Grave (Oboe dropzone)

51°45'57.00"N 005°42'8.0"E

Runway: grass field

The Oboe airstrip was a new airstrip, laid out by the 876th Airborne Engineer Aviation Battalion at the dropzone 'Oboe' near Grave, several hundred meters to the east of B-82. iN oCTOBER 1944, This strip served as a collection point for the many stranded Horsas and Wacos that had been used during the Market-Garden operation. Repaired gliders were collected by 81 TCG C-47s and towed back to Denain in northern France. This article mainly serves as a collection of photos on how all those gliders were brought back. All photos are from the AFHRC at Maxwell AFB, AL, USA, unless otherwise stated. 

The gliders were used to drup a very large amount of troops close to the Grave bridges in September 1944. More or less complete, they were abandoned by the para's to be retrieved after their mission. 

A glider is being towed to a point from where it can be towed back to France

C-47s at a base camp set up to handle the logistics of this retrieval operation

A lone C-47 amidst dozens of Waco gliders

Although some gliders were towed back in to the air, most were retrieved by actually snatching them from the fields below.