havok 18 years ago

The veteran war correspondent, and later television news anchorman, Walter Cronkite, who flew into Holland in a WACO CG-4A glider to report on the ill-fated Market Garden campaign said, "I don't recommend gliders as a way to go to war. If you have to go, march, swim, crawl-anything, but don't go by glider!"

Glider pilots got were promoted to staff sergeant within 6 weeks of entering the training, and when they graduated got silver pilot's wings and were promoted to Flight Officer, which meant extra pay.

The glider troops on the other hand didn't recieve any extra pay. A poster designed by the glider troops that began circulating around the barracks explained their plight: "Join the Glider Troops! No Jump Pay. No Flight Pay. But Never A Dull Moment."

In July 1944 however, glider troops finally got their well earned hazardous duty pay as well as the right to wear glider wings. Gliders certainly were dangerous, they were made of a steel tube frame, some plywood, and canvas to cover it all.

-
One sentinel, reinforced, stopped 17 Germans in American uniforms. 15 were shot, 2 died suddenly.

[–] mmjd1970 18 years ago

Glider Regiments did not get the same pay until after Normandy. Many Jump Troopers commented that Glider Troops had a worse time since they simply weren't jumping out of a plane as induviduals. It was a controlled crash and they took many casualties before firing a shot.

This was changed after Normandy so they had the same extra pay as the Jump Regiments by the time this movie takes place.