ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – A local chemistry teacher is highlighting a little know mission on D-Day with connections to Elmira.
“You say, most folks are not aware of this mission?” asked 18 News reporter Nick Dubina.
“There’s nobody, there’s nobody aware of “Mission Elmira,” said Greg Grund. “It was the largest resupply mission for the 82nd airborne during D-Day.”
Grund told us he has been teaching chemistry for 42 years. First at Notre Dame High School and then at Southside High School. He currently teaches chemistry at Corning Community College for the STEM Academy. Grund is also a student of World War Two history.
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“I went to Normandy the first time during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. I went into a museum, and I was interested in the airborne and they had all these missions written down. Mission Albany, Mission Boston, Mission Chicago, Mission Detroit, and then Mission Elmira, and it floored me, because how did mission Elmira get in with Chicago, Detroit and Boston? It blew me away.”
“This was after the 13,200 paratroopers dropped that night. This mission Elmira brought in supplies for the 82nd airborne, and they didn’t come in till about 10 o’clock at night. But it was still light because they have double daylight savings time in France. They brought in 1,200 soldiers, about 25 Jeeps and 25 anti-tank guns. “
Grund said after doing some research he learned about the Schweizer brothers, Paul Bill and Ernie. In the 1930’s, the brothers started making gliders in Elmira.
“In 1942, the Army Air Corps made a commitment to get gliders, and they said the Schweizer brothers can make 100 gliders. These are the gliders they made. These were sample gliders, and they were used to train the pilots to fly the Waco gliders that are downstairs.”
The Waco cargo gliders were made by other companies.
“The whole front of this would lift up and then you could put a Jeep in there, or an artillery piece or it could hold eight soldiers.” Grund says the gliders were fast, silent and more accurate than parachute drops. But he says they were extremely fragile as they flew into enemy fire.
“They were landing in fields that were still held by the Germans, so you’ll see a pellet gun can go through those gliders, and the Germans had exceptional anti-aircraft artillery. Right when they were landing, they had to lock arms, and lift their legs up, because the whole floor would be ripped out when it landed.”
Grund says landing the gliders could also turn deadly if the grass was too slick.
“See the problem with these, they have skids. They don’t have wheels. When they skidded on the ground in Normandy, if the grass was a little wet, they would skip right into a hedgerow, and the hedgerow would stop the glider. But if they had an artillery piece or Jeep in the back, it would come crashing forward and absolutely crushed the pilot and copilot.”
As people remember 80 years since D-Day, Grund says he hopes Elmira’s role is not forgotten.
“I mean, I wasn’t aware of it, and I know quite a bit. We’ve been to Normandy 3 or 4 times. Nope, I had no idea.”
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