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Conclusion

The Coup de Main operation at the bridges between Bénouville and Ranville were the first successes of an invasion which would take almost a year to arrive in Berlin. From this tidy and efficient start the Allied soldiers soon found the going tougher than expected with Caen, the objective for D Day +1, falling after a month of bitter fighting. However, had D Company's mission failed, then the Allies may never have reached Caen and COSSAC could have seen a similar sequence of events as at Dunkirk three years earlier with soldiers having to flee into the sea to escape the German machine gun fire. Colonel von Luck of the German 192nd Regiment of 21st Panzer is said to have speculated that had D Company failed to hold the two bridges, then his tank regiment would have been on the beaches to greet the disembarking troops and if that were the case then it is quite possible to predict a very different outcome to the invasion.

However, D Company took and held the bridges and they did it with such speed, efficiency and professionalism that on the river bridge there was not even a shot fired in the capture (the holding is a different matter). Major Howard puts the success of the operation down to several key factors; the amazingly high level of morale in the company, not just amongst the soldiers but the whole company, officers and other ranks gelled almost seamlessly. In addition the level of fitness was such in the company that they were physically prepared for every eventuality on their high-risk mission as the men of glider number five proved.

There were, though, two factors which greatly increased the likelihood of success for the mission. One was the skill and preparation of the glider pilots. Possibly one of the chief reasons for so many of General Gale's sleepless nights was the decision to glider land troops inland, unprotected. The events in Sicily, a year prior to D Day where so many men had lost their lives in a catastrophic attempt at glider-based assault, served as a constant reminder to Gale the danger and frailties of an operation like this. However it paid off, the glider landings were exceptional. In fact, Air Chief Marshal Leigh-Mallory commended the glider pilots on D Day saying that he believed it to be the best piece of flying in the Second World war. The secret behind the accuracy of the flying and, indeed the whole operation, was the training that everyone involved was put through and the vast amount of preparation that was done. When the day came to put the operation in to effect, Howard's men had been drilled for every possible situation that they could face and this preparedness meant that they caught the Germans completely by surprise. With the help of the French Resistance in Bénouville and in particular La Famille Gondrée who lived in a small cafe just by the canal bridge, D Company knew exactly what to expect in terms of numbers of men, weapons and nearby German reinforcements. In addition the glider training that the pilots and navigators were put through meant that on 6th June, they could fly the mission blindfolded. It is incredible to think that all this training and preparation was done without one Allied soldier stepping on French soil, moreover that it worked.

The lift bridge spanning the Orne Canal was captured by British 6th Airborne Division glider troops in the first few minutes of D-day. The three Horsa gliders, visible in the top right brought Major John Howard and his troopers in on time, accurately placing them in position to seize the bridge by rapid surprise. Lt. Den Brotheridge, the first allied death on D-day was killed where the Jeep is standing as he and his men rushed across the bridge from the eastern side. A Bedford 4x4 engineer's truck is returning from the airborne headquarters area to secure supplies from Sword Beach. The drivers, although in Europe, are still driving on the left side as in England.

It is hard to suggest that this one action itself swung the War round completely, as well as this assault there were the significant attacks by 6th Airborne on the Merville battery and the bridges over the River Dives and the American attack on the battery at Pointe de Hoc and the two US Airborne Division's assault onto the Cotentin Peninsular, away to the west, but this coup de main assault did go a long way to making sure that the Allied troops were able to disembark safely on the beaches. In showing their gratitude to the men of 6th Airborne the bridge over the Caen Canal was renamed in their honour; Pegasus Bridge (named after the winged horse which appears on the Airborne Forces badge).

Additional Sources:

www.6juin1944.com
www.wlu.ca
freespace.virgin.net/michael.standbridge
perso.wanadoo.fr/stephane.delogu
www.io.com/tog
www.normandybattlefields.com
www.users.globalnet.co.uk
www.commando.org

John Howard - Obituary

Major John Howard, DSO, wartime airborne soldier, died on May 5 aged 86. He was born on December 8, 1912.

In the very first battle to be fought between British and German troops on D-Day John Howard led men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in an airborne assault on a vital bridge over the Caen Canal, in the first few minutes of June 6, 1944. One of the most spectacular assaults in the annals of airborne operations, this astonishing coup de main had results which were decisive on the development of the first day's fighting.

Major John Howard at Pegasus Bridge in 1987: he returned every June 6 to lay a commemorative wreath

The Caen Canal Bridge - since immortalised as Pegasus Bridge - and the neighbouring bridge over the River Orne carried a lateral road which had to be captured and held, in order to ensure supplies from Sword Beach to the 6th Airborne Division, which had been dropped to the east of Caen. Without supplies of ammunition, fuel and rations from the beachhead, 6th Airborne would have been unable to carry out its task, which was to protect the left flank of the entire Allied invasion force.

In the event, Howard's assault prevented the Germans from launching a counterstroke for several hours. It was not until 0210 hours that the German divisional headquarters, which organised the local mobile reserve, realised that it had been deprived of this vital artery and could not move against the beach head without overcoming stiff opposition en route. By the time the Germans realised what had happened, Howard and his glider troops had been reinforced, and though they faced some fierce assaults from a panzergrenadier battalion, strongly supported by artillery, Pegasus Bridge was held.

For Howard and his men the mission to seize the bridges had begun the previous evening in Dorset, when six Horsa gliders, each carrying 28 heavily armed troops, moved out over the airfield at Tarrant Rushton, behind the Halifax bombers which were their towing aircraft. Their objective was a small patch of rough field, between a pond and the Caen Canal, close to the Pegasus Bridge.

Pencil sketching of Glider Trooper at Pegasus Bridge - June 6 1944

It required flying of pinpoint accuracy and an approach which had to be accurate to a few feet. Too much height and the three gliders of Howard's section would smash into the roadway embankment at the far end of the field. If they landed substantially short, the screeching and tearing noise of the gliders as they came down would alert the bridge defences and the dazed glider troops could undoubtedly expect a warm reception.

The flying and navigation of the glider pilots was exemplary, in weather conditions which were far from ideal. Released at 8,000 feet over the Normandy coast, the three gliders clipped through the tops of a belt of poplars which skirted the field and crashed and bounced to a halt only a few yards from each other, at 0016 hours precisely.

Although shaken by the impact, the glider troops poured out of the wreckage of their aircraft and, with Howard at their head, rushed the bridge. They were spotted by a young conscript of the German 716th Infantry Regiment who screamed "Fallschirmjäger!" as a warning to his comrades before firing a Verey flare into the air. It was his last act on earth; he was instantly cut down by a burst of Stengun fire from one of the Ox and Bucks men.

A furious firefight now ensued, with the chattering of the German Spandaus interspersed with the crackle of Bren- and Stengun fire. But the assault of the Ox and Bucks was irresistible, the surprise complete. The occupants of the dugouts on the periphery of the bridge were disposed of with high explosive and phosphorus grenades, while the bridge itself was raked with a hail of 9mm and .303 fire. By 0026 the action was over and the bridge was in British hands. To the east the Orne bridge had been secured in just as short a time, even though one of the gliders of that assault had gone astray.

The firefight had lasted just ten minutes. The first vital objective of D-Day's airborne operations had been achieved, six hours before the troops of the seaborne armada hit the beaches.

The importance of what Howard and his men had achieved became apparent to one of the local German commanders, Feldwebel Heinrich Hickman of Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6, when what should have been a ten-minute journey to warn his company HQ at nearby Bréville turned into a six-hour detour through the bombed out streets of Caen. It was a tactical surprise out of all proportion to the small numbers of troops deployed. And though the Ox and Bucks men holding the bridge were strongly attacked later in the day by elements of the 21st Panzer Division, fresh airborne parachute landings in the vicinity swelled their numbers. Later in the day the Ox and Bucks men were taken under the aegis of 7 Para.

Howard, whose exploits on the day were re-enacted by Richard Todd in the D-Day film The Longest Day, was awarded the DSO and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme for his leadership. He was invalided out of the Army in 1946 and later worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, finally retiring in the 1970s.

He returned to Normandy every June 6 to lay a wreath on the spot where the gliders landed and to enjoy the hospitality of the Pegasus Bridge café, owned by Georges Gondrée and his wife. An airborne forces museum was set up close by on land leased by the café, but after Georges' death, Howard found himself inexplicably in dispute with his daughter, who took over the café and obtained an order to close the museum, a situation which caused him much sadness. After that he was active in the creation of a new memorial museum near the spot, a project dear to his heart. This is due to open on June 6, 2000.

Pegasus Bridge, whose steel girders have become, over the years, part of the iconography of the D-Day story, was rebuilt in 1994, because of the wear and tear of modern juggernaut traffic.

Howard's wife Joy died in 1986. He leaves a daughter, Penny

From The Times Newspaper, 7th May 1999

Air Power
Airspeed "Horsa"

This assault glider was used in many WWII airborne attacks, including the landing on Sicily and Normandy. The Horsa was a wooden high-wing aircraft, that was used on a large scale in the invasion of Sicily, Normandy and Germany. As well as troops, it could carry a jeep or a 6 lb gun --- the Mk.II had a hinged nose section. The Horsa was sturdy and manoeuvrable.

Development:
A.S.51 was developed in 1940 under specification X.26/40. A total of seven prototypes were constructed, of which two were built by Fairey and five by Airspeed. On September 12, 1940, first A.S.51 was towed into the air by a "Whitley" bomber. First military use of the gliders was British invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943, in which 27 A.S.51 were used. Most famously, the Horas was use for the storming of the "Pegasus Bridge" Which signaled the invasion of Alied forces in Europe in June 1944.

With the success of Germany's glider borne troops during the invasion of France and the low countries, the Allies began looking at making there own versions. The most successful British type was the Airspeed Horsa and was built in large numbers.

Equipped with a large cargo door on the port side, jettisonable tail and a nose that swung upwards, the Horsa proved to be very capable. The type was used extensively during most airborne operations involving British paratroops and was responsible for airlifting nearly a quarter of air-supplied supplies during the Normandy invasion.

The Horsa was extremely maneuverable considering it was unpowered and rather large. Huge flaps powered by compressed air and wing mounted air brakes allowed the to stand on it's nose and swoop down quietly to a landing, although the troops carried probably didn't appreciate this much. A large numbers of the type were also used by the U.S. Army.

Taking a page from Hitler's book, America and Britain developed their own combat glider programs. The American 15-place, Waco CG-4A and British 30-place, Airspeed Horsa gliders were first used in a major invasion (Operation Husky) on July 9, 1943 - the start of the 38-day battle for Sicily. Other major operations where Allied gliders played a significant role were: Operation Thursday (Burma: March 1944); Operation Overlord (Normandy: June 1944); Operation Dragoon (Southern France: August 1944); Operation Market-Garden (Holland: September 1944); Operation Repulse (Bastogne: December 1944 - January 1945); and, on March 24, 1945, Operation Varsity (Rhine River Crossing). Six weeks after the successful conclusion of Varsity, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies.

Operation Varsity was more costly to Allied airborne than the invasion of Normandy. By early evening of March 24, in eight short hours, our airborne forces had suffered 819 killed, 1,794 wounded and 580 missing in action. Over six dozen paradrop and glider-towing planes were shot down. Seventy glider pilots were killed and 114 wounded or injured. British and American glider-recovery teams found later that less than 25 percent of the gliders landed unscathed.

About 6,000 American glider pilots were trained. Almost 14,000 CG-4A's were built; about 3,600 were used in combat overseas.

Glider-rider and glider-pilot casualties were estimated at 40 percent for some missions. Specially trained glider-assault regiments were part of the U.S. 11th, 13th, 17th, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. (British glider-assault teams were assigned to Air Landing Brigades, each equivalent in strength to a U.S. regiment.)

The 11th Airborne spearheaded Operation Gypsy Task Force, a glider-paradrop attack on Japanese installations on Luzon, the Philippines. In the China-Burma-India Theater were glider units-assigned to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Air Commando Groups - which flew British troops into battle behind the Japanese lines.

The Horsa was towed, with a hemp rope, behind the modified, four-engine Handley-Page Halifax bomber, the twin-engine Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle and the C-47.

Versions:
Hessell Tiltman designed the Airspeed Horsa to Specification X.26/40 as Britain's first major troop-carrying glider. Of all-wood construction, the Horsa was designed for dispersed production by companies outside the aircraft industry. Design and construction of first two prototypes (DG597 and DG603) at Salisbury Hall, London Colney, for assembly at Fairey's Great West Aerodrome and first flight on September 12, 1941, behind a Whitley tug; five more prototypes built and test-flown at Portsmouth .

Airspeed Horsa Mk I: Initial production version to carry 20-25 troops. 470 built by Airspeed at Christchurch, 300 by Austin Motor Co and 1,461 by Harris Lebus and Associates. First operation November 19, 1942 (two Horsas towed by Halifaxes) against Norwegian heavy water plant in Norway; first major deployment, invasion of Sicily, July 1943. Projected AS.52 to specification X.3/41 designed (but not built) to carry up to 8,000 Ibs (3,632 kg) of bombs. Powered version with two 375 hp Cheetah Xs also projected, along with AS.53 vehicle-carrying glider.

Airspeed Horsa Mk II: Version of AS.53 further developed in 1943 as AS.58 with hinged nose and reinforced floor to carry vehicles; twin nose wheels, and twin tow-rope attach-ment moved from underwing to nosewheel strut. 225 built by Airspeed at Christchurch; 65 by Austin Motor Co; 1,271 by Harris Lebus Group. Extensively used (some in USAAF markings) in D-Day landings and subsequent operations up to crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. A few to India for trials. Tugs included Stirling, Halifax, Albemarle, Whitley and, rarely, Dakota. Gross weight increased to 15,750 1 b (7,144 kg).

Specifications:
Type: Assault Glider
Origin: Airspeed
Models: Horsa Mk-I and Mk-II
First Flight: Prototype DG597: September 12, 1941
Service Delivery: May 1942
Number Produced: 3,644
Payload: 25 Troops or equivalent cargo.

Dimensions:
Wing span: 88 ft. (26.84m)
Length: 67 ft. (20.43m)
Height: 19 ft. 6 in. (5.9m)
Weights: Empty: 7,500 lb. (3402 kg) / Loaded: 15,250 lb. (6917 kg)

Performance :
Towing Speed: 127 mph (204 km/h)
Gliding Speed: 100 mph (161 km/h)

Armaments: None