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The two Horsa gliders, each carrying 15 sappers, ... On 5 June 2004, as part of the 60th anniversary commemoration of D-Day, ...
Twenty-one of the losses were on D-Day during the parachute assault, another seven while towing gliders, and the remaining fourteen during parachute resupply missions. [2] Of the 517 gliders, 222 were Horsa gliders, most of which were destroyed in landing accidents or by German fire after landing.
Staff Sergeant James Harley Wallwork DFM (21 October 1919 – 24 January 2013) was a British soldier and a member of the Glider Pilot Regiment who achieved notability as the pilot of the first Horsa glider to land at Pegasus Bridge in the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944, during the Second World War.
Pegasus Bridge, 9 June 1944; Horsa gliders can be seen top right where they landed. On the night of 5 June 1944, a force of 181 men, led by Major John Howard, took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, southern England in six Horsa gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also "Horsa Bridge", a few hundred yards/metres to the east, over the Orne River.
Glider operations started in October 1943 and continued until 1945. Airspeed Horsa gliders from Tarrant Rushton left for France on the eve of D-Day, to begin Operation Tonga with an action that would later become known as Pegasus Bridge. Among the glider pilots was Jim Wallwork, on a Horsa nicknamed Lady Irene.
Howard led 'D' Company and an engineer detachment, in a glider-borne assault in the early hours of 6 June 1944. [12]. Howard's Horsa glider was piloted by Staff Sergeant Jim Wallwork DFM and towed by a Halifax A.V bomber from 298 Sqn piloted by the squadron's commanding officer Wing Commander Derek Duder DFC DSO. The gliders were released at ...
The second group was destined to land at 03:20, and consisted of sixty-five Horsa and four Hamilcar gliders transporting the divisional headquarters and an anti-tank battery. The final group was formed of three Horsa gliders carrying sappers and men from the 9th Parachute Battalion, who were to land atop Merville Battery at 04:30. [33]
The first Allied action of D-Day was the capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges via a glider assault at 00:16 (since renamed Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge). Both bridges were quickly captured intact, with light casualties by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment.