2 The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at the river Orne and the River Dives.
Landing on the left flank of the invasion beaches between the River Orne and the River Dives. 'D' Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, under the command of Major John Howard and deputy Captain Brian Priday, was selected for the mission
The Regt less Bridge Assault Party of Letter "D" Coy and 2 Plns of "B" Coy [Appx A], took off from Harwell and Keevil Airfields at 1840 hrs and 1910 hrs respectively. The trip was rather bumpy over land but all became very calm over the sea. At approx 2055 hrs we approached the French coast and could see a large fleet of ships standing off shore and occasional bursts of fire coming from their guns. It was very easy to pick out the River and Canal below and ahead of us and we knew that there had been no mistake in navigation. All gliders except four landed on or somewhere near the L.Z. although in most cases crash landings occurred and many collisions took place. A certain amount of flak as gliders ran in added to the many difficulties of the Glider Pilots who in the majority of cases did magnificently. There was a certain amount of firing on the LZ and some snipers still seemed to be holding out in the area of the bridges at BENOUVILLE. After some delay, due to the fact that some gliders landed rather along way south and also some were very badly smashed which made unloading difficult, the Regt formed up in the area of Rd Junc 098754 at Le Port.
Listing Details
- Deadstick June 6