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Memories by Paddy Devlin, who was an actual passenger on the Glider which was being towed when the Dakota belly flopped as in the account by the Glider pilot RAF BROADWELL (TRANSIT CAMP) OXFORDSHIRE
EARLY JUNE 1944
We were taken in T.C.V.s fully kitted, with our weapons to this wartime airfield, we were not told its name or where it was and as there were no signposts on the road we had no idea where we were. We did not stop on the way and we were told not to speak to anyone. We drove straight in via the village through an entrance wire gate into a barbed wire enclosure to where tents had been pitched on the grass. We were not allowed out and once we were briefed and knew where we were going to land on ‘D’ Day June 5, postponed to June 6, anyone who entered our camp, and that included civilians, had to remain inside until we left in our gliders. I went over to Broadwell when I was stationed at RAF Brize Norton as a Warrant Officer in 1973, the airfield had been returned to farmland, the concrete runway was still there but you would never realise that it was from this place the 9th Para Battalion and IRUR had flown to Normandy on ‘D’ Day June 6, 1944. I was able to walk around the village for the first time and visit the old church and its graveyard. A nice peaceful place.
In June 1944 we were a vastly different battalion to the Summer of 1942. It was now commanded by Lt Col CARSON; 2 i/c was Major RICKORD; the RSM GRIFFITHS was the only one since I joined the RUR and he was still there on ‘D’ Day. We now had 5 Companies, A, B, C, D and Anti-tank with their 6 pounder anti-tank guns towed by jeeps. I have no great memories of the other companies, I think ‘A’ was commanded by Major VICKORY. Our company ‘C’ was commanded by Major (Darkie) HYNDS and it was approximately 120 strong, consisting of 4 platoons and Coy Headquarters.
Coy HQ Major HYNDS, North Irish Captain Huw WELDON, Welsh CSM McCUTCHEON, North Irish CQMS BOYCE, London Irish Orderly Room Cpl McCABE, Dublin Batman/Runners Rfn WALLER, Dublin and one other RAMC Medical Orderly Cpl Taylor, English 15 Platoon 16 Platoon Each consisting of approximately 28 men ie 3 sections 17 Platoon and Platoon HQ 18 Platoon
18 Platoon Lt Mike GANN, London Sgt SAINSBURY, English Midlands Batman/Runner?
No. 1 Section Cpl Bert REDMOND, English (7 only) L/Cpl ? Bren gunners Rfn John LUCY, N. Irish No. 2 Bren Rfn Charlie McCREA, N. Irish Sniper/Scout Rfn Paddy DEVLIN, Galway Riflemen (2) Rfn RUSSELL, N. Irish Rfn Herbie TATTLE, London
Cpl Geordie REDPATH, N. Irish; L/Cpl Geordie GIBBS, N. Irish L/Cpl Sammy (Sando) BARR, N. Irish and Rfn Bertie BIRCHALL, Birmingham, were in No. 2 and 3 Sections
In my section LYCH and McCREA had replaced JACKSON and HUNT when they left to join the London Irish and the SAS respectively in the Autumn of 1943. John LUCY was a pal of mine, both him and McCREA had been in India, regular soldiers and they were a worthwhile addition to my section because of their experience. John had been in Coy. Stores, as Fenian Dick’s right hand man. I sometimes gave them both a hand when needed and they made a good pot of strong tea. The colour Sgt always called me “Wee Joe” after the N. Irish politician “Wee Joe Devlin”. Charlie McCREA took care of the battalion showers, always walked about wearing a white singlet and well pressed clean denim trousers, hardly ever wore his beret. But as they were both medically A1 they had to return the rifle platoons to prepare for ‘D’ Day. They both knew how to scrounge tea from the cooks, which was a godsend on manoeuvres. To get back to the transit camp where we were billeted in 2 man Army tents, and slept in blankets on the grass, good job the weather was fine and warm when the sun shone. We were told to rub mud into our webbing equipment and paint all our brass with black paint, including our large pack which was sent by sea and included our spare set of clean clothing ie shirt, socks, underwear etc. We were 2 small packs, one on the back and the other on the right hip, 2 bren pouches, entrenching tool, toggle rope, weapon, 100 rounds 303 ammunition, 2 primed hand grenades. We were issued with 2 24 hr ration packs, which we were expected to make do with until the 15 man ration boxes would be available for issue. These took a week in the event at Breville. But John LUCY got a large packet of bully beef for sandwiches for each of us from the cooks and we also had our scrounged tea, sugar and tinned milk. The briefing on the sand table of the area we would land and the location of our objectives was done by platoons. It was a very detailed sand table using plasticine models for villages showing individual houses, roads, lanes, woods etc. They also had a room full of photographs lining the walls, mostly aerial photos taken by the RAF. The Captain who briefed us was unknown to me, he had a large wad of A4 copious typed notes which he had to keep referring to, whilst doing this, unobserved by him, Charlie McCREA picked up one of the houses and rolling it between his hands he fashioned what looked like a tall factory chimney which he placed bang in the middle of our glider landing zone. When the Captain continued with the briefing he asked him what it was. The Captain looked at it and said “that’s odd I haven’t noticed it before,” so back to the notes, while we, including the NCOs kept straight faces, it was still there at the end of the week while all the other platoons were briefed. Lt GANN wasn’t briefed with us, he had a separate briefing, Officers only. I expect they were told more than we needed to know. Once briefed, we were told we could write letters which would be censored and not posted until we were in France. We also had a pay parade, 200 French Francs (military money) 3 condoms, would you believe, and the beer bar tent was open each evening, no NAAFI. We had a pep talk by our Brigadier KINDERSLEY, who told us we were fighting for our King, Country and heritage. Well he was, or became, a Governor of the Bank of England and didn’t seem to know he was talking to a lot of neutral Paddys who had a job to stop laughing. Now if he had said we were going to kill the Boche it would have made sense because that was the main reason and we did not need any bullshit. I must admit that when we were told we would not fly in until the evening of ‘D’ Day because the Germans had put tall poles with Teller anti-tank-mines on top of them on the landing zones, these would have to be removed by the paratroops, I thought we will get a hot reception, but I did not let it bother me. Relaxing outside my tent one afternoon, there was an almighty explosion, ‘B’ Coy had succeeded in killing some of them and wounding their Commander, an aggressive type, it must have maddened him and he was replaced by Major RICKORD who had been left behind at Bulford. I have read since that, most soldiers were worried and fearful on ‘D’ Day, well our platoon boarded the glider quickly, laughing and joking, no signs of fear there. I had been bored with the waiting and I was glad to be on the way as that was what I had joined to do. We sang a while during the flight and I remember humming in my head a popular song of the time, ‘It makes no difference now’, it didn’t. I was disappointed that we weren’t going to land directly onto our objective, the village of St Honorine La Chardonnerette as I knew it would be a damn sight harder to get it if the Germans had time to fully occupy it. We were to land in the large grass and corn fields north of the village of Ranville, with, we hoped, poles removed. Even though the weather wasn’t that bad in our area we were informed that ‘D’ Day was postponed and then later informed that it was to be the 6th. We shared the transit camp with the 9th Para Battalion and when they left late on the night of the 5th I was fast asleep and did not even hear them take off in their Dakota aircraft. Next morning the first news we had was the BBC 8 o’clock main news, nothing before that and I had been up since 6 o’clock. Later we were told that 6th Airborne had captured all their objectives and that the poles had been removed. A lot of this was untrue, especially the poles, it was done to keep our morale up and we did land successfully despite intense 2cm light anti aircraft and rifle fire and the poles the paras had not been able to destroy as they had to defend themselves throughout the day and could not get near them. They were damn glad when we arrived as the Germans backed off giving them respite as they thought we were another airborne division arriving and not just 2 Battalions of the 6th Airlanding Brigade with light tanks, anti-tank guns, Brigade HQ and ammunition and stores etc. The Devons had to come by sea, not because there was a shortage of gliders, the RAF did not have enough tug aircraft to tow them. We got ready in the middle of the afternoon after a good midday meal and we were taken across to the runway where our gliders were lined up in single file on both sides with the tug aircraft parked off the runway at a 45 degree angle facing towards the take off. As each combination sped down the runway the next tug would taxi into position and when the rope was taut, it would speed on its way at one minute intervals. We were shown our individual platoon gliders and then took it easy until told to get dressed in our equipment and get on board. I was pleased we were going, this was what I had volunteered for and it was a nice fine evening, good gliding weather and soon we were on our way. Well not quite, as far as 18 Platoon were concerned. We became airborne a few feet up and then we veered off to the left and landed back on the grass, the glider pilot had released the tow rope. Why? Well looking out of my port hole window there was our tug aircraft careering down the runway on its belly, the pilot had pulled up his undercarriage too soon after he became airborne forgetting he was towing a fully loaded glider which caused it to drop back on the runway. When we halted someone remarked that, ‘D’ Day was over for us. Meanwhile take off by the other gliders continued as soon as the RAF pushed the offending aircraft clear of the runway. The other glider passengers would not even know that there was a problem as they awaited their turn to take off. We were told to sit tight and soon the RAF hitched a tractor onto the glider and we were towed along the grass to the end of the runway where we were hitched to another tug aircraft the RAF had there as a reserve.
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