Glider Bob and The D-Day Airborne Coincidence

Jenny and the Normandy Airborne Veterans

D-Day was and is destined to remain the largest ever seaborne invasion. The allies landed over 160,000 troops across 50 miles of the Normandy coast that day. Prior to the naval assault and beach landings around 24,000 airborne troops landed behind enemy lines to hold strategic positions to prevent enemy reinforcements from driving the allies back into the sea and to destroy a key battery that would have seriously hampered the invasion by destroying the allied ships before they dispatched their loads. Allied casualties were over 10,000 on D-Day with over 4,000 confirmed deaths but there is no doubt it would have been far worse without this vitally important support from the airborne divisions. There were many more casualties over the coming weeks and months, hundreds of thousands on both sides, but the importance of D-Day was for the allies to establish and secure a landing point in Normandy to enable them to liberate occupied Europe and ultimately bring the war to an end.

The coincidence relates to our Admin & Finance Manager at Astro – Jenny Tuckfield, and an old friend of my family. A very close friend of Jenny’s asked if she would be available to work as a volunteer helping the D-Day veterans on their pilgrimage to Normandy. I have always been interested in our history but in relation to D-Day I was always particularly interested in the airborne assault, especially involving gliders. One of my relations was in the Airborne Division and landed in Arnhem as part of the glider assault and a past good friend of my Father’s and friend of the family – Bob Cardy – was a glider pilot who flew gliders into Normandy and Arnhem. Bob died a few years ago but a year or so before that I had the honour of saying a few words at his 90th birthday lunch.

”…passports were not required in 1944, they would be required on this occasion!”

Just before Jenny left the office the day before she was due to assist the veterans she mentioned that she was to assemble at Middle Wallop. I asked her if she would be working with the Glider Pilot Regiment (GPR) veterans as I had enjoyed many conversations with Bob about his time with the GPR as well as his post wartime exploits with the Glider Pilot Regiment Association. By pure coincidence, Jenny’s good friend’s brother-in-law is Lt Col R W G ‘Nick’ Nicholls MBE. Nick was one of the youngest glider pilots in the GPR and is now The Glider Pilot Regiment Association President. I told Jenny about Bob and asked her to enquire if anyone remembered Bob.

During the assembly at Middle Wallop, Jenny asked if anyone remembered Bob. She said the response was over-whelming with so many of the veterans and members of the Glider Pilot Regiment Association pleased to see someone that at least knew of Bob and could represent him.

”When the gliders first landed her father Georges heard gunfire, explosions and shouting…”

The entourage left by coach to catch their ferry to Normandy. The ferry cruised away from Portsmouth carrying a number of very important people to a military salute and with fire barges firing their water jets into the air. Major Steve Elsey, Secretary to the GPRA mentioned in his instructions to the entourage that although passports were not required in 1944, they would be required on this occasion! Once in France the entourage advanced to their accommodation in Caen.

There were a number of events laid on for the veterans to commemorate their fallen friends and colleagues. These included the Pegasus Bridge memorial service where the first gliders landed prior to the seaborne invasion and a memorial service at Saint Vaast En Auge to commemorate 12 British & Canadian Airborne Soldiers who fell at Saint Vaast En Auge on D-Day.

Later that day there was the Normandy Dinner at the Cafe Gondre at Pegasus Bridge. Bob always spoke very highly of these dinners and in particular of Madame Arlette, the owner of the cafe. Madame Arlette’s parents Georges and Thérèse Gondrée owned the café before and during the occupation.

“Georges immediately celebrated by digging up 98 bottles of Champagne that he had buried in 1940…”

Madam Arlette and her two sisters were very small children in 1944. When the gliders first landed her father Georges heard gunfire, explosions and shouting and feared German troops were approaching so he hid his family to protect them. Georges and Thérèse had an active involvement with the French Resistance among other things passing valuable intelligence back to the allies regarding the German defences in the area. Madam Arlette said her and sister (one of them was too young to remember) were terrified and remembered vividly hearing the sound of the boots approaching on the ground and shouting. She believed she was going to be killed. When the family realised the troops were English they were so relieved. Georges immediately celebrated by digging up 98 bottles of Champagne that he had buried in 1940 when the Germans moved in to the area. Georges offered to share the Champagne to his airborne liberators so Major Howard ordered all of his men to report sick at the café so they could get their share of Champagne.

There were a number of guest speakers at the dinner including: General Sir John Learmont KCB, CBE; General Sir Alistair Bradshaw KCB, OBE and Madame Arlette who was a child when the allies landed in 1944. The evening finished with a Champagne reception at 2320 on 5th June to commemorate the allies landing and seizing control of Pegasus Bridge.

”…ordinary people completing extraordinary tasks literally against all odds and for many at the ultimate cost.”

On the 6th June 2014 the entourage attended the Airborne Memorial Service at Ranville Cemetry. Every year a local French school child takes on the responsibility of learning about one of the fallen allies and tending their graves. They are sometimes called upon to talk about the person in their care. This is a very effective way to teach history, after all, history is all about people. The children consider it a great privilege to be selected to tend the graves and while in Normandy Jenny witnessed many people young and old embracing or shaking the hands of the veterans in gratitude. Jenny said the demonstration of gratitude from people one two and even three generations later was overwhelming. The people that flew or sailed in to liberate Europe back in 1944 were ordinary people completing extraordinary tasks literally against all odds and for many at the ultimate cost. No wonder the locals treated our visiting veterans as celebrities.

Bob Cardy was a real gentleman, always smiling and laughing. In my Father’s circle of friends in The Little Common British Legion he was known as ‘Glider Bob’, to distinguish him from Guardsman Bob and Fighter Bob. Many years ago, I asked him how he came to be a glider pilot. He told me it was because he was fed up with running. He said he learned to run when he was part of the British Expeditionary Force being driven back to Dunkirk by the advancing German army. He was a sergeant and was responsible for getting himself and his troops back to the beach for evacuation. Having run so far in such adverse conditions Bob vowed never to run again and would look at his transfer options to a mobilised regiment on his return.

“…well I walked around that aircraft a few times before it dawned on me – it doesn’t have any engines!”

Being so motivated he broke one of the golden rules of the armed forces by volunteering for a new airborne regiment. The notice stated that all volunteers would need to undergo training to become a pilot. Bob said that he was required to lose a stripe to make the change but he felt that was a small price to pay. I remember laughing when Bob told me that when he was assigned to his new regiment after completing his pilot training he approached his aircraft with some apprehension. He said “I was shown the aircraft I would be flying and something puzzled me. There was something not quite right.” He went on to say “…well I walked around that aircraft a few times before it dawned on me – it doesn’t have any engines!” Interestingly, one of veterans gave Jenny a copy of his flight log and time sheet. The columns on the sheet are marked with the type of aircraft the pilot is flying – single engine, two engine, etc. These have a line drawn through them and handwritten at the top is states ‘Motorless’. Priceless!

The Glider Pilot Regiment’s motto is Nihil Impossibilis Est, meaning Nothing is Impossible. Some say the Glider Pilot Regiment was one of the bravest regiments in the army. To be asked to fly an aircraft made out of wood, designed to break in the middle, with no engines, no weapons, no armour and no navigation system, carrying 30 men or a mix of men and vehicles and fly behind enemy lines seems extremely unreasonable. Then you are asked to crash land the aircraft behind enemy lines with no runway or navigation lights while delivering your load safely to enable them to achieve their objective. That is undeniably close to asking the impossible. But, finally, as you are a valuable pilot you are tasked with machine gun in hand to get back home as soon as possible so you can do all this again. Nihil Impossibilis Est – very appropriate.

”The pilots had only a map, compass and stop watch for navigation. Yet they still placed their gliders down within metres of their targets.”

On 6th June 1944 it was vital for the allies to capture and hold the bridges at Benouville (later renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the airborne troops who wore a Pegasus badge on their shoulder) and Ranville. The assault team comprised 180 men of the 2nd Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry led by Major John Howard in 6 Gliders. These gliders were so accurate in their approach and landing that the surprise allowed Major Howard to achieve his objectives within 10 minutes. In addition to all of the above challenges facing our glider pilots, the gliders delivering Major Howard and his men landed at approximately 0020 so they were flying in the dark. The pilots had only a map, compass and stop watch for navigation. Yet they still placed their gliders down within metres of their targets.

The major advantage a glider affords over a parachute assault is that all of the troops are delivered in one place increasing the chances of the element of surprise. Paratroopers tend to be scattered across a fairly wide area and need time to assemble and by then the aircraft noise has alerted the enemy ground forces. So, as you can imagine a paratrooper invasion comes with greater risks. Gliders were sitting targets in the air and on the ground so the men and vehicles needed to be dispatched as quickly as possible, which is why the gliders were designed to break in the middle. Bob told me that when he landed he could not release his load of two jeeps a motor cycle and three engineers so he had to climb onto the fuselage while under fire with a hand saw to literally cut the glider open. This among other events that Bob was involved in feature in Alan Lloyd’s book ‘The Gliders’. I managed to get hold of a copy of The Gliders and asked Bob to sign it for me. Bob told me “You don’t want to believe all you read…” I thought Bob was going to tell me the reports of his exploits were untrue but then he continued “…it says in here I handed a gold cigarette case to a WAAF to look after before I flew out to Normandy. But, I never owned a gold cigarette case in my life!” Many people miss you Bob, you will never be forgotten.

So, what has this all got to do with communications? Apart from Jenny working for Astro Communications and my connection with Bob, communications played a massive part in the D-Day landings. All of the intelligence gathered by the Gondrées and other resistance workers and Special Operations Executive teams had to be relayed back to the UK. This would have involved radio communication at great risk to the operators. The BBC in the UK relayed pre-agreed messages back to the resistance in France via coded messages. With such a vast invasion force communication was vitally important to the whole operation. Wireless communications was even used on the mainland to fake a large build-up of invasion forces in Kent and the north of the UK prior to the invasion as part of a big deception to draw German defences away from Normandy. The overall deception referred to as Operation Fortitude was so effective the Germans were still expecting the main invasion in the Pas-de-Calais a month later. Tenuous links maybe, but without these ordinary people completing extraordinary tasks against all odds and with many paying the ultimate price I would not have been here to write this blog, I can’t think of a stronger connection than that.

To end at Pegasus Bridge with a little trivia, Major Howard was relieved by the 7th Parachute Battalion commanded by Captain Richard Todd, the famous British actor. Richard Todd played Major John Howard in the 1962 film The Longest Day. Another actor played the role of Richard Todd.