agonisingly slow trek through the afternoon to try to cover the four hazardous miles to Benouville.
At St Aubin d'Arquenay, all traffic was halted for a time because the road ahead was under
accurate enemy fire from nearby woods and from Benouville itself. 'From somewhere came the
order that, "We shall have to go and clear the buggers out", and we were told to fetch our small
arms and any grenades,' recalled Jim Holder-Vale. 'Almost at the same time, deliverance arrived.'
This 'deliverance' came from the skies - the follow-up waves of the British Airborne attack. At a
few minutes before 9pm, the men of F Troop watched awestruck as the sky suddenly started to fill
with Dakotas and Halifaxes towing 250 Horsa and Hamilcar gliders, bringing reinforcements of 6th
Airlanding Brigade into the Benouville bridgehead.
Minutes later, the gliders cast off from their towplanes and began sweeping into land, crashing and
tearing across fields and through hedges, straight across the line of advance of the six Bofors.
Nothing, it seemed, was going to stop them. `The Germans had planted the fields with huge poles
which ripped the wings off as the gliders landed,' George Baker recalled. 'But the Airborne poured
out, firing at anything - including us.'
As the glider troops sprayed machine gun fire, several infantrymen from the Suffolk Regiment, one
of the 3rd Division assault battalions, were hit and fell wounded by the roadside. The Bofors crews
also had to take cover, having possibly been mistaken for Germans. 'The reason, I am sure, was
because of our helmets,' recalled Len Harvey.
'Just before we left England, we had been issued with the new-style helmet which had a rim
curving slightly downwards towards the back. In profile, and from a distance, it could have looked
to the Airborne troops like a German helmet. I found out later that they were just following their
training - to get out of the aircraft as quickly as possible, firing all the time, until they could take cover
by the wheels. But their arrival threw everything into confusion.'
With the column of vehicles temporarily stalled by the Airborne landings, German snipers took
advantage - leading to a remarkable brush with death for one man of the 92nd. Bill Husband,
another driver-operator, tells the story: ' I was standing up in the cab of our lorry and two or three
trucks in front, a gun mechanic was also standing up. Suddenly, he disappeared.
what had happened, he showed me his tin hat. A sniper, probably in the wood, had taken a shot at
him. The bullet had gone into one side of his hat, parted his hair and come out the other side - luck!'
That evening, finally reaching the outskirts of Benouville, the Bofors crews found buildings still
occupied by snipers. One German was targeting the troop from the belfry of a church tower and
was rooted out with a blast of 40mm. The guns were also fired at short range directly into windows
and doorways and the troop took 12 prisoners. But, because of the disruption caused by the
Airborne landings, it was decided to dig in for the night on the approaches to the bridges, rather than
attempt a direct deployment in the gathering darkness. Huddled in their slit trenches, the men kept a
tense vigil until dawn. At 7am, F Troop finally deployed its guns - two around the canal bridge, two
around the river bridge, and two in between. Half an hour later, the first enemy aircraft - a squadron
of Messerschmitts - came roaring in and were engaged by the guns.
Throughout the next nine days, as the Germans tried to retake the narrow Airborne bridgehead east
of the Orne, the F Troop men were to endure a true baptism of fire, including 11 attacks by
formations of up to 30 aircraft. At the same time, persistent German shelling, sniping and mortaring
of the gun positions started inflicting casualties.
As the first day wore on, with the Bofors constantly in action, it became apparent that the troop's
expected reinforcements would not be arriving. Unknown to the gunners around the bridges, the
liberty ship Sambut, carrying the rest of 318 and RHQ to Normandy, had been sunk around noon
on D-Day by shellfire in the Dover Strait. Eight men of the 92nd died and all guns and equipment
were lost.
Despite this, the bridges had to be defended at all costs. On June 8, waves of FW-190s came in at
tree-top height to attack both crossings, and time after time were repulsed by the Bofors. The
following morning, more enemy aircraft were engaged and at midday the river bridge came under a
ferocious mortar barrage, lasting half an hour.
During the bombardment, the breech of Gun F3 was set on fire and Sgt A Clements risked his life
by courageously unloading its HE shells - earning a Mention in Dispatches. When the barrage finally
lifted, Gunners McCarthy and Lavender of Gun F3 were found to be wounded and were evacuated.
There were some bizarre moments. During one particularly fierce mortar attack near Pegasus
Bridge, when most men were huddled in slit trenches, George Baker glanced across from the gulley
where he had taken refuge and was stunned to see a padre from the Airborne calmly conducting
divine service. Another gunner, doubtless trusting to the greater protection of the Almighty, left his
own refuge and ran across to join in the prayers.