This is the third volume of a comprehensive five part work, detailing
every aspect of air and paratroop operations on the night of 5/6 June
1944. The 6th Airborne Division was to support British Second Army and
First Canadian Army; its task was to seize and hold the left flank of
the bridgehead. The 5th Parachute Brigade was to seize the ground each
side of the bridges over the Canal du Caen and the Orne River, whilst on
the same day seize and hold positions on the long wooded ridge beyond
the waterways, running from Troarn in the south to the sea. This ridge
with the bridges behind would eventually form the critical left flank of
the army and the bridges had to be intact to permit Allied troops and
supplies to pass easily back and forth. The 3rd Parachute Brigade, which
included the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1,800 men) was to prevent
enemy reinforcements moving towards the British beachhead. Another
Battalion and the 1st Canadian Brigade had to destroy five bridges in
the flooded valley of the Dives. The 9th Battalion had to silence a
battery of four concrete gun emplacements on high ground near the
village of Merville, 3 miles east of Ouistreham. For these tasks 38 and
46 Groups RAF dispatched 264 aircraft and 98 glider combinations, the
glider tugs being Albemarles, Dakotas, Halifaxes and Stirlings, the
gliders mainly Horsas with a few Hamilcars (carrying light tanks and
17-pounder anti-tank guns). Meanwhile, Brigadier Lord Lovat's 1st
Special Service Brigade, composed of four Army and one Royal Marines
Commando, reached Pegasus Bridge en route to help other units of the
Airborne Division.
Allied intelligence had pinpointed 73 fixed coastal gun batteries that
could menace the invasion. At Pointe-du-Hoc, a cliff rising 100 feet
high from a very rocky beach, a six-gun battery which potentially could
engage ships at sea and fire directly onto 'Utah' and 'Omaha' was taken
by three companies (225 men) of the US 2nd Ranger Battalion using rocket
propelled grapple hooks attached to climbing ropes and portable
extension ladders to scale the cliffs within ten minutes after landing
and capture the position.
This dynamic episode in the history of D-Day is expertly researched and
relayed with both style and reverence for the aircrew who participated
in proceedings. A plate section of rare black and white images
supplement the text, working further to create a real sense of the times
at hand at this most pivotal point in the history of D-Day.
