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Patton's idea to get gas to the front lines


Carabinieri
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Hello,

 

I met a WWII veteran a while ago and we struck up a conversation. He told me a story about gliders being filled with gas cans and being flown (unmaned?) to forward postions to supply Patton's tanks. He said they were crash landed and he and his men were told to go grab the cans and bring them to the tanks.

 

I found this a rather incredible story and have not ever been able to confirm this. Has anyone else heard of such a tactic used during the war?

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Operation "Repulse"!

 

Supplying Bastogne via gliders, and yes, with gasoline for the AFVs as well. The gliders were manned of course.

 

Gen. Patton was not an inventor of this manner of supplying armored forces in the first line of front. That was nazi Afrika Korps' manner of operating.

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You may start from the article "Triumph of the Whisper Ships" by AAF Maj. Eliot F. Noyes published in Flying Aces monthly Vol. 48 No. 4, November 1944. You will read there how the Americans discovered that Afrika Korps carries gas for their positioned forward tanks and other vehicles.

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For further reading on the Operation Repulse I would recommend three-part series under the title of "Remembering the Bulge" published by the Air Classics magazine. They were published as follows:
Part One – Air Classics Vol. 30 No. 4, April 1994
Part Two – Air Classics Vol. 30 No. 5, May 1994
Part Three – Air Classics Vol. 30 No. 7, July 1994

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