CHAPTER TWO
The three Handley Page Halifax bombers pushed on through the quiet skies of the English Channel. These aircraft were part of the British frontline, four engine heavy bombers used by the British Royal Air Force. They were powered by the latest 1,650 hp Bristol Hercules XVI radial engines and it was just as well because every ounce of power was needed for their current mission. Behind each of the huge British bombers was an equally massive Horsa Mark I glider. These unpowered aircraft had an eighty eight foot wingspan and could carry nearly thirteen thousand pounds of men and equipment. They had been designed after seeing the success of German airborne operations. The Allied governments had decided to form their own airborne formations and it was this decision that led to the creation of two British airborne divisions, as well as a number of smaller units.
The bombers, whose normal job was to flatten German cities, were this time tasked with delivering the first wave of British paratroopers to the shores of Northern France. Behind the trio of aircraft subsequent waves of bombers, transports and gliders, would deliver thousands of airborne troops, each tasked with objectives ranging from destroying weapon sites, capturing bridges and holding strategic towns. Following this huge air armada would be the largest naval invasion force in history, over five thousand ships of all kinds.
This particular wave of bombers and gliders was tasked with the critical mission of capturing and holding a series of bridges, the most important one and their initial objective being the Orne River Bridge. Once captured the lightly equipped airborne infantry would have to hold them until relieved by the regular infantry. It was a risky mission and one that could only be carried out by the very best infantry the British Army had to offer.
Sergeant Smith, a thirty three year old veteran of actions in France and Norway, was sat alongside the rest of the twenty five men sitting on the bench seating installed in the glider. Sat immediately to the right of Smith was his commanding officer, a green Lieutenant called Harvey. Though this man was undoubtedly competent, he had been a last minute replacement and so far had done little to inspire confidence in Smith. Only a couple of days before they had been training when Harvey had become confused with the maps and sent his unit directly into the path of their enemies who happened to be a unit of Polish paratroopers. It was a big embarrassment and one that the unit was keen to erase in the opening hours of this operation. Next to the new Lieutenant was one of the unit’s Bren gunners, Jones. Of the other men in the unit each carried either a No.4 Lee Enfield rifle or one of the latest generation Sten MK V submachine guns.
Jones leaned over to Smith, shouting over the wind noise.
“How long till the landing zone?”
Smith, with his map case already resting on his leg double-checked. It was not easy to navigate with limited visibility in the glider. He had been checking with the pilots though and had studied the terrain and their landing zone for weeks.
“Another six to seven minutes. We should be passing the…”
“What the fuck?” shouted Harris, one of the unit’s riflemen.
The glider suddenly dropped as the tow cable was released. With the glider no longer being pulled through the air the aircraft needed to lose height to maintain its speed and lift. The unexpected quick change threw some of the passengers about. The unit had practiced landings from various altitudes in the Horsa and one thing they knew was that the time from release to landing was always shorter than the last time.
Harris gestured towards Smith.
“What’s going on Sarge?”
Smith shrugged as he lifted himself up and staggered down towards the pilots’ compartment. It took a few steps and he had to pass the sappers who waited patiently to his right. He didn’t envy these men; they always seemed to get the nastiest jobs and also ended up lugging all manner of crap around with them. Still, they had a habit of being able to get in and out of trouble with almost equal ease. Whilst hanging onto the frame he tapped one of the pilot’s shoulders to find out what was going on. The man ignored him for a moment, he was evidently too busy scanning the sky and ground ahead. Smith leaned in close so the pilot could hear him over the buffeting and noise.
“Are we ahead of schedule? According to me we shouldn’t be released for another seven minutes,” he shouted.
“No, looks like somebody fucked up Sergeant, we’ve been released early,” answered the pilot.
The pilot turned back to the primitive looking controls, making a few fine adjustments. Smith stumbled as the glider began a narrow turn. He called out to the pilots.
“Have you got a landing zone for this area?”
“Were working on it,” said the co-pilot in a raised and slightly excited voice.
With the glider lacking its own power it could only stay airborne for so long. There was a fine line between staying in the air for as long as possible and going so slowly that the glider would stall. From the tests conducted so far a stall was definitely not something either of the pilots wanted to experiment with. To make matters worse there was no obvious landing zone so the pilots kept the glider in as shallow a dive as possible, to give them the maximum time in the air without dropping to stall speed. One mistake and they could land in a ploughed field or hit a house. Those kinds of landings would mean a plane full of dead soldiers. They followed the course of the river, using it as a navigation aid.
Smith looked back at the centre section, the rest of the men were sat on the bench sits, awaiting his news. He pulled himself back and then rechecked his map. No, the pilots were right, they were way, way too early. The only good thing was that the area leading up to their landing zone was in a relatively sparse part of the country.
“Sergeant, I think we’ve got somewhere!” called one of the pilots.
“If we can stay up for another sixty seconds we can use this area. It’s supposed to be used for later landings but has been checked, it should be ok.”
“It’s not like we have much of a choice,” spoke Smith grimly. He grasped the pilot’s shoulder.
“Good luck, see you on the ground!” Smith shouted.
He then turned and made his way back into the centre section of the glider, first whispering to the sappers and then moving further back into the aircraft to speak to the rest of the men. Leaning closely to the men on one side he spoke loudly.
“We’ve been dropped too early. It looks like we’re going to have a rough landing. Make sure you are strapped in and hold on!” he shouted. Smith turned and repeated himself to the others.
“Make sure your weapons are ready, we are going to hit the ground locked and ready to fight. Remember your training and watch the man next to you. Good luck!”
Dropping back down onto the bench he pulled the straps back on and waited patiently for the landing. One of the pilots turned around, gesturing to the men that they had sixty seconds till landing.
Smith shouted, “Brace yourselves!”
The men were already strapped down onto the bench seating but they still double checked, some retightened the straps just to make sure. Though the gliders were very manoeuvrable they did hit the ground hard and in previous training many of the paratroopers had experienced some pretty hairy landings. Of course this time they had no idea where they were landing or even if they would encounter enemy resistance. Smith looked down, checking his kit and weapons were tied down and ready for use. Previous experience had taught him to always be ready once they hit the ground. No time to rummage about for kit when in a firefight. The pilot signalled again.
“Thirty seconds people, hold on!”
Almost as soon as he finished a line of holes appeared across the flooring of the aircraft, each hole about the size of a finger. Sprays of arterial blood erupted and two of the soldiers slumped forward, both peppered with bullet impacts.
“Shit! Get us down!” shouted one of the men.
“Sarge!” called Humphreys, one of the riflemen, as he pointed to the tail.
Smith looked back to see at least a do
zen big holes torn through the tail section. They were taking fire, lots of it. Luckily the aircraft was made of wood and the bullets simply punched through without altering the structural integrity of the glider. Still, if more of the bullets tore through they could easily end up losing something important.
The pilots had obviously seen the incoming fire as the glider dropped into an even steeper angle. From where the pilots were sat their view filled with light as tracer fire tore around them. The landing was going to be hard and fast but the only way they could hope to avoid the bullet impacts was to get on the ground fast. Only then could the soldiers on board do their job. It was only a matter of seconds before touching down that the pilot operated the ‘barn door’ flaps which when lowered, made a steep, high rate of descent landing possible. The sudden operation of the flaps cut the airspeed and was instantly followed by the release of the braking parachute. Anything not tied down rolled across the floor as the rapid deceleration felt as though they had hit something whilst in the air.
Even this wasn’t enough to prevent the jarring crash though. The nose wheel hit the ground first, the impact snapping it clean off and dropping the nose down to the ground. The force of the wheel coming off tore a section three feet wide from the bottom of the aircraft. As the rest of the glider hit the ground the sprung skid under the fuselage took the strain. Luckily this part of the aircraft was almost indestructible and stopped the aircraft suffering any other major damage. Without even bouncing, the glider slid across the field at great speed. More holes appeared in the body of the glider as small arms fire ploughed through the thin covering of the plane, luckily none hitting the passengers. After several seconds the glider bumped into the air, presumably striking something on the ground and then came down with a bump. The right wing struck a tree or bush, tearing off half of the wing and spinning the fuselage around to come to a halt in the tree line.
The final impact folded the glider around the trees, crushing the nose, instantly killing the pilots and the sappers that were positioned close to the front of the aircraft. The remainder were thrown about inside as the middle section came apart disgorging seating and equipment out onto the ground. Without pausing from the crash, Smith unclipped himself, glanced around the glider and shouted his orders, “Out!”
Smith could see that the front of the glider was smashed beyond repair and there was no movement in the front third of the aircraft. It wasn’t a good start but at least they were on the ground and below the elevation of the heavy anti-aircraft guns. Small arms fire was one thing, but those heavy guns could cut down the rest of his unit in seconds if they could get the weapons lowered in some way. Getting out of the glider was their best chance of survival.
The clicking of harnesses echoed through the groaning remains of the glider as the first dozen men clambered out of the side door and into the darkness. Smith was first; brandishing is Sten MkV submachine gun in his right hand whilst hurrying the men from the door and the shredded section where the nose and centre used to be joined. If nothing else the crash had given them additional ways to exit the glider! Smith counted them out. Each man took up positions a short distance form the glider, watching carefully for the enemy whilst also keeping their heads down and in cover. Lieutenant Harvey stepped out, putting his hand on Smith’s shoulder. Smith responded.
“We’ve lost eight. Two shot on the way down, plus the pilots and the sappers bought it in the landing, Sir.”
“Spread out and secure the landing zone, Sergeant.”
Smith nodded in acknowledgement, as he turned he remembered one last thing, “Oh, and Johnson has got framing stuck in his shoulder, he’s pinned inside but stable.”
As he moved off with the men he called back, “See what you can do about Johnson...and keep your head down, Sir!”
Lieutenant Harvey climbed back inside the glider whilst Smith moved out to the rest of the men who were fanned out, forming a thin perimeter around the glider. Crouching next to Mathews, the sergeant checked his map. Corporal Mathews moved over to check on the plan.
“How bad does it look?”
“Pretty bad, we’re a good way off track, looks like we’re at the wrong river. Some arsehole dumped us early.”
“Bugger. Dumped is probably the right word then,” replied Mathews with a sarcastic smirk.
“We need to get to the bridge, and fast, or we’re going to be a plane short for the attack. Are they ready?”
Mathews nodded.
“Good. Get everything you can out of the glider and see if Harvey needs any help with Johnson. We need him on a stretcher and ready to move right away.”
Smith squinted, looking off to a distant building. He was certain he could see something up ahead. Was it a vehicle or an animal of some kind? There was a flicker of light.
“What’s that?”
Mathews turned only to be spun around from a series of bullet impacts. The line of rounds cut from his waist right up to his throat. The exit wounds sprayed blood, some of it hitting Smith. Without hesitation he dropped immediately to the ground as more rounds hit around the glider.
“Incoming, get down!” shouted Smith.
The horizon lit up with a multitude of flashes from rifles and machineguns. The movement Smith had spotted was obviously a military unit and the position that the British troops found themselves in was not a good one. With the crashed glider to their backs the soldiers were left exposed in the open field with only light scrub and thick grass around them. The only saving grace was that the field hadn’t been farmed recently so they wouldn’t have to slog through mud. Behind the glider, the cover was better but would leave the Germans with the initiative.
Signalling to the men, Smith ordered some of the riflemen and the Bren gunner to put down covering fire. He called to the others.
“When we start the assault I want you to get ahead to the low fence and support us with close fire.”
The men nodded in acknowledgement. The British trained in a bizarre ritual known as the Mad Minute, something that had passed on from the Great War. It used to be where they would fire fifteen aimed bullets into a target at three hundred yards within one minute. Many riflemen could average twenty five shots, while others yet could make near an incredible forty shots.
Keeping low, these men with the highly accurate Lee Enfield No.4 rifle put down a continuous rain of accurate shots. The bolt-action rifles were famed for their fast actions and in seconds the Germans were forced to halt their attack. The Bren gunner fired short, accurate bursts and supported the fire of the riflemen. The other paratroopers, along with Smith, advanced in a loose skirmish line through the field. Keeping their heads down they made slow progress across the field but the supporting fire kept the enemy busy. The poor light and the confusion on the part of the Germans, the incoming fire hit all around the glider but not the paratroopers. Within two minutes the ten soldiers had crept to within one hundred yards of their position. They kept low and looked to Smith for the signal.
Watching carefully, Smith observed the enemy position. The actual area consisted of a large single storey building with several barns and ancillary buildings near it. Out in the open was a Sdkfz 251/21 Schützenpanzerwagen. These halftracks had become synonymous with the German military and provided light armour and mobility for the infantry. More worrying though was that this vehicle was the mit Fla MG Drilling version, the model designed for anti aircraft usage. Mounted onto the vehicle was a substantial triple 20mm autocannon mount. If they could reduce the elevation enough they could use this weapon against them.
Around the vehicle a dozen men were scattered taking cover behind barrels, ammunition boxes and containers or behind previously erected sandbag emplacements. Smith double-checked, he couldn’t see any support weapons such as machine guns or mortars. These men had the advantage of cover, armour, weapons and also knowledge of the local terrain.
Smith whispered to his tough second in command, Lance Sergeant Peters.
“Take Jones, Humphreys and Cha
rd and to the right, we’ll hit them on the left, you will flank them and stop any escaping, we’ll drive the survivors to you.”
Peters nodded in agreement, “Sarge.”
He turned back and whispered to the other three men who then slipped off through the thick grass to the right. Smith and the other men continued their move forwards and more to the left till they reached the cover of a broken wooden fence, marking the perimeter of part of the farm. The German position was now facing long range rifle and Bren fire from their front and both sides faced two groups of British soldiers.
The rifle fire and suppressing fire from the Bren continued from the men positioned at the glider. Smith double-checked his unit, they were ready. He gave the signal and they started the assault. The start of the attack was created by half a dozen Mills Grenades exploding around the line of Germans. Moving quickly, Smith was over the broken fence and jogging forwards. Taking cover behind a piece of old farm machinery he loosened off half the magazine at a group of confused Germans. Two were killed instantly and another three tried to escape from the fire but were gut down by Smith’s colleagues. They left their cover and pushed ahead.
With the fight now well and truly underway the group of riflemen and L/corporal Cable with his Bren lifted themselves up and moved forwards towards the ongoing battle.
Smith and his group had taken the first German position and were left with the seven Germans dug in around the halftrack. Spreading out, the British continued putting down fire on the Germans but were now finding it hard to hit them with their reinforced cover. The main assault team was now lying prone, exchanging fire between three Germans in a sandbag emplacement and another three who had retired to the cover of the large building behind the halftrack. The final German was climbing up the side of the halftrack, perhaps to reach the heavy 20mm autocannons. With a single crack from an Enfield No.4T sniper rifle, Private Trent shot the man cleanly through the throat. The man tumbled to the ground, grabbing at the gushing wound.
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