This was published in the Cotswold
Life
in June 1984 to commemorate the 40th
anniversary of RAF Broadwell
D-Day on the Cotswolds
It is difficult now, some 40 years on,
to link the Cotswolds to the gigantic
assault upon Hitler's West Wall on 6th
June, 1944. Although the vast majority
of the Allied military might was
transported to Normandy by sea from the
south coast ports between Ramsgate and
Falmouth, their assault may have been
in vain if it had not been for the
airborne attack by parachute and glider-
borne troops upon selected objectives
inland. These objectives were chosen to
protect the flanks of the seaborne
forces from German counterattacks,
thereby assisting them to secure
beachheads and enable reinforcements to
be brought in.
The United States forces, both airborne
and amphibious, were tasked with
capturing beachheads along the eastern
side of the Cherbourg peninsula. The
objective of their airborne troops was
to secure routes and villages which
would enable the seaborne divisions to
move inland. They were flown to
Normandy in Dakotas and Waco gliders
from airfields in the East Midlands,
Berkshire, Devon and Somerset.
The British and Canadian assault on the
beaches on the Normandy coast to the
north of Bayeux and Caen, was preceded
by an airborne landing mounted from
Royal Air Force bases in
Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire
and Berkshire. Among these was the trio
of airfields controlled by No. 46 Group
of RAF Transport Command comprising
Broadwell near Burford, Down Ampney
near Cirencester and Blakehill Farm
near Cricklade. All three airfields
were of wartime construction and the
squadrons which flew from them were all
equipped with the ubiquitous air
transport workhorse, the Douglas C-47
Dakota. Broadwell had two such
squadrons, Nos. 512. and 575, Down
Ampney also had two, Nos. 48 and 271,
and Blakehill Farm one, No. 233.
In addition to their ability to carry
and drop parachute troops, all five
squadrons were skilled in towing the
Airspeed Horsa gliders. These, piloted
by soldiers of the Glider Pilot
Regiment, many of whom were trained to
fly at Stoke Orchard near Cheltenham
and at Northleach, were to carry into
battle, infantry, guns and jeeps. But
the. initial assault from the three
bases was to be mainly with paratroops
of the 8th and 9th Battalions of the
Parachute Regiment, which with the 1st
Canadian Parachute Regiment, formed
part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade of
the British 6th Airborne Division.
From RAF Broadwell and RAF Down Ampney,
the target for the 9th Battalion was
the Merville battery - a formidable
concrete bunker of lour 75mm German
guns which commanded the British
assault beach code-named "Sword".
Destruction of these guns was vital to
the security of the seaborne landing
and the ships standing off the beach.
RAF Blakehill Farm Dakotas and some of
the Broadwell and Down Ampney aircraft
were to drop the 8th Parachute
Battalion on a Drop Lone (DZ) some five
miles inland to give protection in
depth to the other British airborne
landings.
Many practices had been carried out in
April and May of 1944 by the Squadrons
from the three airfields, and the
fleets of Dakotas, sometimes towing
Horsa gliders, had become a familiar
sight to inhabitants of the towns and
villages of the Upper Thames
countryside. The area around Lechlade,
in particular, had been the scene of a
major parachute exercise in April.
On 25th May, 1944, the 9th Battalion,
Parachute Regiment, moved into a tented
transit camp near RAF Broadwell where
they, were to complete their final
preparations for D-Day, sealed off from
the local townspeople and villagers to
preserve security. They shared the camp
with the 1st Battalion Royal Ulster
Rifles who were to be transported to
Normandy in Horsa gliders later on D-
Day. The following days were spent in
detailed briefings, starting with
company commanders, clown through
platoon commanders to the final
briefing, on 30th May, to the whole of
the 9th Battalion. Maps, air
photographs and scale models gave every
man a detailed and accurate picture of
the battalion's objectives as a whole
and his own section's in particular.
On the morning of Saturday, 3rd June,
the battalion paraded in full jumping
order, complete with weapons and
equipment containers and moved off in
lorries to the airfield. Each lorry
carried one aircraft load, or "stick",
of paratroops, and drove to the correct
aircraft. There, parachutes were issued
and fitted and containers were attached
to the underside of the aircraft. Each
man marked his parachute with his last
two personal numbers and placed it on
his seat in the aircraft. This scene
was repeated at all the bases for the
airborne assault.
Take-off was planned for the evening of
4th June. Later that day, the commander
of 3rd Parachute Brigade, Brigadier
Hill, talked to all his officers. His
final remark was: "Gentlemen, in spite
of your excellent training and orders,
do not be daunted if chaos reigns - it
undoubtedly will!" Shortly after, news
was received that the invasion had been
postponed for 24 hours. Tension was
relieved and the teetotal rule relaxed-
but only temporarily, for early on .5th
June, it was confirmed that the
airborne assault would be mounted that
night. After resting in the afternoon
(they would probably get no steep for
24 hours apart from a doze in the
aircraft on the way to the DZ), the men
had tea, readied themselves, and
paraded at 8pm by sticks for the drive
to Broadwell airfield. By 10.45pm they
were all in their Dakotas.
In Kencot and Filkins, Down Ampney and
Marston Meysey, Cricklade and
Chedworth, the inhabitants went to bed
on Monday, -5th June, in a silence that
was ended as the 108 aircraft started
their engines on the three airfields
and carried out their final pre-take-
off checks.
At 11. l0prn, Wing Commander Coventry,
commanding No. 512 Squadron, pushed
forward the twin throttles of his
Dakota to full power at the end of
Runway 20 and took-off in the lead of
the 32 Broadwell aircraft. All aircraft
were airborne by 11.36pm into a
moonless fine night sky with some
medium level cloud. After take-off
their route was north-east to a turning
point between Chipping Norton and
Banbury, where they joined up with the
squadrons from RAF Down Ampney to turn
south-east towards London and then
south along a beacon marked route
across the south coast at the Air
Traffic Control Tower at RAF Broadwell
in 1984.
Worthing and on to Normandy.
At 12.50am on Tuesday, 6th June, the
green "Go" lights started to come on in
the aircraft as they reached the Drop
Zone and the men of the 9th Battalion
began to tumble out into an
unsuspecting France. The flight across
had been uneventful and although there
was light anti-aircraft fire as the
Normandy coast was crossed, no aircraft
were shot down. The troops, however,
were spread over 50 square miles as the
pilots had not been able to identify
the DZ positively, due to the
pathfinder paratroops' guiding beacons
being lost or damaged when they landed.
Only 17 Dakotas dropped their men on
the DZ, nevertheless, the Merville
battery was seized and silenced before
it could fire on the approaching
amphibious forces. Five officers and 65
men of the Parachute Regiment were
killed or wounded.
At RAF Down Ampney, the picture was
similar. Seven Dakotas towing Horsas
were airborne at 10.48pm, followed by
39 Dakotas with paratroops of the Ist
Canadian Parachute Battalion and the
Headquarters troops of the 3rd
Parachute Brigade. The Canadians'
objective was the destruction of two
bridges on the River Dives to the east
to prevent a German counter-attack.
Blakehill Farm saw No. 233 Squadron
Dakotas take-off at 10.50pm on 5th
June, the first six towing Horsas and
the following 24 with paratroops of the
8th Parachute Battalion destined for
Drop Zone K, near l scoville, a few
miles further inland from the Merville
battery. Tile battalion drop, in which
small numbers of Down Ampney and
Broadwell aircraft participated, was
also dispersed. Twenty aircraft dropped
accurately but 13 sticks landed on the
wrong DZ. Two aircraft were shot down
on the run-in.
On returning to their Cotswold
airfields, the aircrews were debriefed,
fed and rested, while their aircraft
were refuelled and prepared for the
next phase of the assault. This took
place later in the afternoon of
6th .tune, when the squadrons from Down
Ampney and Broadwell tookoff to play
their part in a mass lift of
gliderborne troops for a landing to the
east of the River Orne bridge which had
been captured during the previous
night. The troops in the Horsa gliders
were the Ist Battalion Royal Ulster
Rifles. They started to take-off at
6.40prn, the weather was fine and the
visibility 10 to 15 miles, allowing the
aircrews and troops to see the
escorting RAF lighters and, near the
Normandy coast, the river and adjacent
Caen Canal which was to be their
target. The drop at 9.00pm was a
complete success, with almost all the
gliders reaching the Landing Zone. One
Dakota from Broadwell and one from Down
Ampney were damaged by anti-aircraft
fire and ditched in the sea.
The
Commemorative Plaque at the end of
the runway at RAF Down Ampney in 1984
But D-Day had not yet finished for tire
Cotswold squadrons. As 233 Squadron at
RAF Blakehill Farm had not participated
in the mass glider assault, 30 of their
aircraft began to take-off at 9.30pm,
carrying ammunition and supplies for
the troops in the area of the Orne
bridges. With them were 10 Dakotas from
the other two airfields. It was a clear
night and all seemed set for an easy
run, but over the mouth of the River
Orne they were fired upon by Allied
naval vessels and many aircraft were
hit. Two were severely damaged and
turned back, one ditching in the
Channel. Five more were missing and the
rest so scattered that only a quarter
of the stores reached the soldiers on
the ground.
So ended D-Day on the Cotswolds. It had
been a day of contrasts - of contrast
between the aircrews who, having run
the gauntlet of German flak, returned
to the safety of England and an English
breakfast to prepare to go again, and
the airbome troops who descended by
parachute or glider to face days of
fighting and the possibility of being
wounded or killed. Of contrast between
the success of the evening mass glider
assault and the tragedy of the stores
drop. Many more days of action by the
Cotswold squadrons were to follow,
involving the evacuation, when landing
strips in Normandy became available, of
wounded troops to the hospitals at
Bradwell Grove and Wroughton.
Today, Broadwell airfield has returned
to farming, but the tarmac and concrete
remains, as does the shell of tire air
traffic control tower, no longer the
hub of the thousands of aircraft take-
offs and landings which took place
there. A road runs down one of the
runways and on a drive along it, it is
not difficult to imagine a Dakota,
perhaps with a Horsa glider swaying
behind it, accelerating at full power
to lift off and climb away.
Down Ampney, too, is back to
agriculture with its reminders of a
previous existence similar to
Broadwell's. It also has two other
signs of those days - a window in All
Saints Church which commemorates the
aircrews of No. 271 Squadron and the
men of the Airborne Divisions who flew
with them, and a memorial plinth at the
end of Runway 03, which is the focus of
an annual pilgrimage for many who
served at Down Ampney. Further south,
Blakehill Farm is now the site of a
communications organisation with a
large aerial dish astride the runways
from which men once flew to battle.
This clutch of airfields amongst the
Cotswold Hills played a vital part in
launching, 40 years ago, the British
airborne forces against Nazi-occupied
Europe. But their glory was not over,
on 17th September 1944, there was
Arnhem -but that's another story.
W.H. WILLLIANSON With acknowledgements
to Drop Zone Normandy by General Sir
Napier Crookenden and Action Stations 6
by Michael J.F. Bowyer. The author
would also like to thank the Museum of
Army Flying, the Airborne Forces Museum
and the Imperial War Museum.
In a silver cascade of metal and
smoke,
One by one...
The Spitfires peel off And drop
Almost perpendicular:
Quickened by the stroke
Of their powerful propellers
They flop
Ten thousand feet
And curve to level out
Behind their unsuspecting prey.
Too late he sees:
He dives and swerves
And turns about in vain
But can't escape the deadly spate
Of burning lead that rushes in his
side
Letting out life:
And marking where he dies
Wrapped in a pall of smoke,
A crimson pyre bums bright,
While overhead
The choir of Spitfires roar and dip
their wings
In tribute to the brave,
An aerial fugue over a Domier
grave.
JAMES CHARLTON
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The
Commemorative Plaque at the end of
the runway at RAF Down Ampney in 1984
