People involved: Reginald Percy Tyrer
On the 5th of June, 1944, at 2256 hours, 6 Halifax bombers towing Horsa gliders took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset. These gliders contained around 180 men of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment (referred to as "The Ox & Bucks" onwards), the Glider Pilot Regiment and the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (REME), who were on their way to Nazi occupied France, specifically to the two bridges over the Caen canal and Orne river bridges close to Bénouville and Ranville for a coup de main assault against any German forces in the area.
The bridges needed to be captured in order to allow the attack at Sword beach on the 6th of June to happen smoothly, the bridges were set to be demolished by the Wehrmacht, and if they demolished the bridges before D-Day, the British forces at sword wouldn't have an easy way through France. If they weren't demolished but kept in German hands, they would have a direct line from Calais (see Operation Fortitude South) all the way to Omaha beach. It was vital for this bridge to be captured to allow D-Day to take place with the least resistance, and therefore least casualties, possible.
In the days before the assault, British reconnaissance aircraft were sent to fly over the bridge and take pictures. These pictures would be use as reference for a model being made of the bridges, it was to be a perfect replica of the bridges and surrounding area. German forces would often set up anti-glider, or anti-paratrooper infrastructure, such as "Rommel's Asparagus", a 2-4 meter tall log, some with mines or grenades on top of them.
Gliders were chosen to be used for the primary targets in the operation due to their stealth and speed, as well as being a more accurate landing than paratroopers, with many soldiers in the same place at the same time. If 180 paratroopers jumped out of a loud aircraft, the Wehrmacht would be alerted immediately as the assault begins, and the paratroopers will be spread over a wide area, often without the equipment required. There was also the danger of landing paratroopers around a river, if one is to land in the water, it will almost guaranty their death. Gliders were the best option for the mission.
The Ox & Bucks underwent rigorous training in the months leading up to the attack, learning what to do when the glider is landing, as well as how to engage in combat in an urban environment, ready for the engagement on the bridge.
While this isn't officially an officially confirmed fact, my grandparents believe that they may have not included any records of the battle in personal documents for lower ranking soldiers. They believe this because there is no official record of Pegasus Bridge in Private Tyrer's documents, or him actually being in France at all. However, he was awarded for actions in France and Germany, and has recounted the battle after seeing the film "The Longest Day". There are a few reason why I believe this could be the case, it was a very confidential operation, any possible leak could disrupt the entirety of Operation Overlord. Another reason is the fact that the mission was such a dangerous one, they were directly dropping troops into occupied territory, and they weren't expecting them to return. If any information was to leak to the British public that this had happened, then support for the government would have dropped heavily, much like the protests during the Vietnam War.
Three of the gliders were headed to Caen canal Bridge, these were Chalk 91, Chalk 92 and Chalk 93. Each Horsa glider could fit around 20-28 troops, along with vehicles, and anti-tank guns/howitzers, however, these were not used in the battle. The equipment was standard for British airborne troops, each troop carried a weapon, which would have been either a Lee Enfield rifle (most likely a No.4 model), a STEN submachine gun (most likely a Mk.V model) or a BREN light machine gun. Some weapons were captured after the assault, such as a German Maschinenpistole 40 submachine gun, however, their usage was probably limited. They also carried 4 magazines for the BREN gunner along with their ammunition for their personal weapon, and up to 9 hand grenades. Each platoon also had a 2-inch mortar and a radio.
The German forces at the time of the attack was 50 men of the 736th Grenadier Regiment, commanded by Major Hans Schmidt, based at Ranville. This unit was a rather poorly equipped with weapons captured by German Forces in other countries, as well as conscripts from Poland, the Soviet Union and France. There were also men from the 21st Panzer Division located around the area. The defensive placements at the bridges included; 3 machine gun emplacements on the west bank, another machine gun as well as an anti-tank gun on the east bank, a concrete pillbox and 3 more machine guns to the north, and an anti-aircraft tower with machine guns to the south. Both of the bridges banks were entrenched with sandbags. The Orne river bridge had a pillbox with a anti-tank gun and an anti-aircraft gun on the eastern bank to the south, and 2 machine guns to the north.
At 0007 hours, the gliders were released from the tows, and left to fly unpowered towards their target. At 0016 hours, glider number 1, chalk 91, landed by crashing into the defensive barbed wire in the field around the bridge. A glider landing is never smooth, the standard procedure was to hook arms and lift your legs up, as the force of the impact often caused the floor of the aircraft to disintegrate, since they were primarily made of wood. Many soldiers would be thrown around, and even knocked out during a landing, Major John Howard mentioned that when he landed, his helmet slipped down over his eyes, and he thought that he'd been made blind by the impact.
Wehrmacht troops stationed on the bridge heard the impact, however, they did not react, instead believing the sound to be an allied bomber plane being shot down. The German forces were expecting an attack at some point, but did not know when the attack would take place, so the soldiers stationed at the bridges were not fully alert, especially with the gliders being soundless, as well as the deception tactics employed by the allied forces (see Operation Fortitude South). This explains why the skill and equipment of the soldiers guarding the bridge were as low quality as they were.
Around 1 minute after Chalk 91 landed, Chalk 92 landed behind it, at the edge of a lake. The fuselage of the aircraft was split into two parts, one man, Lance-Corporal Fred Greenhalgh was thrown through the glider, later drowning in the lake, becoming the first casualty of the event. Another minute later, Chalk 93 lands between the 2, thus begins the battle for the Caen canal Bridge.
Lieutenant Den Brotheridge and Lieutenant Richard "Sandy" Smith's platoons headed towards the bridge, Lieutenant David Wood's platoon made a move towards the north east trench system. Each man's job had been assigned, and each one knew what to do, and when to do it, Private Jack Baily was ordered, along with two other men, to take out a German pillbox which had a machine gun inside. Leaving a machine gun with a good vantage point was a bad idea, and thus it was important to relieve the threat.
The first alert for the German troops that there was an attack unfolding, was the sound of a gunshot, alerting the 2 sentries patrolling the bridge. One of the sentries, Schütze Romer, armed only with a Karabiner 98 Kurtz rifle, yelled "Fallschirmjäger!" (paratroopers) and ran away, diving into a trench. However, the other man on the bridge, a Non Commission Officer, got out a flare gun in order to alert surrounding forces of the attack. Private Bill Grey, a BREN gunner recounted:
I saw a German sentry with what looked like a very light pistol in his hand. I fired and he went down, but at the same time he pulled the trigger of the very pistol and the bright light went up.
Now that the whole bridge had been lit up, German machine gunners got to their positions and spotted Lieutenant Brotheridge as he was running across the bridge. They opened fire, wounding him in the neck as he was in the process of throwing a grenade. One machine gun post was destroyed by the grenade thrown by Brotheridge, another was taken out by one of the BREN gunners. Lieutenant Smith's platoon began their charge across the bridge, exchanging fire with the German opposition, Lieutenant Smith was wounded by a grenade. The trenches and dugouts were taken out by grenades and automatic fire, Corporal 'Wally' Parr recounted:
By this time I had a No. 36 grenade, the pin out, into the dugout, opened and shut the door. The explosion went off. Charlie Gardner came in. I opened the door and he just machine-gunned inside. Onto the second dugout and the same.
During this shootout, the REME men who had been on Chalk 91 searched for, and disabled any explosive charges set on the bridge, as it was one of the main objectives of the mission. Once the bridge had been cleared, at 0021, the men of Den Brotheridge's platoon had noticed that he was wounded, Lieutenant Den Brotheridge would soon succumb to his injury, making him the first man to die from enemy action on D-Day.
At this time, a few pathfinders of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company had made a landing between the Orne and Dives Rivers. Brigadier Nigel Poett gathered all the men he could find, and set off in the direction of Brotheridge's STEN submachine gun fire. By this time, a German soldier who had survived D-Companies attack managed to report to German officers that the bridges had been captured.
At 0020 hours, the first glider landed at the Orne river bridge, Glider number 4, which was meant to land before, was reported missing, landing about 8 miles from the bridges. The men of Glider number 5 were commanded by Lieutenant Fox, they were opened up on by a German Maschinengewehr-34 and the men responded with a 2-inch mortar and destroying the machine gun. They crossed the bridge with no further resistance. Glider number 6 landed at 0021 hours around 700 metres from the bridge. Once Major Howard was informed that the river bridge had been captured, his signalman, Lance Corporal Ted Tappenden, reported over the radio that both bridges were captured and intact, with the code words "Ham and Jam". 'Ham' was used to indicate that the Caen canal bridge was captured and intact, 'Jam' was used to indicate the Orne river bridge was captured. If the bridges were destroyed and captured, the Caen canal bridge code would have been 'Jack', and the Orne river bridge would have been 'Lard'. Apparently, the exact wording of the message was:
‘Hallo Four Dog. Ham and Jam. Ham and Jam. Hallo Four Dog. Ham and Jam Over. Hallo Four Dog. Ham and Jam. Ham and Jam. Hallo Four Dog… Ham and Bloody Jam! Where the hell are you?’