But there wasn’t much time to think about that because the glider suddenly did a right-hand turn, because we’d gone a way inland towards Caen, and then another right-hand turn, so that we were coming into the landing zone from the south, losing height all the way. And as we did that turn I could see the River Orne and the Caen Canal, reflected in the half-moon, running down towards Caen. And we came to what we knew was going to be the toughest moment of the lot: the crash land.
THE BENOUVILLE / CAEN CANAL BRIDGE (PEGASUS BRIDGE)
Private Francis Bourlet
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
The glider pilot shouted out, ‘We’re making our approach!’ So we immediately linked all our arms together, which was the usual procedure, lifted our feet up off the floor and just waited for the landing. Well, we’d expected to land about eighty to ninety miles an hour. I now know it was well over a hundred miles an hour. We hit the deck and, lo and behold, before we knew where we were, we was airborne again, the wheels had come off the glider, and we came down with a terrific thud on the metal skid underneath the glider. The chute was thrown out of the back door, this turned out to be absolutely useless, it caught in the undergrowth and snapped off, and we was in a shower of sparks – this was where the metal skid was running over the flints in the earth. And we come to a shuddering stop.
Major John Howard
Commander, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Suddenly everything went dark and I felt my head had been knocked rather badly and my own feelings were, ‘God, I’m blind. We’ve been training and waiting for this all this time and now, when the moment comes, I’m going to be bloody useless.’ But all that had happened was my head had bumped the top of the glider and my battle-bowler had come down over my eyes.
Once I’d realised that, of course, I eased up the helmet and the first thing I saw was that the door had disappeared. It had completely telescoped. I could hear the glider pilots on my right moaning in their cockpit, it would seem to have been smashed, but I was conscious that everybody in the glider was moving. I could hear the click of the safety belts being undone and I knew that men were getting out of the glider and people were pushing in front of me to get through the broken door.
I let Den Brotheridge and his platoon get out first because if they were indeed the first platoon down their job was absolutely one of speed. The leading section was to go up and put the pillbox out of action by throwing a smoke bomb on the road as they came up from the landing zone and, through the smoke, throw short-fuse grenades through the gun slits of the pillbox and then continue with the rest of the platoon across the bridge. This had all been planned. Every platoon was ready to do that job in case they were the first platoon to get to the bridge that night.
Private William Gray
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Den Brotheridge, our platoon commander, quickly got the door open and said, ‘Gun out,’ which was me. Out I jumped, stumbled on the grass because of the weight I had on me, and set the Bren up facing the bridge and the rest of the lads jumped out. Den Brotheridge got in front of me and looked round to make sure that everybody was out and said, ‘Come on, lads.’ We were about thirty yards from the bridge and we dashed towards it.
This photograph, taken in July 1944, shows the three Horsa gliders that landed Major John Howard’s coup de main force in the early hours of D-Day to capture the Caen Canal bridge (Pegasus Bridge) at Benouville. The bridge itself is just through the trees, sixty yards from the furthest glider.
Major John Howard
Commander, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
I heard them pattering up the little tracks to the bridge from the landing zone and I emerged from the glider, broke my way through all the debris, the wood, which had smashed all around it, and I suppose that really was the most exhilarating moment of my life. Because I stood there and I could see the tower of the bridge about fifty yards from where I was standing. The nose of the glider was right through the German wire-fence, where, back in the UK, I’d almost facetiously asked the glider pilot to put it so we would not have to use the Bangalore torpedoes, which every glider had brought with them for the purpose of breaking through the wire. And above all, and this was the tremendous thing, there was no firing at all. In other words, we had complete surprise: we really caught old Jerry with his pants down. But there was no time to wonder about that. I followed the platoon up the track; I saw the smoke bomb explode, the phosphorus bomb; I heard the ‘Thud, thud, thud’ in the pillbox as the grenades exploded and I knew we’d get no trouble from there.
Private Francis Bourlet
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
The pillbox was very, very simple. We, the rest of the section, kept back. Jack, that’s Corporal Bailey, and Parr went on just ahead of us and Bailey put the grenade actually into the slot of the pillbox. By this time the first section was already halfway across the bridge. We immediately ran round the back of the pillbox, which we knew contained troops. There was a large dugout, I went down one end of the dugout and O’Donnell went down the other and, lo and behold, we caught them in bed. There was approximately eight workers – these, I understand, were digging the anti-glider poles – and three Germans. We rounded them up and put them into the pillbox.
Lance Corporal Thomas Packwood
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
My section’s job was to go over on the right-hand side of the bridge, which we did. Halfway over the bridge I realised that Bill Gray should be in front of me so I stepped aside. I said, ‘Come on Bill, you should be in front of me,’ because you don’t want a bloke firing from the hip with a Bren gun if you’re in front of him. So we rushed over the bridge and he let fly.
Private William Gray
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
I saw a German on the right-hand side and let rip at him and down he went. I still kept firing going over the bridge and on the other side was another German and he went down too.
Private Denis Edwards
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
There were only, I think, two or three Germans up and about at that time on the other side of the bridge. One of them fired a Very light up into the night sky when we charged across the bridge, because he didn’t know what the heck was happening, and suddenly found himself facing all these guys with blackened faces charging across at him. Another one fired the machine gun that they had mounted there which unfortunately hit Danny [Den] Brotheridge, our platoon commander. He got a bullet through his neck and he died soon afterwards, which was very sad.
Private Wally Parr
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
There were two dugouts there with doors. I dashed to the first one, put my rifle to the side of it, whipped out a 36 grenade. Charlie was there with a Bren gun. I slung open the door, pulled the pin, slung it in, shut the door and waited. There was a terrific explosion. I shouted to Charlie, ‘Get in!’ He went to the doorway with his machine gun and sprayed it. I went to the second one and repeated the same operation. As we came back I went to pick up my rifle leaning against the door and I heard a voice groaning and moaning inside. I stopped Charlie straight. The door was still wide open. I pulled out a 77 phosphorus grenade, if the shrapnel didn’t get them the phosphorus would, and I just took off the top, a green thing, gave it a couple of whirls, undone it and threw it in. It went off a treat.
Private Denis Edwards
25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
We were throwing grenades around, I threw one or two and we were fir
ing rifles literally up into the sky just to make a noise. The grenades I threw I aimed at the far side of the Caen canal bank and they fell into the canal. Probably the only thing they killed were a few fish but they went off with quite a good bang. And the Germans literally ran. They scattered.
Major John Howard
Commander, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
It was a tremendous sight to see all the tracer bullets firing in all directions. There seemed to be three different colours, red, yellow and white, with the enemy firing at us and my men firing at them as they went over the bridge. And while all this was happening I suddenly heard two more crashes behind me in the landing zone and I could hardly believe that two more platoons had got there, but it could only have been that. And in next to no time, it seemed to me, David Wood came running up with his platoon. And after a bit of a pause No 3 glider came up, Sandy Smith with his platoon. He seemed to be limping very badly.
Lieutenant David Wood
24 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Quite suddenly and unexpectedly the pilots said, ‘Christ, there’s the bridge,’ and they put the nose of the glider down very steeply. The next thing I knew was that there were sparks coming from the skids underneath, they didn’t have wheels, and I thought these sparks were actually enemy fire but they were in fact the skids striking the ground. And then there was an almighty crash and I was thrown out through the side of the glider, landed on the ground, still clutching my canvas bucket of grenades. I had my Sten gun with its bayonet still fixed but wasn’t in any way hurt.
The rest of the platoon got out of the glider. Some were like me thrown out and some got out through the doors. I collected them together, we knew exactly what we were supposed to do, although we didn’t know at that moment whether we were the first glider to land or the second or the third, because three were destined to land at our particular bridge. I took the platoon forward to where I knew the bridge was and the road running up to it and there, crouching in the ditch, was my company commander, who said, quite simply, ‘David, No 2.’ And I knew that No 2’s job was to cross the road and sort out the enemy on the other side in the inner defences of the bridge.
Private Harry Clarke
24 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
David Wood said, ‘Forward,’ and with all his boyish enthusiasm, he was a great leader, he went gallantly into action and we all tore in like a pack of hounds after him. Suddenly I was brought to an abrupt halt, I was snagged on a load of barbed wire, and to this day I bear the scar on me right knee where a huge barb took a lump of flesh out. Actually I cursed rather loudly and I can still recall David Wood saying to me, ‘Shut up, Clarke’ – and this was in the middle of an attack.
Anyway, we ran forward and there were at least two machine guns firing from the position we were about to attack. Charles Godbold and I were together and as we neared the trenches we could see from the flash there was a gun firing and Charlie said, ‘We’d better sling a grenade.’ I said, ‘We’d better not sling a 36, let’s sling a couple of these stun grenades, otherwise we’ll kill our own blokes.’ So we flung two stun grenades and we saw two people rise out of the trench and run towards the bank of the canal. Charlie let loose a long burst from his Sten gun but I think they got away: we found no bodies there the next day. And within probably about five minutes, a few skirmishes, there was a bit of firing, it all went quiet. We’d captured our objective. We moved up to the riverbank, my section, and we passed a pillbox, there was smoke coming out of it, and all was quiet on our side. There was a machine gun firing on the other side and a few bangs so they were obviously still engaged on the west bank of the canal.
Lieutenant Richard ‘Sandy’ Smith
14 Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
My glider crashed rather badly in what you might call static water and smashed its whole front up. I was myself flung through the cockpit of the glider and ejected on to the ground, only to be over-run by the glider when it slithered to a halt, and I had my knee rather badly damaged as a result of that because the wing or the undercarriage ran over me. I had a Lance Corporal Madge and I remember groping in the dark covered with mud and water and shock and he said, ‘What are we waiting for, sir?’ I tried to find my weapon and couldn’t and found somebody else’s Sten gun and ran towards the bridge. Or rather hobbled. Of my platoon, only about seven or eight were able to get out of that crash. Although they were not badly hurt they were very, very shocked and bruised. One man was killed.
I found a Spandau firing right down the centre of the bridge, so I swept left, down the catwalk running along the side of the bridge, to avoid this machine gun, and arrived at the other end to find Brotheridge dying. And then in the flurry I remember a German throwing a stick grenade at me and I saw the explosion, felt the explosion. My right wrist was hit. I was extremely lucky because the grenade exploded very close to me and hit various parts of my clothing but not my body, although there were holes in my smock. And that was the first German I actually shot. Having thrown his grenade, he tried to scramble over the back of one of the walls adjoining the café and I actually shot him with my Sten gun as he went over.
Major John Howard
Commander, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
So I had three platoons down on the ground in exactly the same places where all the briefings had hoped they would be. But by this time I was suddenly wondering what was happening on the other bridge, which was only a quarter of a mile away, and I couldn’t see any signs of firing over there. There were no radio messages but that didn’t surprise me because the radios in those days were pretty frail. I mean, in crash landings we didn’t expect them to survive. But another part of my orders was that because of the radios being a bit uncertain a runner from each platoon would report to my company headquarters by the canal bridge, from the river bridge particularly, but no runners had arrived either. I was beginning to consider whether I would have to send a platoon or half a platoon over to the river bridge to try to capture that but then all the luck turned. The captain of the Royal Engineers, Captain Jock Neilson, reported to me that there were no explosives under the canal bridge: we found the explosives in a hut down the bank later on next morning. So that was the first good bit of news. And then we picked up, to our surprise, a radio message that 17 Platoon under Dennis Fox had captured the river bridge almost without firing a shot – the enemy had run away because of all the commotion – and 23 Platoon under Todd Sweeney had reached them. So there were two platoons over there and that was indeed very good news.
THE RANVILLE / ORNE RIVER BRIDGE
Corporal Wilfred Robert Howard
23 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Our primary objective, 23 Platoon, was to support the glider in front of us, Freddie Fox’s glider, and rush over the Orne Bridge through Freddie Fox’s platoon and take up position on the other side.
Freddie Fox’s glider landed in fair shape. My glider, we landed about three hundred yards short of the objective, landed perfectly, no problem with the landing, and Todd Sweeney was out and we did the usual thing we did when we jumped out of a glider: all round defence. In other words, a circle all round the glider. Todd Sweeney sat in the centre and the first thing he did was to call an O group, which was an order group; that meant he called together the corporals and the sergeants and issued his orders. The next thing he had to do was find out where he was and he and the glider pilot in fact pinpointed the spot very well, actually, and off we trotted down to a hedgerow.
We probably travelled down this hedgerow 200, 250 yards, before we came out on the road which actually led to the bridge. We dashed on to the bridge, not shouting too loudly, but making plain to the other platoon on or near the bridge that we were in fact Briti
sh: as we ran along the bridge we all shouted out, ‘Easy! Easy! Easy!’ That was our call sign. The call sign of the platoon on the bridge I think was ‘Fox’ and they shouted out ‘Fox!’ so that we recognised one another. Remember it was pitch black, we really couldn’t see too far, so we had these call signs.
So we dashed through the ranks of Freddie Fox’s platoon, who were either lying on the bridge or were on the other side of the bridge in their gun position, and we then attacked our objectives. I came upon this little farmhouse, it seemed to be more of a farmer’s cottage than a farmhouse, and banged on the door, big wooden door, and it eventually opened. Then we used our ersatz French to the little old lady and the little old man who came to the door. ‘Où est le Boche?’ They just didn’t want to know. Not interested. They didn’t know whether we were Germans or whether we were Polish; we could have been Czechs, we could have been Hungarians, we could have been anything. We just motioned to them to go indoors and there was very little we could do. It was a very small place and one of my men went in and just rooted around to make certain there were no Germans in there.
Then we repaired to our positions. We didn’t trouble to dig in. There didn’t seem to be much point in digging in at this stage because my blokes were expert at finding well-concealed positions and if there did happen to be any fold in the ground where they could hide themselves they would do that. I took up a position in a little dip by the side of this farm cottage and I had with me Buck Read, one of my men, and we decided we were going to have a smoke.
Sapper Cyril Larkin
249 Field Company, 591 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers
Forgotten Voices of D-Day Page 12
