D-Day: 6th Airborne Division’s Glider Four Encountered An Unexpected Turn of Events

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Raynor was on one side of the road and Priday on the other. When Hooper and the German were only 10 yards from them they shouted out together, ‘Jump, Tony!’ Hooper jumped into the ditch to get away from the German, and as he did so Raynor and Priday each emptied a full magazine in the direction of the enemy soldier. Several of the other paratroopers also fired, and the German went down. But as he fell he pulled the trigger. A spray of bullets cut Priday’s map case in half, and one bullet tore into Sergeant Raynor’s arm.

The men of Glider No. 4 set up a defensive position for the rest of the night. As the gray light of dawn approached, Corporal Clive saw a Frenchman with a young boy approach the bridge from the east, where the surrounding fields were swampy and flooded. By this time Priday had figured out that his group was probably some distance away from its actual target. He confirmed their location with the Frenchman and boy, who told the paratroopers how to get to their objective.

Priday then briefed everyone that they were at the wrong bridge and sent his men off to join Howard. One by one, the men descended from the roadway and began moving through the flooded fields toward the town of Robehomme.

After almost three hours of exhausting wading, the paratroopers came to a farmhouse. Although the British troops stopped short of entering the dwelling itself, since they knew the Germans were likely to execute anyone who had helped Allied forces, they explained who they were to the inhabitants and then moved inside a thatched outbuilding.

Suddenly a group of Germans arrived on the scene, parking their motorcycles with sidecars in the yard not 20 yards away from the hidden British troopers. Raynor later estimated that 30 motorcycles showed up. As the British force had a specific job — to get to the bridge and take it — they did not engage the enemy troops, remaining out of sight.

After two hours, the motorcycles left one by one. Only then could Priday’s force move on. They finally arrived in Robehomme, where they met up with some Canadian engineers and other paratroopers who had become separated from their units. Raynor at last had his arm attended to, and the force was able to follow some dry roads toward Ranville, evading German units along the way.

At 3 a.m. on June 7, Priday’s force made it to the objective and linked up with the rest of Howard’s glider force. He had led his own men and all those who joined him at Robehomme safely to Ranville. A surprised and delighted Howard, who had given them up as lost, greeted them joyfully.

Company D, Ox and Bucks, had succeeded in its daring mission and had actually captured three bridges on D-Day — one more river crossing than the paratroopers had originally had in their sights. In doing so they had achieved one of the most important victories of D-Day and added new luster to the mystique of Britain’s airborne forces, the ‘Red Devils.’

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Airborne Operations, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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