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The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British troop-carrying glider used during the Second World War. It was developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited , alongside various subcontractors; the type was named after Horsa , the legendary 5th-century conqueror of southern Britain.
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.
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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.
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.
The Prince of Wales speaks to veterans at the Government of Canada ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Operation Freshman was the codename given to a British airborne operation conducted in November 1942 during World War II.It was the first British airborne operation using Airspeed Horsa gliders, and its target was the Vemork Norsk Hydro hydrogen electrolysis plant in Telemark, Norway which produced heavy water as a by-product.