9th (Home Counties) Parachute Battalion, Merville Battery

Merville Battery

The primary objective of the 9^th Parachute Battalion is the Merville coastal battery, which is believed to house four medium-calibre guns or howitzers, estimated to be 150-millimetre in calibre. If these weapons are indeed 150-millimetre howitzers, their estimated range extends to 13,350 metres, with each shell weighing approximately 44 kilograms. Their rate of fire is expected to be three to four rounds per minute. Given its position, the battery poses a significant threat to the landing forces on Sword Beach and must be neutralised before it can interfere with the assault on the beaches.

The intelligence gathered from aerial reconnaissance and other sources confirms that the battery is heavily fortified. Its defences include minefields, wire barriers, machine guns, anti-aircraft positions, and a developing anti-tank ditch. Despite these formidable obstacles, the position must be neutralised before it can disrupt the landings on the beaches

The layout of the battery has been studied from annotated aerial photographs held at Advanced Divisional Headquarters. The gun positions are arranged in an arc facing northwest, and all four are now enclosed within reinforced concrete casemates. The walls and roofs are approximately two metres thick, with floors likely constructed from concrete as well. The casemates contain rooms for the gun crews and ammunition magazines, as well as the main gun compartments. Construction allows the guns to be withdrawn through the rear of the casemates, with the likely presence of steel doors at the front and wooden doors at the rear.

The original open emplacements, each measuring approximately 11 metres in diameter, have now been demolished, and it is assumed that the guns are now inside the casemates, although no photographic evidence confirms this. Ammunition and stores are believed to be housed in reinforced concrete shelters near the gun positions. Off-duty personnel are billeted in Merville-Franceville, a short distance to the northwest.

The battery observation post may be located within the infantry strongpoint on the banks of the River Orne. Communications between the observation post and the battery are expected to rely on buried cables and wireless transmission. The water tower in the area is enclosed by wire defences, suggesting its possible use as an additional observation post.

A section of an anti-tank ditch has been completed to the west and northwest of the battery, spanning 270 metres in length. It begins 100 metres north of Casemate 1 and extends south beyond Casemate 4. A continuation of the ditch, an additional 140 metres in length, has been marked out but remains unexcavated. A branch of the ditch, running at a right angle to the main trench, extends to within eight metres of Casemate 4. The ditch is 4.2 metres wide and cuts across the road.

The battery is surrounded by two belts of wire defences. The outer perimeter, likely a cattle fence, encloses an irregularly shaped area 660 metres by 470 metres. The inner wire perimeter is 344 metres by 283 metres, with a barrier approximately three metres wide, although some sections have been temporarily removed to facilitate ongoing concrete construction. The space between these two belts varies from 80 metres on the eastern side to approximately 150 metres on the northern and southern flanks.

Minefields are confirmed between the outer cattle fence and the main perimeter wire. Mines are clearly visible in aerial photographs northeast of the battery, where a belt of seven rows, 55 metres wide and 55 metres deep, extends for 55 metres. Additional belts are present immediately to the south, where the spacing of the mines is less uniform. Further mine belts are located north of the battery, particularly west of the main entrance. It is likely that more minefields exist, but their exact extent remains unverified.

The defensive garrison is equipped with machine guns covering multiple fields of fire. The standard equipment for a battery of this type allows for three light machine guns, though there may be additional defensive positions. Approximately 15 alternative firing positions have been identified, some of which may house machine guns, while others are likely occupied by rifle sections.

The battery also has three light anti-aircraft positions. Each of these could be equipped with 20mm anti-aircraft or anti-tank guns, of which the battery is authorised to have one. Near a suspected dummy battery, four open circular emplacements measuring approximately five metres in diameter have been observed. Unidentified objects are visible in these positions, suggesting that this may be a light anti-aircraft battery. A separate four-gun anti-aircraft position is located, approximately 1,300 metres northeast of the battery. The rectangular emplacements, each measuring six metres by four metres, are confirmed to be occupied.

A strongpoint close-by appears to contain at least five camouflaged machine-gun emplacements, concealed within hedgerows. These positions are covered with temporary roofing but are unlikely to be made of concrete, instead using sandbags and wooden supports. Observations suggest that stores and ammunition are stacked along the hedgerows inside this position, allowing it to serve a dual purpose as both a defensive and storage site. Within the inner defensive perimeter, three distinct blast marks are visible, which match the characteristics of smoke generator explosions.

The village of Merville-Franceville, situated approximately 300 metres to the northwest of the battery, features various approaches via secondary roads and tracks through orchards. The village consists of four clusters of farm buildings, while the remaining structures form a scattered settlement. Concrete shelters are currently being built within the woodland. The terrain to the south and southwest is largely open farmland, separated by hedgerows. No cultivated fields have been observed within 450 metres of the southwestern and southern perimeters.

Three roads provide access to the battery. One approaches from the northwest, another from the north, and a third from the east. A small pillbox appears to be positioned at a road junction. A roadblock is visible, positioned along the inner perimeter wire, covered by a machine-gun post. The primary entrance for vehicles appears to be the northern access point. A knife-rest style roadblock has been installed on the eastern approach road. An old, disused track runs from the outer perimeter on the northern side towards a group of farm buildings, which are likely occupied by German troops in the northwest section of the village.

The purpose of the shelters near the main gate remains unclear. These may be used for vehicle protection, though given the static nature of the battery, this seems unlikely. It is more probable that horses and limbers are stabled in the farm buildings within the area.

The Battery is manned by 50 engineers and 80 artillerymen from the 1. Batterie of the 1716. Artillerie Regiment, which was part of the 716. Infantry-Division. The unit was under the command of Oberleutnant Raimund Steiner. The total strength of the battery garrison is estimated not to exceed 160 men. Of this number, approximately 100 to 120 would be stationed at the guns, defensive positions, and command posts while at battle stations. The remaining personnel would likely be responsible for guarding ammunition, vehicles, and horse lines outside the defensive perimeter.

The Plan

After a week of intensive analysis, Colonel Terence Otway and Captain Robert Gordon-Brown complete the assault plan for the Merville Gun Battery.

Colonel Otway assesses the target. Only two directions offer a possible line of attack. As the landing zone lies to the south, he decides to attack from that direction.

The assault is to be supported by three Horsa gliders carrying fifty-six men of the Battalion and eight Royal Engineer sappers. These gliders are to land inside the Battery perimeter at the same moment as the main attack. Otway’s plan relies on complete surprise and on dividing the enemy’s attention. The garrison must be forced to look in several directions at once.

To form this glider-borne assault group, volunteers are selected from Company A. Assembled in the mess hall, the Commanding Officer tells the men of the company that it was a secret operation and asks for volunteers. Every man steps forward. None wishes to appear reluctant. No details are given, and many believe it to be a suicide mission. Major Parry then reduces the number to those required, favouring unmarried men.

Captain Robert Gordon-Brown commands this detachment, which becomes known as G-B Force. It consists of two platoons, each led by a lieutenant, Hugh Pond and Hugh Smythe. Each platoon includes a commander, a platoon sergeant, a batman, and three sections of eight men. The engineers belong to No. 2 Troop, 591 (Antrim) Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, one officer and seven other ranks.

With the plan now complete and the assault force organised, the timetable for the operation is created. At 00:20, an aircraft is set to drop the advance team of ten men to accompany the pathfinders to drop zone V. The advance team consists of a battalion rendezvous organisation party to establish the battalion’s assembly point on the drop zone and a Trowbridge party reconnaissance team to survey the approach route and defensive layout.

The Trowbridge Party, led by Major George Smith, commander of 9^th Parachute Battalion’s Headquarters Company, consists of Company Sergeant Major “Dusty” Miller and Company Sergeant Major Bill Harrold. These men are highly trained volunteers, specifically selected for their exceptional fitness and fieldcraft. Both Miller and Harrold are experienced physical training instructors, making them well-suited for this demanding mission.

At 00:30, before this team arrives, a force of 100 Lancaster bombers is scheduled to bombard the Merville position between 00:30 and 04:00, deploying 1,800-kilogram bombs. Their task is to weaken the enemy defences and potentially clear paths through the minefield.

A glider detachment carrying essential equipment is expected to land at 00:35 as close as possible to the battalion’s rendezvous point. The five gliders are transporting two 6-pounder anti-tank guns, three jeeps with trailers carrying ammunition and supplies, and an array of breaching equipment, including twenty-four scaling ladders to negotiate the anti-tank ditch, 60 Bangalore torpedoes for cutting through the wire, and twelve specially designed duralumin footbridges to bypass mined sections of the ditch.

At 00:50, the 9^th Parachute Battalion will land and reassemble at the designated rendezvous point, which must be cleared by 02:35 to allow for the assault to proceed on schedule. The battalion will be accompanied by Royal Engineers from the 591^st Parachute Squadron and essential equipment. This includes a further 120 Bangalore torpedoes, and forty-eight additional scaling ladders are being carried by parachute troops. After assembling the assault group will advance towards the objective, aiming to be in position by 04:00.

A taping party, consisting of an officer and eight men, from B Company, led by Captain Greenway, will accompany Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway in the first aircraft. This team includes duplicate rendezvous and reconnaissance elements in case the original parties become lost or separated.

The taping party, departs the rendezvous point as soon as it is ready. It is accompanied by a duplicate Trowbridge party under Lieutenant Slade. The taping party, upon receiving Major Smith’s report, marks out the approaches to the battery position. The duplicate Trowbridge party, in turn, conducts a reconnaissance of the dummy battery and reports back to the commanding officer.

Immediately upon landing, they will move towards the battery position, marking routes through the minefield towards the inner defences. Equipped with Polish mine detectors, they are tasked with identifying the most suitable points for breaching the wire.

The reconnaissance officer of the advance party is to link up with the battalion during its approach march, confirming the defensive layout and guiding the troops to their forming-up point. The assault will be launched from the southeast, with three breaches created in the wire. A firm base will be established 270 metres from the perimeter, from where lanes will be cleared through the minefield to facilitate the advance.

The battalion arrives at the designated forming-up point, near the road junction, between P-75 minutes and P-60 minutes. On reaching the forming-up position, A Company establishes its position close behind. By this time, the Lieutenant Colonel Otway has received reports from both Major Smith and Lieutenant Slade and has been met by a guide from the taping party. Otway assesses the situation and determines the precise area for the assault. The breaching teams will move into position and set Bangalore torpedoes against the wire under orders from the commanding officer, while the assault company will form up behind them, with the reserve force taking position further back. Following this, anti-tank artillery, two platoons, sniping parties, and No. 4 Platoon are dispatched to their assigned positions. Sniping parties will establish themselves on both flanks, while the two 6-pounder guns will be deployed 140 metres west of the battery. The diversionary force will advance towards the main gate from the north.

Orders are then relayed to the company officers, who return to their units and prepare for the attack. Runners are sent back to confirm readiness. Once all sub-units are prepared, or at P-60 minutes, Otway will order A Company to advance. A Company moves forward onto the cross tape on either side of the main attack routes. At the same time, the commanding officer orders B Company to advance to the outer wire, where they lay Bangalore torpedoes in preparation for breaching the perimeter. B Company remains in position, ready to detonate the torpedoes, but is instructed not to use smoke until the gliders have landed. If the breaching teams manage to advance undetected, they are to proceed silently. However, should surprise be lost, a bugle call will immediately signal a full-scale attack.

To maintain surprise, the movement of B Company is conducted in silence, unless it becomes necessary to clear minefields along the route using Cordtex.

If surprise is lost, or time is too short to proceed covertly, Lieutenant Colonel Otway will order the bugle call “Charge”, signalling an immediate full-scale attack. On this call, anti-tank artillery, two platoons, sniping parties, and No. 4 Platoon will open fire. At the same moment, B Company’s breaching teams will double forward to lay the Bangalore torpedoes if they are not already in position. Once in place, B Company’s breaching teams will lie down, ready to ignite the fuses when the gliders land.

At 04:24, three gliders will be released from an altitude of 1,800 metres, landing directly within the battery perimeter. Their troops, equipped with Sten guns, grenades, and specialised charges, are tasked with storming the gun positions and destroying the casemates. At 04:24:30, the towing aircraft will signal the battalion headquarters the letter M using its headlight.

At 04:25:30, a bugle will sound “Reveille,” and a mortar team will fire star shells to illuminate the target for the glider pilots. Smoke will not be used until after the gliders have landed. On receiving the M signal, or at the appropriate moment, the commanding officer orders the bugle call “Fall In”, at which point all fire ceases, ordering all supporting fire to cease (except for the diversionary party at the main gate) to facilitate the gliders’ final approach and landing. The bugle call is “Lights Out” sounded at 04:30, signalling the first glider’s expected landing. At this moment, star shell illumination ceases, returning the battlefield to darkness.

Upon landing, the glider troops are to move swiftly and storm the two central gun positions, ensuring their destruction before the enemy can mount an organised defence. At the same moment, the diversionary party is tasked with forcing entry through the main gate, drawing attention away from the primary assault.

At the same time, B Company ignites the Bangalore torpedo fuses, detonating them to create breaches in the wire. Successful breaches are marked using red, white, or blue lights. If one of the breaches fails, the light from that breach will be moved to the nearest successful gap, signalling the troops to adjust their assault route accordingly.

With the outer defences breached, B Company immediately throws Bangalore torpedoes into the anti-tank ditch to clear remaining wire and mines. Once this is completed, they position bridges or ladders to facilitate crossing. As soon as the Bangalore torpedoes detonate in the ditch, C Company moves forward to the outer wire, while B Company clears any mines between the ditch and the inner perimeter. Breaching teams then detonate further Bangalore torpedoes to open gaps in the inner fence.

As soon as the inner breaches are completed, the commanding officer orders the bugle call “Reveille” once more. On this signal, 3-inch mortar star shells are fired to illuminate the area. At this point, B Company halts any further demolition work, regardless of whether all planned breaches have been completed, and C Company launches its assault on the battery.

The assault company will then charge through the gaps, reorganising into four sections, each tasked with neutralising a gun position. The battalion command post will follow closely behind, with the reserve force moving up in support.

A Company follows closely behind, taking up positions inside the wire on either side of the central gap. Once C Company has secured its objectives, B Company, excluding the bridgehead protection troops, withdraws from the position. Sniper teams join A Company inside the wire to provide further support.

If C Company’s assault force is positioned with C Company headquarters at the junction of the cross tape and the centre tape, they will proceed with the planned attack.

If there is no anti-tank ditch or outer wire, meaning only one belt of wire beyond the cattle fence, B Company will place Bangalore torpedoes directly in this wire. The Lieutenant Colonel Otway will inform C Company’s commander at the dispersal point whether this situation is likely. In this case, as soon as the breaches are completed, Otway will order “Reveille”, prompting C Company to commence the assault.

If no wire or other obstacles are present, having already been destroyed by the pre-attack bombardment, a modified approach will be taken. B Company will remain at the firm base, while C Company moves up to the furthest cross tape and lies prone. As before, when the gliders land, the commanding officer will order “Lights Out”, and two minutes later, “Reveille”, at which point C Company will commence its assault.

If the battery is found to be abandoned or already destroyed, the Lieutenant Colonel Otway will signal this by firing a series of green 2-inch mortar flares. On this signal, glider pilots will select their own landing zones near the battery and touch down accordingly.

Once all gun positions have been neutralised, the Lieutenant Colonel Otway will send up the success signal using red-green-red 2-inch mortar flares, followed by the bugle call “Standfast”. Upon hearing this, all troops will immediately regroup at their current locations.

Company officers will then report to the Lieutenant Colonel Otway, who will either be inside the central breach or positioned on the road. Once he has ascertained the strength of each company and the overall tactical situation, he will personally inspect the gun positions to ensure their destruction. Following this, he will order the bugle call “Cookhouse”.

On hearing this call, B Company’s defensive teams at the breach points will turn their signal lamps inward, indicating the withdrawal phase has begun. The battalion will then withdraw to the firm base in the following sequence:

1. Royal Engineers
2. C Company
3. A Company
4. Advanced Battalion Headquarters
5. B Company’s bridgehead protection detachments

As Lieutenant Colonel Otway passes through the central gap, he will inform the officer commanding B Company’s protection detachments, who will then withdraw their teams behind the battalion headquarters.

The 9^th Parachute Battalion does not act alone. The other battalions of the 3^rd Parachute Brigade also carry heavy responsibilities on the same night. The 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion supports the 9^th Parachute Battalion. The Canadians also protect the engineers of the 3^rd Parachute Squadron. The engineers must destroy two bridges. One spans the River Dives at Robehomme. The other crosses the Dives tributary, the Divette, at Varaville. Once the bridges fall, the Canadians hold the centre of the ridge at the Le Mesnil crossroads.

The 8^th Parachute Battalion lands on Drop Zone K. It shields the engineers as they demolish three further crossings. Two of these span the River Dives at Bures. A third crosses the river at Saint Samson, near Troarn. The 8^th also prevents the enemy from seizing the Bois de Bavent along the southern ridge.

9th Parachute Battalion

Preperations

In preparation for the operation, the 9^th Parachute Battalion conducts an intensive two-week training camp, accompanied by detachments from the Royal Engineers and the Field Ambulance.

During this period, a full-scale replica of the battery position, including the anti-tank ditch, is constructed on the ground. Every man is assigned a specific task that he will be required to perform during the assault and repeatedly drills his role until it becomes second nature.

Rehearsals take place over five days and four nights, with each daytime exercise immediately followed by a night-time repetition. The training includes an approach march covering a slightly greater distance than the one expected in the actual operation to ensure that the troops are fully prepared for the physical demands of the assault.

All rehearsals are conducted with live ammunition to replicate battlefield conditions as closely as possible. The troops practice crossing obstacles with heavy equipment and weapons, as well as assaulting some of the most challenging defensive barriers they might encounter. These include a cattle fence, a minefield, outer Dannert wire, a mined anti-tank ditch, and an inner Dannert wire obstacle.

Finally, the reorganisation at the battalion rendezvous point is also carefully rehearsed to ensure swift and efficient regrouping after the drop, allowing the battalion to move rapidly towards its objective on the day of the operation.

The other battalions of the 3^rd Parachute Brigade also carry heavy responsibilities. The Canadians support the 9^th Parachute Battalion and protect the engineers of the 3^rd Parachute Squadron. The engineers must destroy two bridges: one over the River Dives at Robehomme, another over its tributary, the Divette, at Varaville. The Canadians then hold the centre of the ridge at the Le Mesnil crossroads. The 8^th Parachute Battalion lands on Drop Zone K and shields the engineers as they demolish two bridges over the River Dives at Bures and a further bridge at Saint Samson, near Troarn. The battalion also prevents enemy seizure of the Bois de Bavent along the southern ridge.

Alongside this brigade-wide task list, a smaller specialist element draws particular attention. Six pilots of B Squadron, the Glider Pilot Regiment, are handpicked for the G-B Force. Although they will take off from RAF Brize Norton, they remain with the 9^th Parachute Battalion in the Transit Camp. The six are Staff Sergeants Baldwin, Bone and Kerr, and Sergeants Michie, Dean and Walker. They have been told that the Regiment will supply its three best Horsas, each specially modified with Rebecca equipment and an arrester parachute.

Training on the Eureka-Rebecca equipment has somehow been overlooked. On June 1^st the co-pilots receive orders to attend a course at Netheravon. On arrival they are shown into an ante-room and confronted by two weathered instructors who appear old enough to have flown with the Royal Flying Corps in the previous war. The instructors then announce that the course runs for two weeks. The co-pilots know D-Day lies only days away. Sergeant Joe Michie slips out of the camp to a public telephone box and warns B Squadron in guarded language that the instructors seem unaware of the timetable. By the following day the message has clearly reached the right ears, and the course is hastily compressed.

While the co-pilots fight for radar training, the rest of the Battalion gathers for senior addresses. On the afternoon of June 2^nd, General Gale arrives at Broadwell and speaks to the assembled camp. The men respond rapturously as he describes the airborne assault. In typical fashion he tells them the enemy assumes only a fool would attempt such an operation, which is precisely why he intends to go himself. The station commander of RAF Broadwell also draws a loud cheer when he wishes the Battalion good luck. He states that his pilots have never missed a dropping zone, nor been late over one. The picture, however, is incomplete. The newly formed No. 46 Group RAF will drop the Brigade. A shortage of transport crews has forced the group to draft in hastily trained airmen alongside experienced bomber crews. Many have little or no experience of dropping parachutists. Later that evening, the aircrews of 512 Squadron meet the men they will carry. They chat for about an hour, hoping to ease any fears about the drop.

Another problem looms behind the morale of the men. The Group lacks sufficient transport aircraft to ferry the whole Division in one operation. Most of the 6^th Airlanding Brigade will therefore arrive on the evening of D-Day, using Landing Zones N and W. The remainder will land by sea on D+1.

The following day shifts the work from speeches to equipment. Most of the men travel to the airfield to load their kitbags and draw parachutes. The Paras mark each chute with the last two digits of their serial number and stow them aboard the planes. They practise ditching drill and the use of ‘Mae Wests’ in case a plane crash-lands at sea. Forty equipment containers are also fixed to the aircraft. Each container carries four built-in lamps that illuminate on impact with the ground. Whatever attitude the container lands in, at least one lamp remains visible. Coloured discs fitted to the lamps signal the contents to those on the drop zone. The Battalion will also take a special lightweight version of the Bangalore torpedo. The scaffold-like lengths connect together with less flex, which eases their passage through wire entanglements. While loading them, Captain Hudson uncovers another problem. The cradles designed to carry the torpedoes beneath the Dakota wings prove too long. The torpedoes are vital, so modifications begin at once.

A separate group prepares to leave the next morning from a different airfield. The Rendez Vous and Trowbridge Parties will depart earlier and must fly from RAF Harwell. Major Parry takes command of the Rendez Vous Party. Only ten men of the Battalion fly from Harwell, sharing the airfield with the Pathfinders of 22 Independent Parachute Company and Divisional Headquarters. They visit the airfield in advance to load equipment, collect and fit parachutes, and meet their pilot.

Amid the preparations, the camp also pays a darker price. With so much labour involving weaponry, accidents are inevitable. A grenade explosion kills several members of the Royal Ulster Rifles. The 9^th Parachute Battalion suffers its own tragedy. Lance Corporal Edward Hull, a member of the G-B Force, walks back from the Administration block to his tent in conversation with his friend Peter Neal. A football match is in progress to their left. Neal suddenly realises he is speaking to himself and turns to find Hull on the ground with a wound to the neck. On the far side of the pitch an officer has been cleaning his Sten. A single shot has discharged, crossed the pitch without striking anyone else, and hit Hull. The bad luck is extraordinary, and at first the men around him expect him to recover.

As the hours close in on the operation, the strain begins to tell. With D-Day only forty-eight hours away, Colonel Otway imposes a drink ban. He fears that men under the strain of waiting may drink too much and enter battle with a hangover. The men can do little but lie on their sleeping bags. Their thoughts drift to the girls they have left behind at Crookham and to the pub at Bulford, the Rose and Crown, where fights between British soldiers and American troops break out most evenings.

On Sunday, June 4^th, the eve of D-Day, John Gwinnett, the Battalion Padre, holds a final service. The Camp Commandant, Captain Peter Young, and his staff present the Battalion with a maroon flag. It bears a white silk Bellerophon, the Airborne emblem, with a large 9 in the top left-hand corner. The Women’s Voluntary Service of Oxford has made the flag for the camp, the men’s wives surrendering some of their clothing coupons for the material. A deputation of camp administration staff asks Captain Young to present the flag to the Battalion for the coming action. Although the gesture goes against regulations, the presentation duly takes place and Gwinnett dedicates the colours. The flag passes to Gordon Newton, who will carry it across with the G-B Force. Later in the afternoon Brigadier Hill arrives and addresses his officers. He warns them that however thorough their orders and training, they must not be daunted when chaos descends, as it surely will.

Back at Brize Norton the gliders themselves now demand attention. The G-B Force co-pilots have completed the Eureka-Rebecca course and arrive at the airfield. The second pilots travel on to collect the four gliders allocated for the operation, three for the assault and one spare. Each glider is to carry Eureka-Rebecca radar, identifiable by aerials on the leading edge of the wings, and an arrester parachute beneath the tail. On arrival, however, Sergeant Michie discovers that security has been so tight that the radar has been installed in one set of four gliders and the parachutes fitted to another. A chance encounter with Colonel Chatterton sets a frantic correction in motion, and the pilots eventually fly back with the gliders properly equipped. Staff Sergeant Baldwin reacts bitterly when he sees the chosen three gliders. Two are new Horsas; the third is visibly worn. Major Toler resolves the matter the only fair way available, drawing lots with three sticks. The short stick falls, predictably, to Baldwin. No time remains for a familiarisation flight. Months of planning have led to this. To compound matters, the bad weather has deteriorated into a storm.

Preparation complete, the Paras wait. They listen to the wind and rain buffeting the bell-tents. Trucks stand ready and the men are dressed to board when word arrives that the operation has been postponed by twenty-four hours. They return to their tents. At 21:30 the same evening, the members of SHAEF, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, meet at Southwick House near Portsmouth. Group Captain John Stagg, head of the Meteorological Committee, reports that once the present front passes, fair conditions will prevail over the Channel until at least dawn on Tuesday. The commanders weigh the risks. General Eisenhower issues provisional instructions for the assault to begin on Tuesday, June 6^th, 1944.

At 04:15 the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) committee reconvenes with Group Captain Stagg. He reports no change to his forecast of the previous night. The final and irrevocable decision is taken to launch the assault on June 6th, 1944. The order filters down the chain of command. Brigadier Hill breaks the news to his officers, telling them the operation is on, that they will go tonight, and that the wind on the continent is running at eight to sixteen kilometres an hour.

The ord reaches the men and they begin their final preparations once again. After lunch the men are ordered to bed for a few hours, and Gregory needs little encouragement to sleep. Another meal follows, the cookhouse staff working without complaint. The men collect flasks of hot tea, jam sandwiches, sweets, chocolate and gum for the flight. The early evening passes in camouflaging faces and exchanging jokes until the order to kit up arrives, which sends men queuing for the toilet.

At 20:00, after a final word of goodwill from the Colonel, the ten men of the rendezvous and Trowbridge Parties depart for Harwell. None of the men have made an operational jump before, yet no one appears unduly nervous. The meteorological forecast of the wind on the continent draws considerable comment, since the wind in England is strong enough to set even the largest tree branches dancing. The men suspect the forecast is a fiction designed to spur them forward and expect to find a wind of at least forty kilometres an hour gusting to forty-eight over France. Whatever the truth, leaving the confinement of the Transit Camp comes as a relief. They reach Harwell at 21:20.

The men meet the aircrew and share a cup of tea. The pilot informs Smith that the party will be dropped about eight hundred metres from the intended dropping zone, because aerial reconnaissance has revealed enemy-dug positions in its vicinity. The men of the 9^th Parachute Battalion already know about these positions, though they have no confirmation that the enemy mans them. Smith considers the decision a military rather than a Royal Air Force matter, but since the party has studied the ground thoroughly from every angle, no one argues. Outwardly the men remain calm and move about their business quietly.

Merville Battery Reconnaissance Photographs

Merville Battery Scale Model

Take Off

At 23:10, the aircraft of the advanced parties depart from Royal Air Force Harwell, marking the beginning of the operation. Simultaneously, at 23:10, A Company and anti-tank gun gliders take off, following the designated flight path towards the drop zone.

Two minutes later, at 23:12, the main body of the battalion departs from Royal Air Force Broadwell, beginning its airborne journey towards the objective.

Around 01:30, the three crews of the G-B Force assault gliders complete their final briefing. The men will land among the Germans inside the Merville Battery perimeter, which means they need some form of identification visible to the rest of the Battalion in the darkness. The solution has come from Captain Gordon-Brown. Each man is to paint a skull and crossbones on the left breast of his smock in luminous paint. The men are issued the paint but no brushes, so they make do with shaving brushes and toothbrushes. No stencils are provided either, and each man paints his own emblem freehand, with results varying widely in size and quality. The mistake becomes apparent only on the airfield itself, when someone points out that the paint is, as intended, luminous. The men then set about rubbing dirt over the markings to take the glow out of them.

The glider pilots arrive at the runway. Staff Sergeant Arnold Baldwin watches the men of the Parachute Regiment board his glider and counts them on. Each man carries his normal kit and, in addition, a small haversack. Baldwin asks one man what the haversack contains and is told grenades. By the time thirty men are aboard, he is convinced the aircraft is grossly overloaded. With minutes left before take-off, there is nothing he can do. No one in his right mind, he reasons, would tell the officer in command that some of the men must be left behind, or that the extra haversacks must come off.

The gliders are veritable arsenals. Private Gordon Newton of A Company, aboard Gordon-Brown’s glider, carries a flamethrower. Each glider has two flamethrower men. The flamethrower itself weighs around eight kilograms, and the man carrying it takes a pistol as his personal weapon, since any soldier carrying a specialist weapon carries a pistol rather than a rifle. Each man also carries two sets of equipment. The first is his assault load. The second is the load he will switch to once the battery is taken, configured for a rifleman, a mortar man or a Bren gunner. Newton, a big man, finds himself carrying the heaviest items by default. The men who do not carry flamethrowers or Sten guns carry extra bandoliers, bags of grenades, and various other bombs and devices. Newton stows the lot beneath the seats of the glider.

The Royal Engineers’ load adds further weight. The party brings plastic high explosive charges and General Wade demolition charges. Each General Wade comprises a curved segment to wrap around the gun barrel and a cylindrical piece designed to drop into the bore.

By 02:15 the aircraft are ready to take off. Glider No. 28, piloted by Staff Sergeant Bone and Sergeant Dean, carrying Captain Gordon-Brown, lifts off just after 02:24. Glider No. 27, with Staff Sergeant Kerr and Sergeant Walker at the controls and Lieutenant Pond’s men aboard, follows seven minutes later. At 02:37 glider No. 28A, piloted by Baldwin and Sergeant Michie with Lieutenant Smythe’s platoon in the back, takes its turn. The tug pilot is Flight Sergeant Dennis Richards.

Staff Sergeant Baldwin’s troubles begin immediately. The glider trundles forward and uses the usual length of runway before he pulls back on the stick. There is no response. A little further on he tries again. Still no response. Richards comes over the intercom rather sharply to ask when Baldwin intends to lift off. Baldwin answers that he cannot get her off. Eventually the glider lifts very slowly at the last moment and both aircraft clear the hedge.

The port wing immediately begins to drop. Baldwin applies aileron without effect, then opposite rudder. The wing continues to fall. Fearing the wingtip will strike the ground, he steadily increases right rudder until it is fully extended. Slowly the wing comes up. Baldwin realises he will have to fly the entire mission with full right rudder. He tries to raise Richards on the intercom cable running through the towrope, but there is so much noise on the line, possibly caused by the strain on the rope itself, that neither pilot can hear the other. Before long Baldwin’s right leg is in such pain that he asks Michie to put his foot down on the pedal. Michie is a hefty lad with stout legs and takes most of the strain. The two pilots fly on through fairly clear conditions, both straining hard to keep the aircraft going, and made worse by the inability to tell Richards what is wrong.

Advanced Parties Drop

The men in the Dakotas cross the Channel. Major Allen Parry sits with the rendezvous party. Major George Smith sits with the Trowbridge party. Just after midnight on June 6th, 1944, the advance parties begin to ready themselves for the exit.

The navigator informs Major Smith and his party that they are approaching the French coast. He advises them to open the trap doors. The task proves harder than it sounds. The men are encumbered with parachutes, equipment and kitbags. The fuselage offers little spare room. Only a mixture of facetious and rude remarks persuades the others to move up. They give Smith enough space to open the doors and pin the flaps against the inside of the fuselage. He sits on the forward end of the hole and swings his legs through. The slipstream blows them straight back. He rests them on the narrow ledge running along each side.

The coast comes into view a moment later. Away to the right, sudden bursts of flame rise and die away almost immediately. The bombers are softening up the beach defences. Five minutes remain. The party arranges itself for the jump. Company Sergeant Major Dusty Miller takes position at the rear of the hole. Smith stands over the centre, legs astride. Each foot balances precariously on the narrow ledge at the base of each door. Company Sergeant Major Bill Harrold stands similarly across the rear edge. This is not the orthodox method of jumping. The party has worked it out among themselves for the quickest possible exit. The aim is to put the three of them on the ground close together. The usual technique has the men bunny-hopping down the fuselage from the forward end and through the hole in turn. The new method has not been practised, but the theory looks sound.

The aircraft passes over the coast at about two hundred metres. One minute remains. There is no significant flak. Streams of tracer begin to pass the plane, most of it below or behind. Major Smith’s job is to watch the lights near the roof of the fuselage. He cannot follow the tracer for long. The red light is due to come on for four seconds as a warning, then change to green for the order to jump. The minute drags. Smith notices that his hands are sticky with sweat. The red light comes on. With a sudden flick the red disappears and the green takes its place. The men jump into the Normandy sky.

The rendezvous party follows. Major Parry cannot get out fast enough. He eases his way towards the aperture and simply falls through it. The kitbag catches on the port side of the opening. The catch puts numerous twists into his rigging lines. The sight perplexes him slightly as he hangs in the air. Worse, he cannot reach far enough down to release the kitbag.

Sergeant Sid Knight has a different problem. As number ten in the stick he reaches the door and finds himself unable to move. His harness has somehow hooked onto a handle on the door leading to the pilot’s cabin. He hammers on the door. He sees a chink of light as someone opens it from inside. He feels himself come free, and slides out.

Major Smith makes a perfect descent. No one is firing on him, although tracer can still be seen arcing further and further away, apparently still chasing the aircraft. There is no moon. The men have been sitting in the dark for an hour and their eyes are adjusted for night vision. Smith sees a large building some eight hundred metres away to his half-left. He sees another some twelve hundred metres to his half-right. He decides the first must be the place known as the Varaville Headquarters, a German military headquarters. The next moment the building disappears behind the tops of trees. He hits the ground with a thud. He rolls onto his back in a manner that would have made the instructors of the Parachute Training School weep with shame.

Major Smith looks around. Four metres away a figure is struggling with his harness. Smith whispers the challenge. The answer comes back: Dusty Miller. Another figure emerges from the shadow of some trees fourteen metres away. It is Harrold. Their method of jumping has worked better than expected. Smith had not seen the others in the air, having been too busy trying to fix his position to look up. Under the usual jumping method the three would have ended up between eighteen and thirty-six metres apart, possibly more, with thick hedges between them. Instead they have all come down in the corner of a single field, hedged thickly on all sides and well treed. No sign or sound of the rest of the party reaches them. The Trowbridge party gathers close to the hedge to get their bearings and discuss the next move. Major Smith glances at his watch and sees 00:20. The pilot has kept his promise. The wind is light, and the party’s doubts about the meteorological department now look misplaced.

As Major Parry comes down, he is still wrestling with his kitbag. The ground meets him with a shock both mental and physical. His legs land miles apart on impact. Even before landing he had become conscious of bullets in the air. He had decided, with a soldier’s certainty, that all of them were meant for him. Now, sitting on the ground stripping off his harness and emptying his kitbag, he feels a perfect target. No more than two or three aircraft have dropped before his. He can claim to be among the first forty or so men to set foot in France.

Major Parry has no idea where he is. He studies a map and two aerial photographs by torchlight and remains none the wiser. He begins quacking with his Bakelite duck whistle, the recognition signal of the rendezvous party. After a few minutes no lost ducks have answered. He sets off on a compass bearing to the west, hoping for the rendezvous.

Sergeant Knight’s few seconds of delay leaving the aircraft cost him a long distance from the target. He lands in a field full of cows, well away from where he should be.

All of 3rd Parachute Brigade’s advance parties have now jumped. The pilots’ evasive action against the flak has scattered the Canadians over a wide area. Only some thirty of them land on Drop Zone V. Fortunately the ground offers very little resistance. The pathfinders, led by Lieutenant Don Wells, manage to set out two green holophane Ts and erect one Eureka beacon on the drop zone.

The bombing raid intended to soften up the Merville Battery is due at 00:30. Major Smith and his party had originally meant to lie up in a ditch, stuff their ears with cotton wool and take an anti-blast position. The battery lies some two thousand two hundred metres away, far enough for reasonable safety. The temptation to keep moving proves too great. They decide to press on and take cover only when they hear the Lancasters. They move at a good pace in the shadow of the hedges. When the approaching engines reach them, they drop into a convenient shallow ditch. A harsh tearing sound announces the first bombs. Tremendous explosions follow. Smith cannot resist raising his head for a look. The bombs are falling halfway between his position and the battery. A large field lies in front of the party, to be either crossed or skirted. Smith shouts to the sergeant majors to run across while the Germans are taking cover. They burst from the ditch in a bunch and begin to run.

They are not halfway across when a terrible screaming sound arrives overhead. It sounds as though twenty express trains were tearing past one another on adjacent tracks. The men throw themselves to the ground. They clasp their hands behind their necks. They press their forearms over their ears. They lift their bodies slightly on their elbows. Bombs crash in front, to the right, to the left and behind. The earth shakes beneath them. Trees come down. Great clods of earth shower the party as craters open up, each large enough to bury a suburban villa. Even above the din Smith imagines he can hear his heart pounding against his chest.

Many of the bombs fall in the field where Major Parry has come to rest. He takes cover in a ditch, hoping for the best while fearing the worst, scared out of his wits.

The bombing continues for ten minutes. When the man-made eruption ceases, the aircraft can be heard receding into the distance. A haze of smoke and dust obliterates everything. Major Smith and his companions sit up. A wave of stupidity passes over Smith before clearing into the realisation that they are alive. The others get to their feet as if surprised to find their limbs still work. Miller utters a single word of blasphemy.

The party sets off again at a steady double towards the opposite hedge. On the far side runs a rough track where Smith had expected a proper road. They stop to check their position. His companions are convinced this cannot be the right road. The types and thicknesses of the surrounding hedges, however, match the picture in Smith’s mind. He decides that the maps and aerial photographs they studied in England exaggerated this track and made it look like a road. They set off along the field side of the hedge, and his surmise proves correct.

They have not gone far when a voice from a ditch ahead halts them. Smith recognises it as that of Private George Adsett, the nineteen-year-old batman of the officer commanding the rendezvous party. Adsett seems bewildered and very excited. He has met none of the other six men in his party and is lost. Smith points out a stand of trees that borders the rendezvous. He instructs Adsett to make his way there. He tells him to get word to the battalion when it arrives that the Trowbridge party has landed safely and started its task.

Major Parry has also survived the bombing. In the silence that follows he hears a rustling in the hedge and lies very still. The whispered challenge of Punch reaches him. He answers Judy with enthusiasm. After his isolation, the company of two Canadians, equally lost, comes as a profound relief. They have lost their weapons. Parry hands them his Sten and keeps his pistol. The three of them push on through the darkness.

The Trowbridge party also struggles forward. Major Smith reaches a hedge junction too thick to penetrate. The obstacle forces the party away from the road for some one hundred and forty metres. He decides to break through and chance the noise alarming the enemy. The breakthrough requires crossing a deep ditch and forcing through a hedge as dense as anything in Kent, only to emerge in a three-metre belt of shrub with another hedge to cross. Smith throws himself at the second hedge and finds nothing beneath his feet. He falls into a ditch of exceptional depth. Only by stretching his arms above his head can his colleagues grasp his hands and haul him out through brambles and rose thorn.

A similar obstacle a little later, double-ditched and double-hedged, convinces him to try the track at any future hedge junction. The delay caused by breaking through is too great. The noise of forcing through is, if anything, more dangerous than moving on the verge.

When they next reach a hedge junction with a gap onto the track, Smith decides the far side will be easier going. He runs across the track and throws himself into a ditch some one and a half metres deep. Within five metres of him lie two German soldiers. They are not in a prepared position. Major Smith grasps that they are sheltering, still frightened by the bombing. His pistol is in its holster, both hands having been occupied gapping hedges and wire. His task is reconnaissance, not contact. He leaps back out of the ditch. As he goes, a large stone strikes his hand. He throws it at the Germans, who must mistake it for a grenade. They throw themselves flat. The whole exchange takes about half a second. Smith rejoins the other two on the far side of the track. The party makes a small detour.

The next obstacle is some five hundred and fifty metres of open country. They find their starting point and set off on a compass bearing intended to bring them out at a hedge gap. Some thirty metres into the field they find two posts about fourteen metres apart. They are solid affairs, whole trees with their bases sunk well into the ground. The upper ends stand some four and a half metres high. A piece of wire is stretched between them, beginning two metres up one post and ending around one metre up the other. The wire is of exceptional thickness, beyond the cutting power of standard issue wire cutters. They duck under it and continue. They find the field full of these posts, all joined by thick wire at varying heights from ground level to three metres up. These are German anti-glider defences.

The party is nearly across the open space when flak guns along the coast begin to open up. Almost immediately the dark silhouettes of Dakota aircraft appear and continue to appear for the next fifteen minutes. They fly at heights from one hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty metres, somewhat lower than expected. Smith could jump for joy. This is the battalion.

9th Parachute Battalion Drop

The time is 00:45. The drop that has dominated the paras’ thoughts for months has finally arrived. On a five-minute warning the men stand. Those who have not already done so hook their parachutes to the static line. The red warning light is due to come on at four minutes, though many stick commanders have private arrangements with the pilots to reduce this to a single minute. The Number One stands in the doorway with the stick packed tightly behind him. They wait for the green light. Conditions for the pilots are difficult. A forty-six kilometre an hour cross-wind buffets the aircraft. A vast dust cloud from the wayward bombing raid hangs over the ground. Flak begins to rise. For many of the men the sheer quantity is a shock.

Some pilots instinctively begin to zigzag in violent evasive action. Many of the paras end up on the floor. The men struggle back to their feet. They hook up and take their positions with kitbags strapped to their legs. Drop Zone V arrives literally sixty seconds after the aircraft crosses the coastline. There is little time for directional correction or recovery.

The red light comes on. Then the green. Stroud goes through the door. He feels the reassuring snatch of the shoulder harness as the canopy develops. He controls the chute. He watches what appear to be golden chains drifting slowly up towards him before they pass. It’s their first experience of anti-aircraft fire while hanging from a parachute.

Within minutes the operation had unravelled into the chaos that Brigadier Hill had predicted would come regardless of the quality of planning or training. Aircraft scattered the men across kilometres of unfamiliar country. Sticks came down over flooded marshland, in the orchards of the bocage, in trees, on top of the German headquarters at Varaville, and in some cases as far east as the Trouville area, some twenty-four kilometres beyond the intended dropping zone. The disorientation began in the cockpits, where some pilots mistook the River Dives for the River Orne, and was compounded by aggressive evasive action against the flak. By the time the drop was complete, almost no aircraft had delivered its full stick onto the correct ground.

The two signallers attached to the Royal Marine Commandos, Reg Sherwood and Bill Stack, prepare themselves. Stack jumps as number three, with the wireless set in a kitbag. Sherwood, carrying the spare batteries in a satchel, follows behind. Two men with three-inch mortars precede them. Lieutenant Winston and his batman come somewhere afterwards. A Canadian crew mans the plane. One crewman stands by the door. When the green light comes on, he slaps each man on the back as he goes and shouts good luck into his ear. The air outside is silent after the noise of the fuselage.

The flak terrifies Glen, the parachute dog, who cowers beneath one of the wooden benches. Private Jack Corteil and Private Jim Baty drag him out and throw him bodily from the aircraft. Corteil follows immediately. As Baty moves to the door the aircraft banks, throwing him to the floor. By the time he reaches the door the drop zone has passed. He jumps anyway and lands in deep water. Corteil and Glen are safely reunited on the ground.

The cost was greatest in the country east of the dropping zone, where the Germans had deliberately flooded the low-lying fields. Men weighed down by parachutes, weapons, kitbags, and equipment fell silently through the surface and went under. Drainage ditches up to three metres deep ran invisibly beneath the floodwater. Several men were seen disappearing into the mud by witnesses who could do nothing to reach them in time. Private John Speechley, unable to swim and burdened with full kit, came down in water that rose to his Adam’s apple. He worked his way out by following the contours of the meadow towards what he took to be a railway line, only for it to turn out to be a road. Corporal Robert Ferguson, dragged under by his pack after clearing a five-bar gate, hauled himself back up his rigging lines hand over hand until his head broke the surface. Brigadier Hill, dropped some five kilometres from his intended position near Cabourg, splashed into a metre and a half of water and gathered a mixed group of men around him. The only way they could move was roped together in toggle lines, so that anyone going down in a drainage ditch could be hauled out by the others.

Aircraft difficulties multiplied the scattering. Rifles and kitbags worked loose and jammed across doorways, leaving men hanging in the slipstream for what felt like minutes. Pilots banked unpredictably, throwing entire sticks to the floor of the fuselage. Sergeant Garrett, carrying the platoon’s detonators, had to walk to his pilot’s cockpit twice to argue for a second run before the aircraft would turn back over the drop zone. Sergeant Doug Woodcraft was tangled in his strops with his head and shoulders out in the slipstream and could not be recovered in time. The pilot turned for home with Woodcraft still aboard.

Lieutenant Colonel Otway’s own descent was almost a catastrophe in itself. Thrown out of his aircraft by a shell-blast as he was passing his whisky bottle to the dispatcher, he drifted helplessly downwind onto the wall of a building he recognised, even in the dark, as a German battalion headquarters. He struck the wall at first-floor level, dropped to the ground, and escaped the garden under a brick thrown by a corporal through an upstairs window. His batman, Corporal Wilson, crashed through the roof of an attached greenhouse, suffered only a cut, and followed a group of pursuing Germans down the road before breaking away. Otway picked his way north-west towards the dropping zone through flooded country, watched two paratroopers drown in the marshes as he tried to pull them out by their harness, and arrived at the Battalion rendezvous at 01:30 to learn from his second in command, Major Eddie Charlton, that the drop had been a disaster. Hardly anyone was there.

Trowbridge Party

Across the chaos, on the ground close to the battery, the three-man Trowbridge Party has continued its trek. Major Smith and his companions reach a crosstracks, one of which runs straight to the outer perimeter of the battery some five hundred and fifty metres away. The country is very open except for a small hedge and ditch alongside the track, and they slip quietly along the hedge. They had intended to cross the open ground on a compass bearing that would bring them out at Wood Two, but a wire fence carries a wooden board with a roughly painted skull and crossbones. The sign denotes a minefield. They knew of the minefield from aerial photographs, which had shown small craters at equal distances set off by a stick of bombs falling near. They had not known the field was so extensive. On the far side of the track, a second wire fence carries a board in German reading MINEN. Another minefield. They decide prudence is the wiser course and continue along the ditch. The five hundred and fifty metres feel very long. At length they come to a track running across the top of theirs. On the far side stands the cattle fence marking the outer perimeter of the battery. Wood One, inside the perimeter, begins in front of them and runs away to the left. Wood Two is visible some one hundred and forty metres to the right. They will have to cross a minefield to reach it, as more skull-and-crossbones notices on the fence make clear. A track is expected to run from Wood Two into the heart of the battery, almost certainly under heavy guard. No guard at this hour will be anything but alert. Smith decides to leave Harrold in the corner of Wood One to watch and report if the others get into trouble. It is a lonely job. They dump their haversacks with him to lighten the load and keep him company.

Company Sergeant Major Dusty Miller and Major George Smith have left Harrold in Wood One and head for Wood Two. They now begin their reconnaissance of the Merville Battery itself.

The area is strewn with bomb craters. The two men had expected them. The size of the craters still amazes them. They reach the track through the battery. It is wired up. Another mine sign hangs upon the wire. The main and inner perimeter defence stands one hundred and eighty metres away. Wood Two stretches for half this distance.

They decide to cut the wire just inside the corner of Wood Two and keep near its edge. They have been warned that this is a likely place for anti-personnel mines. Smith judges it more comfortable, however, with trees around. If seen, a man is more likely to get quick cover from view. Even at night it is darker beneath trees than elsewhere, and observation more difficult. They cut the wire and creep into the wood.

Anti-tank mines do not greatly worry them. The weight of the body is unlikely to set them off. There is some danger that the bombs dropped near may have made them super-sensitive. This is a chance that must be taken. Their main fear is of the anti-personnel mine. The Germans field numerous types, some difficult to detect without an electrical mine-detector. The two men had considered bringing one and decided it was too burdensome.

Their present plan is to keep as far apart as possible and work forward level with each other. If a mine goes up, only one will be injured. The moon is beginning to rise. They find they can just see each other at twenty-seven metres. If anything happens to either of them, the other is to go on and complete the job, heedless of the other’s need for assistance.

They go forward on hands and knees. They feel with their hands and make paths for their knees. Smith reckons that if a mine goes up or one of them is seen, it will attract considerable fire. The enemy, however, will not venture onto their own minefield and come to close quarters.

They soon discover why the track leading into the battery has been wired off. Three heavy bombs have fallen on it, making it quite impassable. The damage is beyond repair without a considerable amount of labour. A bulldozer might have done the job. The mines on either side of the track would soon have settled the account of the bulldozer. Before they have gone far there is a noise of people on the track they have left. There is no undue disturbance, and they press on.

They meet a number of wires of the loose variety. They are probably attached to anti-personnel mines worked on the pull principle. The two men either cut them or pass over the top. The wires lie close to the ground, so this is not difficult.

At length they reach the inner edge of Wood Two. Here stands another cattle fence. They cut their separate gaps and go into the open on the last ninety metres of their journey. They soon pass into long coarse grass about thirty centimetres high. Going through it even stealthily seems to make a great deal of noise. The two men are probably more than sensitive to noise at this moment. Smith can see the black dome of Miller’s back moving slowly above the top of the grass.

Eventually they reach the wire. As arranged, they keep flat and still for five minutes, listening. Nothing can be heard. The dim outline of the huge casemates can be distinguished.

They creep towards each other and listen for another five minutes. The intelligence picture had described an anti-tank ditch, three metres deep, intended to encircle the battery. Excavation had reached only halfway round before the digging machine was taken away. The two men had watched its progress on aerial photographs. The ditch has not reached where they are now. Most of the battery also carries two thick belts of wire entanglement, about twenty-seven metres apart, forming the inner perimeter. This is the only place where there is one. Bombs have broken it and made large craters where it had been. The Germans have joined the wire together around the inner sides of these craters, leaving peculiar indentations.

To discover whether anything strange or helpful presents itself, the two men each go one hundred and forty metres along the wire in opposite directions. The type of ground is the same everywhere. Smith passes what had been the entrance of the track. The gap has now been firmly wired. Soon after it the second fence starts, running out at a gradual angle from the first fence until it stands twenty-seven metres away, where it runs parallel. He returns and finds Miller already waiting for him. Miller has also found that the second fence soon started. Why this gap has been left is beyond Smith’s comprehension. The defences here are stiff, but nothing in comparison with those on the side facing the sea.

This is the contingency the plan anticipated. Where the wire stands in one belt instead of two, and the anti-tank ditch has not been dug, the battalion will lay Bangalore torpedoes directly in this wire. Lieutenant-Colonel Otway must be told.

The battalion is to make three gaps through the wire. Smith decides the best locations would be on the track, about sixty-five metres to the right by a telegraph pole, and about sixty-five metres to the right again. This is more or less as the men rehearsed the operation.

There is still not the slightest sound. Smith begins to wonder whether the place is deserted. He decides to make sure by going inside through the wire. It would be unwise to throw away the knowledge of the layout they already have. He decides to send Miller back to join Harrold and meet the battalion should anything happen to him.

He waits until Miller has disappeared before he begins his journey. The wire is about one and a half metres high and four and a half metres wide. It seems to be made to no particular pattern, but is thick with many supporting stakes. Cautiously he begins to push various strands of wire aside and hook them back. Crawling half on his side and half on his back, he creeps carefully into the hole he is making.

His body is not more than half under the wire when he thinks he hears a click. The noise is familiar, often made by a fidgety sentry knocking his rifle. He listens. He hears it again, probably within twenty-seven metres. At crawling level a small rise hides the ground in the direction of the noise. He cannot be certain of its origin. He decides to carry on. He feels it imperative to be certain whether or not the battery is held, and if so to learn more about its ground defences. He continues his crawl.

It is slow and tedious work. Even on a dark night, if the head is held low, the wire can be seen against the sky. Twisting loops back and fastening them down is a simple but slow job. The main trouble is the numerous pieces which seem to pop up from nowhere and catch on the rest of the body after the head and shoulders have passed.

He is a good halfway through the wire when he suddenly hears excited voices half-right, about one hundred and eighty metres away, inside and towards the main entrance of the battery. A tug aircraft and glider come into view from the right, flying at about two hundred and forty metres. The sight starts a frightful hullabaloo in the battery. It wakens to life as a sleeper with a bucket of cold water thrown over him. There are shouts and cries from everywhere. Deep guttural voices boom out orders, relayed and acknowledged. Smith imagines all the available firepower being organised to meet this solitary invader, who is already being chased by a stream of tracer from more distant weapons.

Almost simultaneously, four machine guns inside the battery open fire with tracer. Neither the glider nor the aircraft falters. They fly straight on, right over the centre of the battery. Not more than twenty-seven metres from Smith a twenty-millimetre flak gun opens up. The bang, bang echoes in his ears. He sees the tracer-lit shells following each other upwards. The combined fire lights the place until, to him, it seems like daylight. It seems as though someone must see him in his insecure position. The Germans are too busy with their target. Smith is not bothered. Keeping perfectly still, he notes the positions of the anti-aircraft weapons. They are bound to have a ground role as well.

The aircraft passes and the firing stops. It must have been hit, but not sufficiently to bring it down. Smith sees it disappear, still on the same course, at the same height, and on an even keel. A good pilot.

He now decides he has sufficient knowledge. The battery is most certainly occupied. He knows the state of its defences. Directly the firing stops, he begins to get from under the wire. The Germans are still excited. Their attention rests more in the air than on the ground. To get clear of the wire takes a good five minutes. He drops into a crater. He begins his journey to rejoin his two partners on this mission.

Rendez Vous

Major Parry, having reached the rendezvous tree separately after his own struggle through the dark, climbed the trunk with an Aldis lamp and began signalling to draw the scattered Battalion in. Men trickled towards the light. They came in singly and in small groups, carrying weapons picked up from the fields where other men had dropped them. A man would arrive with a two-inch mortar he had found on the way, or a Sten he did not recognise, or one piece of a three-inch mortar whose other parts were still missing. Companies that should have arrived as formed bodies arrived as handfuls. Captain Hudson, returning to Battalion Headquarters after a reconnaissance loop and an awkward encounter with seven French civilians, was ordered by Lieutenant Colonel Otway to shoot the civilians on suspicion that the Germans would not have allowed untrusted people in the area. Hudson demurred, herded them into a nearby barn, and warned them not to emerge for four hours. Otway was under considerable strain.

Equipment containers lay missing across the dropping zone, lights flashing weakly in the dark. The Battalion’s signallers had lost wireless sets to overhead high-tension cables and flooded ditches. Companies were down to a fraction of their strength. Officers who should have been commanding platoons found themselves leading two or three men. Brigadier Hill’s prediction of chaos had proved exact.

The Battalion that was meant to assault the Merville Battery in strength was scattered across half of Normandy. The work of finding out whether the assault could happen at all had now begun.

At the 9^th Parachute Battalion rendezvous area the stragglers continue to arrive. The men come in singly or in groups, and that each one is greeted like a long-lost brother, so universal is the relief at having reached the rendezvous alive. By the appointed time of 02:35 only one hundred and ten men have reached the Battalion rendezvous. None of the transport gliders has arrived. The pilots have encountered the huge smoke and dust clouds from the bombing raid and, with the strong wind on top, have struggled to control their aircraft. One glider, carrying a party led by Colour Sergeant Davies, has come down in the sea, and all aboard are lost. The others have landed south-east of the drop zone among the anti-glider poles, with seven killed and many wounded. The cost to the Battalion is severe. There are no anti-tank guns, no heavy equipment, and no demolition charges to silence the battery’s guns. There is no signalling equipment, no engineers, and no Field Ambulance surgeons, although the medical officer and six orderlies have arrived with a single first-aid kit. There are no Navy signallers and no Commando liaison personnel. The Bangalore torpedoes have been dropped a bundle of ten lengths to a parachute, but only one bundle out of six has been recovered. The three-inch mortars and Vickers heavy machine guns have been dropped by parachute in metal containers, but no mortars have come in, and only one machine gun. No contact has been made with the Canadian covering party.

Lieutenant Colonel Otway faces a decision with consequences far beyond his own scattered command. The seaborne forces depend on the Merville Battery being silenced before the landings begin. He must wait as long as possible for stragglers to arrive, balanced against the two and a half kilometres still to be covered to the battery and the arrival time of the assault gliders. The Germans, after the bombing and the drop, are now certainly alert. Otway has built a fifteen-minute window into his plan for exactly this kind of problem and has told no one of it, so he waits a little longer. At 02:45 the time for the final decision arrives. Otway turns to the one man with whom he is willing to share his doubt, his batman Wilson, and asks what he is going to do. Wilson answers that there is only one thing he can do and no need to ask. Otway concedes the point. If he abandons the operation he will not be able to face his colleagues again. He tells Wilson to get the officers and non-commissioned officers together for a move in five minutes.

In those final minutes about forty more men come in, raising the strength to roughly one hundred and fifty. Sergeant Daniels arrives with one of the late groups. Their journey has included an awkward encounter of its own. They had heard voices and a few guttural words on the road and dropped at once into the grass verges. A German patrol of some fifteen or twenty men on bicycles drew level with them, laid the bikes down, and stopped to relieve themselves. One of Daniels’s men was urinated on where he lay. The Germans remounted and rode off. Daniels and his men did not engage, since their objective was the Merville Battery and the rendezvous, and nothing was to deter them from reaching it. The patrol could have been wiped out, but the cost would have been men they could not afford to lose. They reached the rendezvous to find what remained of the Battalion just beginning to move off. Another late arrival is Stendall Brailsford, who, having found no trace of his officer Lieutenant Christie, has made his own way to the dropping zone.

The men form up in single file in the planned assault sequence. Major Parry, Lieutenant Worth and thirty men of A Company lead. Behind them come Otway, the weaponless anti-tank platoon, and half of one of the diversionary groups under Harries. Then follow thirty men of B Company with the few recovered Bangalore torpedoes, including their company officers Major Bestley and Lieutenant Dowling. Twenty men of C Company come next under their only two surviving officers, Lieutenants Parfitt and Jefferson. Battalion Headquarters personnel bring up the rear: Major Charlton, Captain Hudson, Lieutenant Halliburton commanding the Pioneer Platoon, Lieutenant Loring the Signals Officer, Captain Richards the war artist, Captain Watts the medical officer, and six orderlies.

At 02:50 the Battalion begins to leave the rendezvous

En Route

The route to Batterie de Merville is a cratered lane. Bomb craters from the Lancaster raid that preceded the drop have transformed the ground. In the darkness, men simply vanish into them without warning. Company Sergeant Major Barney Ross describes them as “gaping great holes,” half the time going down one side and trying to get up the other, impossible to skirt because doing so would leave the men dangerously exposed to observation.

About halfway to the objective, aircraft towing the Divisional gliders begin passing overhead. One hundred metres away, an anti-aircraft battery opens up. Every gun flash freezes its crew in mid-movement. The Paras route around them and push on.

Company Sergeant Major Harries reports intermittent rifle and automatic fire coming in their direction. Heavy shells are presently added to the mix. His party, along with others, cuts through a hedge and a wire fence to the right. They discover, too late, that the field contains cattle—some already killed in the bombardment. The survivors choose that moment to stampede. The darkness fills with the sound and movement of cows charging in blind circles.

At the noise, some of the Paras bring their weapons up. Lieutenant-Colonel Otway orders them to hold fire.

A Pathfinder Officer is with the column. Lieutenant De La Tour has been tasked with setting up navigational aids for the battery assault. He has been sitting down when the stampede begins. He has vanished. Otway later explains that De La Tour has fallen into a dry well used by the farmer as an outdoor cesspit. De La Tour is covered in the contents. The ex-Guardsman, Otway observes with some relish, smells decidedly unpleasant.

The march along the bomb-cratered lane resumes. Shortly after, the sound of approaching troops reaches the Paras. They assume an enemy patrol. The men get down into craters and lie still while approximately twenty Germans walk past them and away into the dark, suspecting nothing.

Glider Force GB

While the battalion picks its way forward through craters and cattle and German patrols, the assault gliders of G-B Force are already in the air. Staff Sergeant Arnold Baldwin and Sergeant Joe Michie are thirty minutes airborne when their tug pilot, Dennis Richards, warns over the intercom that he cannot avoid the next bank of cloud. They will have to fly through it.

The glider bounces and lurches, with no sense of its position relative to the tug. The fear that it could go FULLY out of control is constant. Then they emerge. There ahead, in exactly the right position, is the tug.

Staff Sergeant Baldwin feels physically sick. Three weeks of training for this specific operation sit atop months of preparation aimed at this moment. He cannot immediately accept that they are off tow and still above England. He slumps and tells Michie he does not give a damn what happens now. Michie responds with considerable force that he DOES give a damn! And the men in the back certainly do. Baldwin comes out of the shock. The airspeed indicator reads 140, which he knows cannot be correct given the overload, but he also knows the stall speed will be much higher than normal. He leaves the controls unchanged and looks about. A runway with its lights on sits just off the starboard wingtip.

Baldwin has enough night-flying experience to judge a normal circuit and a landing. He plans a crosswind leg, then downwind, another crosswind, and a turn in to the runway. He has barely begun the downwind leg when the lights go out. The airfield is running operations to France and wants no unidentified aircraft arriving. The moon is now obscured, and the darkness is deep. Baldwin feels reasonably confident. He makes his turns by judgement. The glider has very little height left. Then he sees, dimly, the outline of a building on either side. By chance, they pass between two hangars. The glider bumps down on the grass. Baldwin’s concentration slips, as it had when the rope broke. Michie reacts immediately and applies the brake. Even so, they run a long distance across the field before stopping.

They have landed at Royal Air Force Odiham, in Hampshire. The time is 03:20. Baldwin and Michie are out of the battle.

The two remaining G-B Force gliders survive the cloud and the rain, but run into severe turbulence as they press on towards the French coast. Glider Number 28 develops a problem. Private Gordon Newton, sitting in the back, describes the glider “crabbing” from side to side. No one understands why. The co-pilot comes through from forward, calm and collected, and asks for a knife. Any knife, so long as it cuts. He opens the rear door, leans out into the dark above the Channel, and cuts away the arrester gear. They are approximately three metres above the water at the time.

The arrester parachute cable has streamed prematurely in the rough air. The drag has caused severe jerking and has nearly stalled the combination. The tail plane is damaged. The flying controls are imprecise. The starboard undercarriage is lost. The glider continues to crab. But the tug recovers flying speed, regains height, and continues towards the Normandy coast. Two gliders remain in the fight. One is badly damaged.

Final Set up

Back at Batterie de Merville, Major Smith has cleared the wire and dropped into a shell crater. He makes his way back to the rendezvous point outside the battery perimeter. Miller and Harrold are waiting. The Taping Party, whose task is to clear a lane through the minefield and mark it with white tape, should already be there. It is not.

Smith decides to return to the battalion rendezvous point, where he is to meet the Commanding Officer. He takes Harrold with him and leaves Miller at the position to brief the Taping Party when it arrives.

He has barely moved when shadowy figures come sliding down the lane towards him. He challenges the leading man quietly.

“Paul, is that you?!”

“Yes, old boy.”

It is Captain Paul Greenway, commanding the Taping Party. Smith asks if everything is in order. Greenway reports that very few men are at the rendezvous. The Taping Party is at roughly half strength and has arrived without tape or mine detectors. The drop has scattered everyone.

Smith tells Greenway it is not too difficult here, and he will have to improvise. He gives him the layout of the defences, leaves Miller to add what detail he can, and sets off back towards the battalion.

He is to meet the battalion at the first crossroads, near the first minefield. As he approaches it, a drawn-out whistling noise gives way to a shattering detonation. A cloud of smoke and dust rises directly ahead. More follow. The enemy is shelling the crossroads. Smith reasons that if the Germans are shelling the position, they are unlikely to have their own men there. He and Harrold rise and move quickly through. The battalion is not at the crossroads.

Time is short, and Smith is more than anxious. He does not have to wait long. The head of a column approaches out of the dark. He stays still and concealed until they are nearly on him, then whispers the password and shows himself. He meets Major Allen Parry, leading the column. Lieutenant-Colonel Otway is close behind.

Smith reports that things are going well, and the task should be manageable. He also reports that only Greenway and two men of the Taping Party have arrived, and they have neither mine detectors nor tape.

Otway confirms what Smith already suspects about the drop. The news does not particularly unsettle the Major. He says afterwards that he is elated by completing his reconnaissance and cheerful enough to believe the job can be done with what is on hand.

Smith is sent forward to lead the battalion. The crossroads is still under intermittent shellfire, but most rounds are now falling slightly beyond it. They pass safely through.

It is 04:00. The force advances in single file up the lane towards Wood One.

The Taping Party is waiting at the position Harrold has held. The spot is immediately made into a strongpoint. Otway calls an orders group while the men remain in the lane. What Greenway, Miller, and the two Taping Party men have accomplished in the dark, without equipment, is remarkable. On their own initiative, they have crawled through the outer minefield. Working with their fingers in the dark, they have cleared four paths, each roughly 1.2 metres wide, locating and defusing mines one by one. The paths are marked by furrows scraped with spades, or simply by dragging their heels. The two men have been left in place to identify the lane entrances for those following.

Revised Assault Plan

Otway issues his assault orders. Smith observes that the Commanding Officer is calm and unhurried. His orders are concise and clear, as though given on a training exercise. In retrospect, Smith finds it remarkable that everything is settled in a few minutes, in the middle of what appears to be the worst possible chaos. The CO’s composure sets the standard. The thoroughness of the training shows its return.

The Diversionary Party is to proceed as planned and create as much noise as possible on the right, near the main gate. Lieutenant Browne is missing. The only member of his party to reach the battery is Sergeant Sid Knight. Knight must first collect additional men before the diversion can begin.

The assault plan requires revision. The Breaching Company numbers thirty men. It will blow two gaps in the wire instead of three, and divides into two groups of fifteen accordingly. In the absence of Major Ian Dyer, commander of C Company, Major Parry is directed to lead the assault. Company A and Company C together will constitute the Assault Party. The signal to begin will be the detonation of the Bangalore torpedoes.

The Assault Party numbers approximately fifty men, split into four groups, one for each gun, with two groups to pass through each gap. There are no engineers present, and no specialist demolition charges. Whatever is needed to destroy the guns must come from the assault gliders, or from what the men carry themselves.

The remainder of the force stays with Otway for mopping up. Officers return to their reduced companies and pass the orders back, by word of mouth.

Private Ken Walker is meant to be part of the Firm Base Party, but with so few men present, he does not know what his role is. Captain Hudson, the Adjutant, announces that Battalion Headquarters is going in after the initial assault. Hudson and three soldiers constitute Battalion Headquarters at this point.

Company Sergeant Major Harries’ 1_st Sniping Group is reallocated. Instead of going around to the right as originally planned, the group is to move up to the battery perimeter wire with the Main Base Party and provide fire support as the assault groups go forward.

Parry organises the Assault Party. He forms two groups: one under Lieutenant Jefferson to attack Casemate Number 1, and one under Lieutenant Dowling to take Casemate Number 2. Company Sergeant Major Ross has been assigned to lead the 2nd Sniping Group around to the left, but virtually none of his men have appeared. He approaches Parry with no clear role. Parry asks for any other non-commissioned officers available. On seeing Ross, he assigns him command of the Casemate Number 3 group with the brevity of a man working under severe time pressure. Colour Sergeant Harold Long receives responsibility for the group attacking Casemate Number 4.

Parry himself will follow the first wave in. Private Fred Milward had been assigned to a firm point as a reserve. With only 150 men present, that role no longer exists. Parry taps him on the shoulder. “You’re with me. Number 1 gun.”

Parry explains to his officers that there will be no communications. They have no wireless. Each party must operate independently. He arranges a signal for the assault, a blow on his whistle to fire the Bangalore torpedoes, and the groups deploy along the line of the cattle fence marking the minefield perimeter.

There is no 3-inch mortar to illuminate the battery for the gliders. There is no solution available. The pilots will have to use whatever aids they have and make their best attempt.

Sergeant Knight has gathered a small group, including Sergeant John Walker, and is still collecting more men. Private Tom Stroud, assigned to attack Casemate Number 1, is redirected by Knight to join the diversion party heading for the main gate. Private Ernie Rooke-Matthews, a signaller attached to Battalion Headquarters with no active wireless contact, is claimed by Knight, without ceremony. Still carrying his wireless set, a revolver, grenades, and magazines, Rooke-Matthews follows.

Knight describes what he sees as the battery looms out of the dark. The outlines of the four guns facing the sea are visible. He begins moving his small group around an old perimeter track leading up to the battery. Machine guns open up from both sides at once.

Lieutenant Colonel Otway shouts the order to silence them! Ten enemy machine guns are firing in all: four from inside the battery position, and three from each flank outside. Otway directs the Vickers crew to deal with those on the left, and sends Knight with men to silence those on the right.

Rooke-Matthews dashes across the perimeter wire. Knight places him at the main gate with orders to watch the road for reinforcements. Knight himself leads the rest of the section in to engage the enemy machine guns.

Private Stroud, carrying the only Bren gun, moves left and opens fire from the hip on the first machine gun he can locate. It is easy enough to find. It is firing a heavy concentration of tracer on a fixed line. Two short bursts and it falls silent.

Sergeant Knight locates three machine guns in all: one outside the perimeter, and two inside, in front of Casemate Number 1. He deals with the one on the outside corner at the forming-up point, then goes inside the battery. The group moves along the lane towards the main gate to neutralise the remaining guns and create the diversion.

The Vickers crew assigned to the left-hand machine guns has been fortunate. Sergeant McGeever, Corporal Jim McGuinness, and Private Fenson are carrying the gun at the rear of the battalion column when the enemy opens fire. McGuinness reports later that it is fortunate the Germans use tracer. The rounds miss the group by roughly one metre. Everyone drops into a bomb crater. McGeever calls the gun into action. Fenson runs out and sets the tripod. McGuinness mounts the gun. Fenson loads. McGeever gives the range and the order to fire. The machine gun on the left is not heard from again. The Vickers crew holds its position.

The move through Wood Two begins. Smith watches the Breaching Parties follow the Taping Party guides into the darkness in single file, carrying their few Bangalore torpedoes. The Assault Parties follow closely behind. The second-in-command, Major Charlton, stays at the strongpoint with a handful of men and the Medical Officer, Captain Watts, who is working in a large crater treating the first wounded.

Private Bob Abel is in Greenway’s group, tasked with blowing the left-hand gap on the track itself. He reports that they simply run through the perimeter wire where it is already down, and follow the marked path through the minefield.

All the Assault Parties take position in the bomb craters at the start line, roughly 45 metres from the wire.

To the right, Knight’s small group begins its diversion. Otway later describes them firing everything they have, not towards the casemates, but in a north-northwesterly direction to avoid hitting the main assault from the side. They throw grenades and make as much noise as possible. The effect is to draw the Germans’ attention without revealing where the main force is. The enemy does not concentrate fire. No one comes out to the wire to investigate.

The Breaching Parties crawl forward to the wire, pushing their Bangalore torpedoes ahead of them. The party blowing the right-hand gap is four men under Sergeant Len Daniels. He connects the Bangalores, slides them under the wire, inserts a GC primer at the end, fits a detonator into the primer, and attaches a small igniter. With a man left at each gap to fire the torpedoes on the signal, the parties withdraw. Daniels himself lies only about 90 centimetres from the end of the Bangalore when it detonates, with all the blast going upward.

At the left-hand gap, Private Derek Vincent and Private Ron Gregory of the Breaching Party receive orders to hold the cut edges of the wire open after the charge has blown, preventing the wire from curling back and obstructing the Assault Parties passing through. They are told to go in after everyone has cleared through, engage any Germans they see, watch any machine guns, and not shoot their own men.

Behind them, the Assault Troops wait. Private Sid Capon, heading for Casemate Number 1, names his immediate neighbours: to his right, Alan Jefferson; beyond Jefferson, Eric Bedford, Frank Delsignore, Harold Walker, and Les Cartwright; one further man, Private Morgan; to his immediate left, Lieutenant Mike Dowling, heading for Casemate Number 2 gun with a comparable group.

Jefferson gives those around him a quiet address. He tells them that in the next few minutes they must become utterly ruthless and strike a blow for everything their families have endured through years of bombing. He also carries an unofficial toy horn, with which he intends to drive the men forward at the signal.

At that moment, Private Cyril Thwaites of C Company arrives at the position. He has landed entirely alone and made his own way directly to the battery. He finds a lieutenant crouching by an old tree trunk, papers in hand. The officer’s first words are: “Thank goodness, another one.” Thwaites, who estimates he is one private out of nearly seven hundred men, is briefly astonished. The officer tells him the attack is going in now. Walking together, the officer adds that there are only about a hundred of them. Thwaites falls in at the back of a group waiting to pass through the left-hand gap.

One hundred and fifty men of the 9^th Parachute Battalion are at the wire of Batterie de Merville. Six hundred men dropped into Normandy. One hundred and fifty reached the battery. The Bangalore torpedoes are in place. The machine guns on the flanks have been silenced. The Assault Parties are in their craters, fifty metres from the wire.

Somewhere above the Normandy coast, two damaged gliders are still making their way in.

The men now wait for the gliders.

Force G-B

Gordon-Brown’s glider comes in overhead at 300 metres, forced down by low cloud. The navigational aids that should have been set up 550 metres south-east of the Battery are nowhere to be seen. Gordon Newton describes what follows in the aircraft: anti-aircraft fire is coming up through the floor and out through the roof. Beneath the seats running the full length of the Horsa sits the equipment, mortar rounds, high-explosive charges, replacement canisters for the flamethrowers. The glider is not merely a tinderbox; it is a flying magazine, and a single tracer round finding the right spot will detonate it entirely. Newton is in the rear seat, placed there by the pilot, and he is not comfortable with the position. He shifts forward to sit beside Foster, the other flamethrower operator, whereupon someone opens the door. To avoid being thrown out he moves again, across to the far side. The moment he vacates the rear seat, something comes up through the floor and out through the roof exactly where his head had been.

With both the Horsa and its Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle tug under sustained fire, Pilot Officer Garnett continues flying circuits of the area, searching for the Battery below. After four passes, Staff Sergeant Bone believes he has identified the objective and releases the towrope. Descending to 150 metres, Bone realises he is looking at the bombed village of Gonneville, not the Battery, and banks sharply away. The men waiting at the perimeter wire glimpse the glider for a moment. From somewhere above comes a voice, well-spoken and unhurried: it will be all right, the voice announces, the world is round, and the glider will come back.

Newton, at a window, sees a tree and understands immediately what is about to happen. The glider skids across water before the tail section breaks away, coming to rest roughly 70 metres behind the fuselage. Nobody is hurt. They are down some distance to the east of the Battery, and Gordon-Brown’s party will not reach the objective in time.

Newton watches from the water, which reaches nearly to his waist, as the other glider casts off its towrope. He sees the telltale lift of the nose and then watches it descend, while tracer from machine guns goes up in streams around it.

Lieutenant Pond’s glider has also been unable to find the Battery. Staff Sergeant Dickie Kerr cruises the approximate target area looking for lights on the ground. There are none. No parachute flares either. They are exactly on time. German light flak begins working over both tug and glider. Sapper Alex Taylor of 591st Parachute Squadron, Royal Engeineers hears Pond shout that they have flown over the Battery and are turning for another run. Holes open in the thin plywood fuselage. The tug takes evasive action and the stresses it transmits through the towrope shake the glider violently.

Kerr keeps circling for a quarter of an hour. Then a triangle of lights appears on the ground below, pointing towards the Battery, followed by a flashing recognition light, a red A, the pre-arranged signal. Kerr releases and begins a fast, tight circuit to lose height. Three light flak batteries engage him. The glider is hit roughly eight times in the fuselage with tracer bursts and twice by cannon shells. The wings absorb more tracer. Kerr can feel them quiver with each impact. The controls remain fully responsive throughout.

The men inside are less fortunate. Sergeant Brewster, is hit by rounds that come up through the floor: one passes through his leg and knee, another through his hand. Private Fred Glover feels both legs lift momentarily off the floor without understanding why. There is no pain at first. He has been hit without realising it.

Kerr cannot make out the Battery visually. He holds course solely because of the ground lights below. Then he sees the ground ahead, and it is not what he needs: a field strewn with posts, and information he carries tells him it is mined. He keeps the glider flying as long as he can towards the Battery.

The Horsa passes over the casemates and the assault troops waiting below. Kerr is now over an orchard and can see he will not clear the far side. He tells his co-pilot to deploy the arrester parachute and puts on full flap. The speed drops well. As the glider sinks into the trees the parachute snags on branches and acts as an anchor, slowing the aircraft further. The landing in the trees, under the circumstances, is not too bad.

Kerr is thrown forward through the Perspex at the front of the cockpit and lands in a bomb crater about 6 metres away. Sergeant Walker ends up hanging in the co-pilot’s seat. The Horsa has come to rest in the orchard 460 metres east of the Battery perimeter, nose pointing south-west, lying roughly 18 metres from the lane up which the Battalion has arrived.

Taylor finds the tail section gone, the wings destroyed, and the starboard side open to the air. Those who can move struggle out and reach solid ground. No burst of fire greets them. Taylor is relieved. Glover, dragging himself from the wreckage, is surprised to find he can walk, though with difficulty. The tail section has broken off with Private Ron Sharp still strapped into his seat with a flamethrower underneath him. He gets free. Inside the glider a box of smoke grenades, punctured by flak, is smouldering as the men clear the aircraft. By the time they are away from it the smouldering becomes fire, and the grenades and spare ammunition left inside are lost.

The Assault

Above the Battery no third glider appears. The assault cannot wait. Major Parry blows his whistle and everyone goes flat. Sergeant Daniels pulls the short cord attached to the igniter. A second passes. Both charges detonate simultaneously. Two gaps roughly 6 metres wide open in the wire. Otway, sitting just behind Private Sid Capon, says it: get in, get in. The time is 04:30.

The men are on their feet and running into the smoke before the echo of the explosions has settled. They run firing from the hip, aware that there are mines in the ground beneath their feet. Support fire blazes behind them. Enemy flares go up. Fire increases from positions around the perimeter. Jefferson is blowing his toy horn when something strikes his left thigh and he goes down. He does not stop: lying on the ground, unable to lead, he curses the Germans and drives his men forward with his voice.

Capon hears shouts from the left, mines, mines, and then explosions. The groups keep moving, zig-zagging, running through crossfire. Private Walter Johnson finds himself deafened, running, seeing Germans moving in the chaos, looking for cover. A sniper catches him and pins his hand to the rifle butt. He goes down. Something detonates nearby. When he gets up the front of his smock smells of scorching.

Through the right-hand gap come the groups under Dowling and Parry. Fred Milward charges after Parry through the craters, shouting, through the gap in the wire and straight for the guns as fast as he can move. The craters are overlapping and the loose earth gives way underfoot: going down into one and climbing up the far side is like climbing a shifting sand dune. Milward watches Parry go down. He watches several of his friends hit as they run forward. Parry himself feels something strike his left thigh. His leg folds. He falls into a large bomb crater. His batman glances at him, the expression saying everything, and goes on.

Seventy metres to the left the parties under Company Sergeant Major Barney Ross and Colour Sergeant Harold Long head for the centre of the Battery, making for Nos. 3 and 4 casemates. Company Sergeant Major Harries’ fire support group follows them through and takes up position just beyond the gap.

An enemy machine gun opens on the left. At the wire edge Daniels hears grenades going off, number 77 phosphorous smoke grenades among them, and Stens firing on all sides.

Milward crosses another crater and reaches a trench. Moonlight shows Germans at the far end. He fires at them, dives in at his end, and they come out of theirs shouting Paratruppen, Paratruppen. He looks up, thinking for a moment that more of his own men are coming in. Then he understands: the Germans have recognised them. They disappear into the darkness.

At the rear of the Battery the men from Pond’s wrecked glider have scrambled out and are dragging the wounded clear. Glover tumbles into a large crater almost immediately. A Pathfinder pulls him up and leads him towards the Battery. Glover knows he has been hit but not yet how badly. Sergeant Harry Dixon, moving towards the lane, sees a gated field entrance with a skull and crossbones sign, MINEN. German for MINES. Three German soldiers come through the gate. Dixon fires a burst and drops two. The third runs back through the gate.

Pond’s party then hears troops coming up the lane from Gonneville. Recognising the sound as enemy, they get into the ditches and hedgerows on either side and open fire. The Germans, roughly 30 metres away, do the same. A private battle develops separately from the main assault. It turns out to be a fortunate position to have landed.

Behind them the fight at the Battery is at its height. Otway describes it afterwards: the garrison puts everything it has, fired at waist height, onto the gaps in the wire. Booby traps and mines go off across the position. The battle in the rear continues at full intensity. Hand-to-hand fighting is under way inside the Battery itself.

Delsignore and Harold Walker reach No. 1 casemate to find its rear doors open. They are first to the entrance. They shout a warning inside. No answer. They throw two hand grenades and stand back.

Capon arrives with Eric Bedford and Frank Delsignore. Bedford is now the senior NCO. The casemate falls quiet. Then movement begins inside. From the left-hand compartment, Germans start pushing each other out and line up facing the Paras. The last man out wears glasses and, Capon recalls, seems to fear he is about to be shot. Then two more men come up through a trapdoor with their hands raised, still wearing their belts with stick grenades attached. They join the rest outside.

Milward reaches No. 1 casemate after negotiating still more craters. Wounded are lying around the entrance, moaning, British and Germans together. He goes in through the open rear doors, firing the Sten into the left-hand room without pause, and comes to the front of the casemate to find the gun.

In the centre of the Battery the group Thwaites has joined arrives just as a large number of Germans come around the side of a casemate. The Paras engage them at close quarters.

Otway has moved forward and positioned himself at the right-hand gap, where he can observe both flanks. The light is beginning to improve. He watches to the right to see whether Knight’s group has reached the main gate. He also needs to cover the threat from the machine gun on the left of the position. A machine gun in the tower is tracking him directly, and he keeps moving in and out of cover to avoid it.

Knight’s diversion group has worked steadily forward against the machine guns near the main gate. Stroud goes prone and engages the second gun. Two bursts and it stops, exactly as before. Knight deals with a third gunner whose tracer betrays him behind a large lump of blown concrete: Knight works around behind him and engages at close range. The gun falls silent. Whether Knight hits the gunner he cannot say, but the shooting stops. Stroud shifts position and opens on the third and last gun. It quickly ceases fire. He looks for Knight and the section and finds he is entirely alone. He has no idea which direction they have gone. He falls back on his training at the practice Battery and runs for No. 1 casemate.

For the men approaching Nos. 3 and 4 casemates, the distance is greater, the craters and wire and trenches more numerous, and the enemy fire worse for every second they are in the open. Ross, asked about it later, says simply that the longer you are out there, the worse it gets.

The firing does not ease. Otway decides to send in the rest of his force. He reflects afterwards that like many men he feels little fear of being killed but a sudden horror of being mutilated as the moment comes to go forward through the wire and into the fire. He thinks, irrelevantly, of someone named Wilson, and what that person would think of him. Then he shouts, come on, and runs. It is, he judges, the only thing to do.

They go through the gap. In places men fall on what remains of the wire and others run across their backs. Major Bestley is ordered by Otway to deal with a machine gun half-left of the axis of assault. The rest of Bestley’s company is already committed through the blown gap. He sets off with his batman. He has gone no more than 50 to 100 metres when a bullet clips a nerve behind his left knee and he cannot go further.

Beside Otway is Captain Hudson, the Adjutant. Just short of the gap something strikes Hudson’s right buttock. He assumes it is earth or a stone thrown up by a detonation, and is startled to find himself on his back, assuming blast has put him there. He tries to rise and cannot. His hand finds the wound, and finds blood. There is no pain, only a strange weakness. Lying on his back and looking through the gap towards the Battery, he watches an unbroken stream of machine-gun tracer passing through the opening while the assault troops pour through it in the other direction.

He can see German troops outside the gun emplacements. He takes out his revolver, aims carefully at the nearest German, and pulls the trigger. The bullet goes through his left foot. The self-inflicted wound produces pain of a kind the original injury has not.

Hudson does not yet understand how badly he is hurt. His main concern is the foot. Otway is luckier: one round hits his water bottle and another passes through the back of his smock without touching him.

Johnson, who has been wounded getting to the casemate, is making his way back when Otway sees him and orders a man to get him out. Tom Stroud, encountering Johnson at that moment, does not believe he is wounded until Johnson points out that he is covered in blood. He is: in addition to the hand wound, shrapnel has hit him across the body and the front of his smock is soaked.

Stroud himself continues for No. 1 casemate and is within a few metres of the door when a bullet in his upper left arm knocks him flat on his back. He lies trying to locate the source before moving into the comparative shelter of the doorway. A man the others call Darky, apparently named Colville, runs in carrying no weapon. Stroud hands him the Bren, which he can no longer control with a paralysed left arm. He retains his revolver. The thought crosses his mind that he should get a receipt for the Bren gun from Darky. He decides against it, given the general situation.

Ken Walker, at this point inside the Battery and tasked with clearing machine-gun pits between Nos. 2 and 3 casemates, describes what happens next with unusual precision: he believes his nerve goes. There are two Germans with a machine gun. He and another soldier run at them. The Germans run. Walker fires his rifle and misses, fires again, and exhausts his ten-round magazine without realising he has done so.

Reg Osborne has made it in with a broken ankle. Private Tony Mead, who on landing had a branch driven through his abdomen, reaches a pillbox, crouches by the aperture, holds his intestines in with one hand, and fires a Sten with the other.

Only about four of Ross’ group survive to reach a casemate. They arrive at what is probably No. 4, find the door shut, and work around to the front, shooting through the gun ports. They poke grenades down the air vents from the top of the structure. By the time they have done this, the door opens and the garrison comes out.

CSM Harries has also reached No. 4 and finds the entrance full of bodies moving in all directions, packed like a crowded railway carriage. Germans are coming out through the exit and being shot as they go. Ross notes that many of them are shouting Comrade, comrade, which suggests a significant number of non-German personnel among the garrison, quite possibly Poles. The enemy evacuates the casemate.

The Paras go in to inspect the gun and find not the heavy naval piece they have been briefed to expect but a wheeled 100-millimetre field gun on a platform. Sergeant Fred Dorkins of A Company also reaches No. 4 and enters. Present are CSM Harries and one other man. Together they elevate the gun, damage the elevating gear, and place a Gammon bomb with a short fuse on the breech block. The detonation appears to cause considerable damage.

Sapper Taylor, meanwhile, has left the glider group and is attempting to get PHE demolition charges into the Battery. He and Corporal Sanderson move from crater to crater across roughly 200 metres towards No. 1 casemate, firing Sten bursts when engaged but with no clear target. From the last crater before the casemate they conclude they cannot make it without heavy fire, and come under fire from the rear as well.

Sergeants Daniels and Novis and Privates Mower and Hawkins of B Company have charged in with the Colonel and are not far from No. 2 casemate when mortar fire thickens around them. Otway sees Dowling coming towards him alone, right hand and arm held across his chest. Alan Mower is a few feet away. Dowling salutes and reports the Battery taken as ordered. Otway asks whether the guns have been destroyed. Dowling says he thinks so. Otway sends him back to make sure.

Mower, Hawkins, another Para, and a Bren gunner press on towards No. 2 casemate. Dowling is 20 metres ahead of them when a mortar round kills him outright. It also kills his batman. The three men pass the bodies and veer left towards Nos. 3 and 4 casemates.

In the first casemate they enter, an officer is working on the breech block and appears to know exactly what he is doing. This may be Colour Sergeant Long’s group: Long reports removing breech blocks and throwing them and other components in different directions. There are no charges to blow the guns and this is the best available option.

Sergeant Novis, manoeuvring around craters between two emplacements, sees Private Jock Hannen slip into a casemate entrance before anyone can stop him. By the time Novis reaches him, Hannen reappears behind two prisoners, both about the same age as their captor.

Mower reaches No. 4 casemate, leaves the Bren gunner and Hawkins outside, and goes in. He finds a field gun, fixed in every axis, sighted permanently on the beach and impossible to traverse or elevate. Beside it, in a small recess, are stacked rounds in their boxes. He has only two number 36 grenades. He considers two options: put them in the wheels to bring the gun down, or throw them in with the ammunition.

He goes back outside to discuss it with the others. Before he can say anything, an explosion throws all of them together. Mower falls onto the Bren gunner and understands immediately that the man is dead. Mower and Hawkins are both hit by shrapnel: Mower in the back, legs, and arms, with fragments going through into the wall of his chest. The man on Hawkins’ left takes it all in the face. Another man behind takes a fragment through the head and is killed outright. Hawkins is left lying there, unable to move or speak.

Daniels arrives, climbs onto a nearby concrete structure, sees Hawkins, drops down beside him, and checks for a pulse. He finds none and takes the man for dead. Then he hears something and looks up. Sergeant Paddy Jenkins is standing on the concrete position above him, rifle aimed up the hill. A German rolls down off the casemate. Jenkins vaults over the two men on the ground and drives his bayonet in. Hawkins, against every indication, is not dead.

At the main gate the machine guns are finally silenced and the diversion is complete. Knight starts back to report to Otway. En route he sees Parry on the right side of the track, wounded in the leg. On the left side is Hudson with what Knight describes as a terrible wound in the stomach. Knight presses on with his diversion party into the perimeter and at the main gate encounters a group of Germans coming in waving white flags. Some of the Paras shout to shoot them. Knight refuses: they are under the white flag. He rounds them up.

A machine gun then opens from a building on the right flank, outside the perimeter. Knight marches the prisoners directly towards it. The gun stops firing. A small, fair-haired man steps out and surrenders.

That is the last action at the Battery. Thwaites describes how the fighting simply stops: it is fierce and then, all at once, it is over. Walker, when his adrenalin has settled, finds himself alone inside the perimeter, strangely lost, with no idea where to go. Around him the ground is almost beyond description: deep craters, shell holes, fresh earth, the smell of cordite, and the bodies of the dead, both sides, both armies.

Daniels remembers the smell. It is the peculiar mixture of freshly turned earth and torn flesh, and it stays with him permanently, the way the first smell of ether stays with a patient waking from surgery.

Otway sees what he takes to be a dog tied up outside a pillbox and goes to investigate. An officer lying nearby with a shattered leg shouts at him not to be a bloody fool, it is a booby trap. The officer is Jefferson, who has been lying wounded there throughout the assault and does not recognise his Commanding Officer.

Knight looks into No. 2 casemate and learns what has happened to the gun there: two men have loaded a round at the breech and another in the barrel, then fired it. The gun has destroyed itself. He does not see it done, but he hears both detonations.

In the floor of his bomb crater, Parry assesses his position. His left leg is numb and the trouser leg is saturated with blood. He applies his whistle lanyard as a tourniquet, then realises he has placed it incorrectly. He removes it. Enough circulation returns to the leg to allow him to climb out of the crater and continue. He gets to the entrance of No. 1 casemate and finds a few Paras tending the wounded but no sign of his batman, George Adsett. The German prisoners are still standing outside with their hands up. Most of them are wearing greatcoats and soft hats, and appear to have had no expectation of a British attack.

Parry enters the casemate. The interior is large. In the dim light he can make out two or three of his party. He has lost considerable blood and is weakening. He passes through to the firing aperture at the far end and stops. In the aperture is not the 150-millimetre naval gun the intelligence briefings have described, but a small, old-fashioned piece mounted on a wheeled carriage. He estimates the calibre at 75 millimetres. The gun is, he concludes, a temporary measure pending the arrival of the permanent armament. The anti-climax is severe. He wonders for a moment whether the operation has been necessary at all.

He sits on the sill at the base of the firing aperture. An explosion goes off immediately outside. Something strikes his wrist. He fears his hand is gone and is relieved to find only a small cut from a shell splinter. He issues his orders. All ranks carry sticks of plastic explosive, detonators, and fuse wire. He directs a sergeant to make up a charge and place it in the breech. Private Bill Picton and a man named Vic Simpson are also given the task of spiking the gun with Gammon bombs. The men are sent outside. Fred Milward curls up beside a wall. There is an enormous detonation and smoke rolls out of the doorways.

Parry re-enters the casemate through acrid smoke and inspects the gun. He is reasonably satisfied that the damage will prevent it engaging the seaborne assault, which is due in two and a half hours.

Lieutenant Slade’s Troubridge Party, a duplicate force originally despatched to deal with what had been suspected to be a dummy battery, whose guns have proved to be made of rubber, now arrives at the main gate. The scene there and at the Battery entrance is severe. Dead and wounded seem to cover the ground. CSM Stoddart is among the first in. He sees wounded around the rim of a bomb crater near the entrance and gives them what whisky he has. The sight of German prisoners alongside the British wounded confirms for him, with some force, that he is at war.

Medics on both sides are very few. Corporal Tottle moves through the Battery doing what he can. The sight overcomes him: men without limbs, men calling for their mothers. He is not certain he does not vomit. He helps the other medics and continues.

Capon is among those loading the wounded onto ammunition sledge, he does not know at first what they are, pairing with Paddy Jenkins while Walker teams with Delsignore to carry men out. Major Bestley, known in the Battalion as the Boy Major on account of his youth, is lying wounded in a crater. Daniels and another man put him in a builder’s barrow. Bestley tells them to leave him, he is no good to the Battalion, and threatens to court-martial them for disobeying orders. They carry him out anyway and leave him just outside the perimeter wire. The medical officer, Captain Harold Watts, is treating the wounded in a crater between Nos. 1 and 2 casemates.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, the war artist Albert Richards is moving about the Battery making sketches.

Parry checks the other guns. He visits No. 3 himself. Lieutenant Halliburton goes to No. 4 and reports back that it has been successfully neutralised. Parry is marshalling the prisoners for withdrawal when Lieutenant Slade arrives with urgent news: HMS Arethusa is due to shell the position within minutes. Parry orders Halliburton to lead the No. 1 and No. 2 parties back to the Battalion. He is feeling the blood loss badly by this point.

To signal success, Parry orders yellow smoke candles to be lit and released at intervals of no more than five minutes from thirty minutes after dawn, hoping spotter aircraft expected around that time will observe them. There is also a more direct method available. Lieutenant Jimmy Loring has carried a carrier pigeon inside his battledress throughout the flight, the drop, and the assault. The bird is unharmed. Loring takes it out and releases it. Someone near him suggests, without much evidence, that the bird is flying in the wrong direction.

Tottle continues moving among the wounded. He glances at the great guns and watches the Paras marching out the German prisoners. Then he hears voices from within the minefield. It is Hudson, the Adjutant. Tottle runs through the minefield to reach him.

Hudson is lying where he fell. A soldier stops and asks if he is all right. Hudson says he thinks so, that something has hit his right side. The soldier bends down to look and Hudson can still recall the intake of breath that follows. Otway arrives at a run along the path through the mines. He stops. Hudson tells him he thinks he is all right. The soldier corrects the CO: he has been hit in the stomach. Otway says bad luck, and tells Hudson the Battery has been taken. Hudson reflects afterwards, with some precision, that he does not say what Otway can do with the Battery. He takes it as a permanent point of credit to himself that he does not.

From that moment Hudson describes a dream quality settling over what remains of his time behind German lines. The Battalion has only one stretcher, a consequence of the disastrous drop. It is given to him, and he feels strongly that it should not be. By now he understands that his wounds are very serious. He is not greatly troubled by the idea of dying. He is troubled by the idea of being blown apart by the guns of British warships. He asks to be moved to the orchard and left there.

Several wounded men have made their way into or been carried to No. 4 casemate. Mower has crawled back inside and is lying on a board when Paddy Jenkins comes in. Feeling badly enough, Mower asks Jenkins to finish him off. Then Capon appears. Mower finds he can walk a few steps. Capon half-carries him out. Hawkins is propped upright in the casemate, calling out not to be abandoned. He is too badly hurt to be moved.

Capon helps Mower back across the Battery. Then two men appear with a door, which they use to carry Mower a short distance. Beyond the wire, a handcart arrives with another wounded man already on it. Mower is lifted on. They get him as far outside the Battery as they can and leave him there beside Bestley.

Rendez-Vous at the Calvary Cross

At the Calvary Cross survivors slowly gather themselves. The shock of the Battery assault has not fully lifted, but the few remaining officers and NCO’s move among the men and begin to impose some order. A defensive position is established among a group of craters.

Already at the Calvary Cross, shortly after dawn, Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway sits with his head in his hands. He accomplished the task he was given with only a fraction of the men of the 9^th Parachute Battalion that landed into Normandy. At the Cross, Sergeant Knight counts seventy-five men still on their feet. Now, with the arrival of Pond’s glider party, the total rises to roughly a hundred. It is all that remains of the six hundred men who dropped into Normandy. Approximately fifty of the men who reached the battery did not leave it alive. At least 25 are wounded.

Otway considers what is possible with what he has. The battalion’s full list of assigned tasks is beyond this force. He decides to concentrate on the next objective: the village of Amfreville and the large open green at its centre, known as Le Plein, at the northern end of the Bréville ridge, roughly 3 kilometres to the southwest. A fighting patrol under Major Smith had been planned for this task. Given the numbers, the patrol is cancelled and a direct assault substituted. Smith is sent ahead with Company Sergeant Major Miller and Sergeant Knight to observe towards the coast.

The rest of the men move off along both sides of a track leading west from the Calvary. The prisoners, in the charge of Miller, are kept in the middle of the column.

Towards Le Plein

Smith sets out with instructions to meet the Battalion at Le Plein. They have not covered half a kilometre when shots begin to pass close by, fired from a distance and not accurate, but unsettling. The group moves forward in short sharp bounds between cover. At the end of one bound all three men tumble into a bomb crater already occupied by seven soldiers from other units, dropped wide and lost. The strangers have been working their way in what they hoped was the right direction when the snipers found them. Smith gives them the picture, directs them to the Battalion, and covers their departure with phosphorus grenades. They dart away.

Smith’s group pushes on, covering another 450 metres. From a rise they begin scanning with binoculars. A short move to improve the position immediately draws fire again, uncomfortably close this time. They go into a ditch. Any movement at all brings a round. There is only one option: find and engage the snipers. To locate them the three men take turns exposing themselves for a fraction of a second while the others watch through the weeds for the source of the returning fire.

The snipers are in an orchard. Try as they can, Smith and the others cannot spot them. They are working on a flanking move when a sound reaches them from altitude, the deep continuous sound of massed heavy bombers. Smith looks up. Hundreds of American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses are passing overhead in close formation. The thought arrives, unwelcome and clear: they are on the wrong side of the bomb line.

The bomb line is the demarcation limit for Allied air attack, defining the forward boundary beyond which aircraft are not to strike. There is no time to do anything with this realisation. The bombs begin to fall.

All of it seems to come down within seconds. The solid earth moves like liquid, shaking violently and continuously. The bomb detonations come too fast for the ground to settle between them. This is American pattern bombing.

It is around 06:45. Allied aerial activity of all kinds is under way across the area. Brigadier Hill’s group has reached a point roughly halfway between Varaville and Gonneville when he recognises what he is hearing: low-flying aircraft carrying out anti-personnel pattern bombing. He shouts to everyone to get down and throws himself flat, landing on Lieutenant Peters, the mortar officer of 9^th Parachute Battalion.

The track has high hedges but none of the usual deep ditches. Captain Robinson, near the rear of the column, falls on his face and covers his eyes. The bombs walk across the column in rapid succession.

When the noise finally stops, Robinson gets to his feet. He is concussed, can barely hear, and has lost the heel of his right boot. He is otherwise unhurt. The air is thick with dust and the bitter stench of high explosive. The lane is covered with dead and wounded. Others are buried or have disappeared entirely. Robinson walks the full length of the column. He finds six men and himself alive.

Among the dead are Lieutenant Catlin, Jack Corteil, and Glenn. Corteil is still holding the dog by its lead. Of the medics, Hutton is mortally wounded. Cracknell and Sargent have vanished. Finding no sign of the Brigadier, the survivors conclude he is dead and set off back to the dressing station at the Varaville Château. However, Hill himself has been saved by a towel and a spare pair of trousers packed at the bottom of his jumping smock. His water bottle has been destroyed. He has lost most of his left buttock.

Getting to his feet, Hill finds one other man able to stand, his Defence Platoon Commander. The lane is littered with groaning and badly injured men for many metres in each direction. Neither Robinson nor anyone from the rear of the column is visible. Hill assumes they too have been bombed.

He considers his position as a commander. He can stay and tend the wounded, or he can continue and do his job. He continues. Working along the lane, they take morphia from the dead and inject it into the living. They treat roughly a dozen men. It takes about half an hour. As they leave, the wounded cheer them. Hill says he will remember that cheer for the rest of his life.

Hill and his Defence Platoon Commander, Johnnie Jones, head west to find the 9^th Parachute Battalion.

Back in the ditch, Smith, Miller, and Knight have also survived. As suddenly as it began, the bombing stops. They stay low in case late bombs arrive. None do. When they cautiously raise their heads, the dust and smoke reduce visibility to a few metres. The snipers are no longer active. Smith decides to rejoin the Battalion and the three men move quickly back to the Calvary. The earth around them seems dead. There is no sign of friend or enemy. Even the birds and animals have gone to ground.

As the bombers had approached, those on the march to Le Plein had put out yellow smoke recognition candles in the fields and displayed the fluorescent celanese triangles worn around their necks. The aircraft are too high to see them. The men jump into the roadside ditches. Private Percy Hull of C Company, a survivor of the London Blitz, says afterwards that he has never been so frightened in his life. Two or three men fight to get under a small wooden bridge for shelter.

When they stand up again they see how close it has been. Two sticks of bombs have fallen within 45 metres on either side of them. They continue down the track and turn south-west into a field. Delsignore passes a field where many of the bombs have landed. A Cockney voice announces that they are not just liberating France, they are ploughing the fields for them as well.

Le Mesnil

Across the Divisional area, men dropped wide are making their own way. Sergeant Garrett and Private David Backhurst, having slept in a cow byre, are woken by the bombing. Garrett steps outside. The first thing he sees cross the sky is a Spitfire. The reality of where he is comes over him with full force. His maps have been ruined in the flooding, reduced to something resembling chewed string, but his compass is undamaged. He can see the B-17s in the distance and knows that is the direction he needs. They set off, moving in and out of the water until they reach a hard road, then heading north. At a farm they encounter a young woman, the first Garrett has seen wearing what he later recognises as hot pants. She is cleaning out the cow barn. He crosses the yard and asks whether there are Germans nearby. The nearest village is Varaville, she tells him, no Germans in the immediate area. He thanks her and they go.

Corporal Mick Corboy and his two companions, dropped far wide during the night, have collected a few men from their stick by the time it gets light. They are approaching Dozulé, roughly 10 kilometres east of the drop zone. They cannot risk the road through the village and follow the river around it. There Corboy’s seven-man group meets Sergeant Bullock with roughly the same number of men, equally scattered during the drop. Bullock takes command and decides they will go through Dozulé.

They attract considerable attention. Villagers come out with milk, apples, and cider. Then an unwary German car drives through the town. The air fills immediately with fire. The car stops. Two German soldiers get out and surrender. Corboy notes with some irony that despite the volume of fire expended, neither man has a scratch on him, a tribute, he observes drily, to the unit’s marksmanship. Both men are immaculate, fully armed, with stick grenades in their belts. Corboy takes one of the grenades for himself.

During the firing an elderly French civilian runs out of a nearby house to a parked car, snatches something from it, and runs back inside. It is a child of roughly four years old. Corboy tries to apologise but has rehearsed only one French phrase throughout training, and this is not the occasion for it. He shakes the man’s hand and salutes him instead. The Germans’ weapons are distributed to the villagers and the group continues with its two prisoners.

About 400 metres along the road, two cars approach. The first, carrying men in blue uniforms, gets away, Corboy is relieved, believing them to be French police. The second is engaged. Three senior German officers are killed. Their identity papers are collected. From one of them Corboy takes a small Walther 7.65-millimetre pistol and a Leica camera. He inspects the car briefly, sees the passenger seat soaked in blood, and concludes that what can be done to an occupied car can be done to him. He gets out and follows on foot.

Bullock judges the road too dangerous and begins moving off to the left. Corboy disagrees, he has seen a road sign to Troarn, but follows. He is the last man up the bank when his equipment catches on barbed wire. A car is heard approaching from the direction of Troarn. Corboy, stuck, examines the stick grenade he has taken. He has only ever seen a photograph of one. He unscrews the base, finds a double cord with a toggle, and pulls it without knowing whether the thing is timed or impact-fused. He throws it over the bank. It goes off satisfactorily. Everyone comes running back.

The car is driven by a French civilian, possibly a taxi. It contains two German soldiers, dressed smartly, accompanied by two women who may be their wives. The soldiers are taken prisoner. The others are released. Corboy persuades Bullock that the road to Troarn is indeed the right direction and the group moves south-west.

Shortly after the bombing, Major Dyer’s group arrives at the Le Mesnil crossroads. They join some Canadian paratroopers in a ditch alongside the road and dig in behind a hedge on the north-east side of the junction, roughly 68 metres from the crossroads. A farm stands 180 metres in front.A truck is heard approaching from Varaville. A bend in the road prevents anyone seeing it until it comes around. Six German soldiers are sitting in the back. When it is 45 metres away, fire is opened. The truck runs off the road into a ditch. Private Ron Tucker crawls along the ditch to check the casualties. As they reach the vehicle one of the men pulls a pistol from beneath his coat,an Italian Beretta, suggesting service in Italy. Tucker shoots him at close range. Turning the man over, Tucker sees the exit wound: as big as a fist. The truck, which turns out to have been captured at Dunkirk, is recovered and sent down to a nearby brickworks.

Corporal Dowling and Private John Speechley have spent the night in a deserted farm and left in the early hours before they could be spotted. Walking into Varaville they find a small group of Canadians engaged with a German in the church tower. They join in. Speechley recalls the firing doing more damage to the louvres around the bell tower than to the man inside, with pigeons flying out in all directions. Eventually the German realises his position below has been compromised and surrenders to the Canadians.

Dowling and Speechley take up their own position in the tower. Looking north, Speechley sees a German vehicle facing away from them at a crossroads between hedgerows, setting up what appears to be an 81-millimetre or larger mortar. He watches the baseplate go down, then the bipod, then the barrel come out. He begins engaging the ammunition in the truck but cannot hit a round head-on to detonate the charges. Each near miss leaves a white smear on the canvas. Below them, unbeknown to the pair, Canadian forces are forming up to move out of the town. Every time Dowling or Speechley fires, the church bell rings. The Canadians, who can hear the firing but not its source, are becoming impatient. When return fire starts coming in, the Canadians order them to stop and come down. The group then heads for the Le Mesnil crossroads.

Another party moving for the crossroads includes Signaller Jimmy French, who has found his friend Bill Hurst and joined a group from various units led by Major Alastair Young of the Field Ambulance. Their forward point has just rounded a bend when a car comes towards them. Everyone takes to the ditches. The Bren gunner at the point opens fire at the driver’s side, shattering the windscreen. The car stops. A woman gets out on the far side, she is not badly hurt, though she has a slight wound to the wrist. She speaks to the officer in command and points them in the direction they need to go. She is a member of the Resistance.

Two Divisional officers heading for Ranville have left Dyer’s group at the crossroads and moved 90 metres down the road. Opposite the brickworks they pass through a small wood along a winding drive and emerge at a farm: the Fromagèrie du Mesnil, the planned location for Brigade Headquarters. No staff has yet arrived.

The Brigade Administration Officer, Staff Captain John Woodgate, is still making his way there from the drop zone. He reaches the Château Beneauville at Bavent and finds other soldiers and civilians gathered in the grounds. A field security soldier is questioning the civilians, one of whom is the Baronne Chadenet. As the light comes up, Woodgate meets personnel from 224 Field Ambulance, including the unit’s second-in-command, Major Alastair Young, and the group sets off along the road towards the Le Mesnil crossroads. The party also includes Canadian Battalion Headquarters personnel. During the journey they meet Captain Tom Gray, one of the two Field Ambulance surgeons, a crucial encounter.

They arrive at the crossroads at roughly 08:30. A sniper has just killed a Canadian officer. Orders are given to disperse in the orchard on the north-east corner and lie down. A Canadian company commander eventually comes over and establishes where Young and the others are heading. He tells them to get moving but to step lively over the crossroads.

Woodgate moves down to the fromagèrie and finds himself the first member of the Brigade staff to arrive. The Barberot family, who own the farm, are still living in the main building, the Château du Mesnil. Woodgate sets up headquarters in a small two-storey outbuilding beside it. About an hour later, Captain Tony Wilkinson, formerly 9^th Parachute Battalion’s Signals Officer and now the Brigade Intelligence Officer, arrives and takes on the duties of Brigade Major.

Force G-B

After the crash landing of Gordon-Brown’s glider, his party attempts to reach the Battery but meets opposition. They eventually get close enough to find Glover, still nursing his leg wounds. Several men speak to him but cannot stop. Glover forces himself up and follows as best he can. His legs become too painful to continue. He is left as comfortably as possible alongside another Para and two wounded Germans, with a pack of playing cards left for them to follow as a trail marker, dropped one by one by whoever thought of the idea.

Shortly after, Glover spots a British medic, who does what he can for all four. Then there are shouts. Across the field, in extended order, a patrol is approaching the farm buildings: an officer with a pistol, men spread out behind him. When one of the group stands and waves a yellow recognition triangle, the patrol swings and comes over. They are wearing Waffen-SS insignia.

The atmosphere is hostile. Glover realises the source of tension is the fighting knife at his side. As a man reaches down to remove it, he finds the Gammon bomb in Glover’s smock pocket, packed with 9-millimetre rounds to improve fragmentation, which produces further angry exchanges. The situation eases when one of the wounded Germans, apparently the less badly hurt of the two, explains to the SS men how they have been treated: wounds dressed, food and water shared, morphia given to his comrade. The manner of the whole encounter changes. There are smiles and handshakes. Glover is placed on a stretcher and carried to what appears to be a German field dressing station. His legs are examined and dressed. The stay is brief: shells begin falling in the area and he is moved again, uncertain what lies ahead.

The main body of 9^th Parachute Battalion has continued across country. About a kilometre and a half from Le Plein they reach a large field of shoulder-high corn. A predetermined route has been planned, but time is pressing. The column is divided into four sections and each heads directly through the corn towards the village.

Progress is good until a Frenchman approaches from a farm to the right. He welcomes them with enthusiasm and provides a warning of immediate tactical value: the village of Hauger, just north of Le Plein, is occupied by roughly 200 Hilfswillige (Hiwis), Soviet prisoners forced into German service. Otway decides to avoid Hauger entirely and approach Le Plein from the east. Shortly after, a German machine gun opens fire from a Château to the south-east, near the village of Longuemare. The small Canadian group is sent to clear it. They do so and rejoin at the rear of the column. Just before 09:00 they leave to find their own battalion at Le Mesnil.

Le Plein

At 09:00, the B Company point comes out onto a road leading west into Le Plein. The Battalion advances along both sides of the road, with the prisoners on the left under Miller’s charge. Milward, following behind, watches two women come down the road, painted legs, short skirts, apparently returning from the German barracks. A tall corporal with Miller tells them bluntly to clear off. The women laugh.

The advance continues carefully. George Bosher sees Germans come around a corner on bicycles, two men on one machine. Everyone stops and stares until Miller’s voice cuts through: well, shoot the bastards then. Someone does. One man is shot through the shoulder and bleeding badly. The other is dead. The wounded man shouts for a doctor. He has no Red Cross marking and nobody can determine whether he is a medical orderly or not.

Further along the road, Milward is watching the prisoners and Miller when the prisoners suddenly break right towards a gate into a field, jabbering, leaving Miller and Milward standing alone. Daniels, close enough to see, watches Miller advance along the road with his Colt .45 while a German officer comes the other way, well-dressed, good riding boots, decent breeches. They stop. They look at each other. Both fire a shot. Both turn and run. The five or six men around Daniels find this briefly funny. Dusty, observes Daniels, is not a very good shot.

The column advances again. As it approaches a road junction, fire breaks out directly ahead. Otway has about half a dozen men leading, with himself roughly 45 metres behind. When the lead group enters the built-up area Germans open up with a light machine gun. Regimental Sergeant Major Bill Cunningham comes forward. Otway tells him to go up and find out what is happening.

Cunningham crawls forward towards a thick hedge concealing the German machine-gun position. Otway glances to his right and sees a man in a blue suit standing calmly on open ground, smoking a pipe, bullets flying around him, who wishes Otway a very good morning and asks if he would like a coffee when it is all over.

Cunningham reaches the machine-gun position and begins shouting at the German there, in a broad Belfast accent, to put his hands up or face the consequences. Otway can hear it clearly from where he stands. The German, who cannot understand the words, apparently understands the tone exactly. He bolts. More Germans are found nearby and the group closes up along the road, eight men in ditches on the left and against houses on the right.

Sergeant Johnny Novis of B Company finds his section pinned down in a roadside ditch by fire from a hedge running parallel to them, roughly 135 to 180 metres away. Three of the section work their way into a two-storey farmhouse set about 45 metres back from the road, with an attic window overlooking the German position. They force the window and engage along the hedge with random fire. This is enough to let the rest of the group engage and break the deadlock.

The enemy immediately ahead withdraws to positions near a crossroads. The leading company attacks, dislodges them, captures two machine guns, and kills fifteen of the enemy. The buildings at the crossroads are seized.

McGeever, McGuinness, and Fenson occupy a house on the left flank and set up the Vickers. About thirty to forty of the retreating Germans take up position at a road junction on the northern edge of Le Plein. Moving up, the Paras see a large building surrounded by a high wall. It appears unoccupied. Firing as they go, Otway and the leading elements cross a field and man the wall. Smith moves forward to find what is happening. Otway calls him across the road. Smith crosses through a burst of fire. The position is a strong one — a large building with thick stone walls. The enemy holds a similar building opposite. A sniping engagement develops between the two. A counter-attack then comes in from the left flank. The Paras hold their fire until the Germans are 18 metres away, then open with the Vickers. The attack breaks up, leaving twelve bodies.

Smith crosses the road twice more to carry instructions for Otway, each time a dash across the road, then roughly 3 metres of wall with rounds splashing against it, then sideways through an open door. Miller attempts the same dash and takes a bullet in the fleshy part of the shoulder. The wound is not serious.

The enemy holds positions near the Le Plein church, in a small farm on the left, and in a large building to the right. Movement in and out of the building confirms it is a key point in their defence. A B Company patrol of roughly ten men under Lieutenant Tom Halliburton is assembled to reconnoitre it.

Otway’s orders are clear: observe, identify the enemy’s strength, do not engage, and come back to report. The patrol heads for the building. Privates Joe Millward, Reg Osborne, Bob Abel, and Roy Wright are at the front. Coming under sniper fire near the building, most of the patrol goes right, but Wright and Abel go left and enter an outbuilding. Through a boarded window they find both a machine-gun post, on the right, and a mortar section, on the left. Before they can warn Halliburton, he has gone around and straight in through an open gate, pistol in hand, directly into the machine gun.

He is shot down a few metres inside. Osborne is next behind him. He ducks under a wooden bar across the gate and snags on a nail. Fire opens on him immediately. Two Bren magazines in his pouches stop the rounds. By now the gateway is being swept with fire and Osborne pulls back behind the closed gate, taking splinters in the face as rounds come through it. They cannot reach the officer.

They try several times. It is impossible. The German position is sandbagged and backed by men firing from the upstairs windows of the building on the far side of the farmyard. Others have entered the courtyard itself. Wright and Abel, still firing through the wooden slats of the outbuilding wall, are engaged by the man Wright has in his sights. The round goes through Wright’s collar, enters the left side of his neck, and exits below his Adam’s apple. He falls back into the hay and loses consciousness. Abel, believing his friend is dead, gets out. Private Millward, giving covering fire with the Bren, is hit in the face. The group pulls back behind the wall, concludes the position cannot be entered without more fire support, and returns to the Battalion.

The village is clearly held in strength. Outnumbered and outgunned, Otway has no real choice but to consolidate. Smith is sent to reconnoitre the rear of the position, find a safe route out, and direct the second-in-command to bring the remaining companies in by it. He goes alone, detours further than expected, and at one point jumps through a gap in a wall onto a road. A burst of Bren fire passes him. He walks to the main crossroads, where a sentry apologises for shooting at him. He meets the second-in-command and leads the remaining companies to their new positions.

Stand at Château d’Amfreville

At around 09:30 the Battalion takes up position behind the walls of the Château d’Amfreville. Sentries are posted immediately, the flanks are dug in and covered, and three or four men are put to watch the road junction linking Le Plein with Hauger. The Vickers crew remains in the houses at the north-east end of the village.

The Château buildings are searched. Two horses are found in the stables. Private Brailsford locates an old Renault and a motorcycle and sidecar in a garage. The main building has been a German billet: personal belongings are scattered about, along with arms and ammunition. The larder is well stocked, sides of beef, a barrel of butter, sacks of sugar, large stone jars of jam, a substantial tub of cream. In the garden there is a cider press and large quantities of both cider and Calvados. The German prisoners are held in a tennis court at the rear, surrounded by a strong, high fence.

The Paras settle in and wait for the Commandos. Logically, Otway knows, any German attack should come from the rear. The enemy responds instead with mortar, sniper, and automatic fire, but nothing more develops. The quality of the sniping gradually reveals that only a few of the Germans are properly trained. Even so, casualties begin to accumulate. Otway orders all spare ammunition collected and given to the marksmen to engage the Germans one by one. Rounds are coming over a high wall into the enclosure from a church that overlooks the position. A loose slat in the church tower looks like a sniper’s firing point. Every time a round comes from it, one is sent back. After nine exchanges, the church goes quiet.

In the outbuilding where he was left for dead, Wright regains consciousness covered in blood. He cannot raise his head. He reaches a farm building a short distance away and finds a mirror. He lifts his head and sees one wound, not yet aware of the exit wound on the other side. He is breathing through it. Blood is bubbling at the surface. He tries to apply a field dressing and passes out again.

When he comes round there is a large man standing over him, a Soviet medical orderly, apparently directed to the building by a villager. He is enormous, with equipment and grenades all over him. He has Halliburton’s pistol in his belt. He takes Wright around to the enclosure where the machine-gun posts are. At the entrance Wright sees Halliburton still lying where he fell. He has been given morphia but not moved. Wright can see from the man’s colour that he is dying. Halliburton looks at him and smiles. The Russian takes Wright further in and puts him against a tree, wrapping a paper bandage around his neck, all the dressings available. Then Wright passes out again.

The stand-off at the position continues. A machine gun to the left of the Château is causing particular trouble. Lieutenant Slade, who has taken on the role of adjutant following Hudson’s wounding, is in a barn from which the section is trying to silence the gun when tracer sets the roof alight. The effort has to be abandoned in favour of getting calves out of the lower half of the building. Otway eventually has to pull Slade out physically.

Among the prisoners, trouble erupts. When Otway goes to deal with it, a German officer begins citing the Geneva Convention: the men are exposed in the open and vulnerable to their own side’s fire. Otway responds by producing a note bearing Hitler’s signature ordering all members of the British Parachute Regiment to be shot out of hand, and asking the officer to explain it. There is no reply. Otway offers the prisoners a choice: remain in the open or go into a room in the Château, which will certainly be used as a reference point when the artillery opens up. They stay where they are.

Slade has meanwhile taken two men and crawled along a ditch to attack the troublesome machine gun with grenades. He silences it and returns to report, presenting a piece of the weapon as evidence. Otway is far from pleased at the risk taken and makes this clear. He describes Slade afterwards as the type who is inclined to go at everything like a bat out of hell, the type, he adds, who gets the Victoria Cross, usually without knowing why.

At around 10:00 Brigadier Hill arrives at the 9th Battalion aid post. He finds the medical officer, Captain Watts, a man older than most of those he commands, in breach of Hill’s own rule that no one over thirty-two is to jump. Watts takes one look at Hill and tells him he is bad for morale. Hill informs him, with some precision, what Watts would look like after spending four and a half hours in cold water with most of his left buttock removed. The medical officer decides something ought to be done and administers an injection without telling Hill what it is. Hill loses the next two hours.

Some 5 kilometres to the east, survivors of the bombing have reached the Canadian aid post at the Varaville Château. Robinson, his hearing still impaired, is sitting by a hedge studying an aerial photograph when the muzzle of an MG 34 is presented at close range. The aid post and everyone in it are taken prisoner. About forty Germans surround the party, having entered the area while a battle was in progress at the gatehouse. The patrol, commanded by an NCO, escorts the prisoners through Pétiville, Bavant, and Bures to Troarn. Robinson is struck by the quality of what he sees: their discipline, their fieldcraft, their battle drills, and their general bearing are all exemplary, which he finds cause for concern about the opposition generally.

During the march the prisoners try to stretch the column by having those at the front walk faster and those at the rear hang back, hoping to create an opportunity at a road bend for those in the middle to bolt. The Germans are not deceived.

After his encounter with the bullfrogs during the night, Sergeant Britton and two Canadian medics have been joined by two Commandos, Captain Haig-Thomas and his batman, Sam Ryder, and a Brigade signals officer, Lieutenant Douglas Smith. Haig-Thomas is the liaison officer between the Commandos and 3^rd Parachute Brigade. They are completely lost until they meet Robert Godey. Haig-Thomas speaks French and learns from him that they are in Pétiville, roughly 900 metres south of the drop zone. Godey bravely offers to guide them to the rue de l’Arbre Martin at Le Mesnil, from where they can find their way to Ranville. They accept and move off in pairs along each side of the road, Godey and Haig-Thomas leading.

Walking along a sunken lane near Bavent, Godey spots dark silhouettes a few metres ahead moving in the same direction and unseen by those behind. He taps Haig-Thomas on the shoulder and points. Haig-Thomas shouts the order to get down. There is a large explosion followed by machine-gun fire. Haig-Thomas is killed instantly. Godey throws himself flat and lies still, feigning death. In the heavy firing one of the medics crawls forward in the darkness, concludes both men are dead, and returns to say so.

Britton decides they must leave the two men and push on. Without their guide they have no certainty of direction, but they are at least still on the cart track. Shortly after, they meet two engineers looking for a bridge to demolish. The enlarged party visits a farm and then spots a village ahead, crossing a field towards it. They are just pushing through the hedge onto the road when two German half-tracks enter the village, roughly twenty men in each. The vehicles stop about 2 metres from where the group is lying in the ditch. The Germans begin searching every house in the village systematically. The search goes on for about half an hour. The group in the ditch is not found. When the half-tracks finally move out of sight, the party follows the hedge away from the road.

Garrett and Backhurst are in the same area. Garrett encounters a sergeant from the 2^nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry anti-tank platoon, separated from his glider with six of his men. The sergeant joins Garrett’s group. He has a Bren gun, which immediately improves everyone’s outlook. After some discussion about direction they decide to head south. A church on high ground gives them a bearing. Moving towards it, they find Sergeant Britton, the signals sergeant of 9^th Parachute Battalion, in a hedge by the road. Britton joins them. They enter the village, later identified as Robehomme, where they find Captain Griffin of 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion with elements of B Company. Griffin asks whether Garrett has any experience with a Vickers medium machine gun. Garrett has. Griffin positions him on a piece of high ground overlooking the Varaville road. Garrett and Britton wrap themselves in a parachute and settle in.

Leaders under Pressure

Brigadier Hill, on regaining consciousness at the 9th Battalion aid post, finds he cannot walk. He must reach Divisional Headquarters. Greenway improvises: a lady’s bicycle is found and a parachutist assigned to push it. Hill is pushed roughly 4 kilometres to Ranville, where he meets General Gale and exchanges information. Gale tells him that the Brigade has taken all its objectives. Hill finds this heartening and says he feels considerably younger.

Hill is then taken in hand by the Assistant Director of Medical Services, Colonel MacEwan. MacEwan tells him he needs an operation. Hill agrees on one condition: MacEwan must personally return him to Brigade Headquarters as soon as it is over. They strike the deal. At around 13:00 Hill is being anaesthetised, when a heavy concentration of fire comes down on Ranville. It is, he learns later, the counter-attack by the 21^st Panzer Division. As he goes under he wonders who will be in charge of the hospital when he comes round. An hour or so later he opens his eyes. They are all still his own medics.

MacEwan keeps his word. He starts for 3^rd Brigade Headquarters by jeep. Hill rides standing up, with a large bottle of penicillin strapped to his leg.

At Brigade Headquarters people have been arriving steadily through the early afternoon. Woodgate finds that Johnnie Jones, the Defence Platoon Commander, turns up in the early afternoon and is immediately directed to organise all-round defence. Some of his platoon have also appeared. In the Brigadier’s absence, Colonel Alastair Pearson, commanding 8th Parachute Battalion, is making the decisions. His battalion holds the eastern end of the ridge in Bavent Wood.

By late morning the Château d’Amfreville position has still not been attacked, though there have been heavy exchanges of fire. The ammunition situation is deteriorating. Patrols search the surrounding fields for dropped containers. They find two, containing mostly mortar rounds. In a short time the situation will become critical.

By that time, Otway is almost on the point of considering whether to go on or to surrender and stop. Greenway, although only a captain, is a close friend, and it is Greenway who tells him not to be so bloody silly, they simply have to go on. Otway says he comes back to himself, takes a grip, and continues. Things gradually quiet down.

Slade, meanwhile, has found a sewing machine in the Château and sets about repairing the ventilated trousers that have accompanied him since the jump. He notes, not entirely without alarm, that he briefly entertains the thought of a counter-attack catching him mid-repair.

The 1st Special Service Brigade arrives

Shortly after 14:00, gunfire breaks out from Le Plein, directed not towards the Paras but to the west. It can only be the Commandos. Otway goes down the hill to find them. At the Ecarde crossroads at the bottom of the slope he meets Lord Lovat. Arriving shortly after is the bicycle-mounted 3 Troop of No. 3 Commando under Captain Roy Westley, with his second-in-command, Lieutenant Keith Ponsford. Lovat stops them. Otway explains his position: he has been attempting to hold the village with a handful of men. Lovat directs Westley and Ponsford to attack Amfreville and asks Otway to take them on a reconnaissance of the ground he and his men are holding near the Château. Otway agrees to provide covering fire during the attack. The two Commando officers return down the hill.

At around 15:30, the Paras watch 3 Troop come up the road to attack the village. Firing breaks out briefly behind the houses at the top of the road, then stops. After a pause the firing resumes and gradually moves east. The Commandos appear to have pushed the enemy out. Otway decides to find out for himself. He tells his orderly, Wilson, that they are going down there. Those around him say it is madness. Otway says it is a risk he has to take and there is no alternative. Wilson has acquired a motorcycle. He drives; Otway sits in the sidecar. They go.

They cross the green in front of the Château, passing a number of dead Commandos including a Troop Sergeant Major near the entrance. They drive down the hill and at the crossroads come under heavy mortar fire. They take cover in a ditch. The barrage has started just as Lovat is bringing up elements of No. 6 Commando. Otway shouts that one of the Commando units has had a hard time, and that if Lovat wishes to speak with him he should come down, because Otway is not coming up. Lovat joins them in the ditch. Otway gives him the situation. Le Plein is taken, though its defence remains precarious. With No. 6 Commando taking up position at the southern end of the village, Lovat confirms that No. 4 Commando will occupy Hauger during the night to support 9th Battalion.

The Commando attack has also brought a change in fortune for Wright. He comes round during the noise of the assault. A No. 36 grenade comes over the wall, lands, and rolls towards him. He gets around the side of the tree and takes the blast and goes out again. When he comes round the Commandos have cleared the enclosure. A medic pulls down the paper bandage at his neck, examines the wound, and tells him there is nothing to be done for him. Wright notes this cheerfully does him no end of good. He is then transported back to the beach.

Return to Merville

During the late afternoon Company Sergeant Major Harries is given a specific task: take a small patrol back to the Battery and determine whether it is still out of action or has been reoccupied. He collects four men and Sergeant Busty Taylor and heads across country. En route they encounter small German groups moving in various directions, generally at speed. They avoid all of them — their mission is information, not contact, and their numbers are too small for a fight. They move through a wood and approach rising ground towards the Battery. At the wood’s edge they come under fire. They identify the source: they are being engaged by Commando troops. They wave their red berets. After a shouting exchange and closer contact, they establish that the Battery is still out of action. It can be clearly seen from the slightly higher ground the Commandos are holding. Harries’ patrol has what it needs. They return to the Château d’Amfreville.

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Amfreville

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