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Titch Rayner
| Sergeant Titch Rayner (deceased) Titch Rayner served with the British Parachute Regiment. On D-Day he was flown into France on Horsa glider No.4, which landed off target due to a navigational problem. With the element of surprise gone, he and his fellow Paras had to fight their way through to Pegasus Bridge. He died on 2nd April 2015. |
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Tactical Support by Richard Taylor. With bright yellow spinners and distinctive twin-booms glinting in the June sunshine, two P-38 Lockheed Lightnings of the USAAFs 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group hurtle low over Pegasus Bridge as they race across the Normandy landscape shortly after the D-Day landings, June 1944. Flying from their base at Kings Cliffe in Cambridgeshire they have today been tasked to support the advancing allied forces; they will strafe and bomb the enemy lines, destroying enemy communications, armour and ground targets, causing as much chaos and disruption as they can. Dangerous work, these low-level missions, but tasks that the tough P-38 pilots relish. A few days before, the bridge below had witnessed a very different scene. The first action on D-Day happened here when, moments after midnight on the night of 5th - 6th June, three gliders swooped silently from the sky to land within yards of their target - this vital road bridge across the Caen canal. Major John Howard and men of the 6th British Airborne Division were to seize and hold this strategic point. After a brief but furious fire-fight the stunned German defenders were overwhelmed and the bridge captured. The Invasion of France had begun, and for the Germans it was the beginning of the end. Hitlers much vaunted armies had begun their slow bitter retreat to the end that was the burning hell of Berlin. When it came to hammering German ground forces in the days after D-Day, Lockheeds outstanding P-38 Lightning gained an awesome reputation. Richard Taylors evocative new painting recreates the scene over Pegasus Bridge shortly after D-Day as a pair of P-38 Lightnings thunder inland in support of the advancing allied armies. Below, signs of the recent action are still plainly visible as trucks and their exhausted drivers hasten back to the beach-head to collect reinforcements. |
The Longest Day Begins - Pegasus Bridge by Geoff Lea Features the successful Horsa glider borne assault on the Caen Canal bridge at Benouville in Normandy at approx. 00.15hrs on D-Day, the 6th June 1944. Troops from the second battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry led by Major John Howard took the bridge which later became known as Pegasus Bridge. |
Piper Bill, Pegasus Bridge, Normandy, 13.00hrs, 6th June 1944 by David Pentland. Commandos of 1st Special Service Brigade, led by Lord Lovat, are piped past the defenders of the Caen canal (Pegasus) bridge by piper Bill Millin. The bridge was originally taken in a coup de main attack by the gliders of 6th Airborne Divisions D Company, 2nd battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, led by Major John Howard earlier that morning. Shortly afterwards the glider troops were reinforced by 7 Parachute Battalion, and together they held the area against German attacks until the main British forces landing at Sword beach could fight through to join them. |
Operation Mallard by Ivan Berryman. Halifax Tugs Towing Hamilcar Gliders. Halifax glider tugs of 644 Squadron based at Tarrant Rushton head out across the English Channel with their Hamilcar gliders as part of Operation Overlord in June 1944. The mighty Hamilcar was capable of carrying an 8-ton payload, which was the equivalent of two Tetrarch light tanks, and was used both in the Normandy invasion and at Arnhem. |
D-Day Invasion : Tribute to the Glider Troops by Ivan Berryman. A tribute to the glider crews and airborne troops who participated in the glider operations during D-Day. The British Horsa glider (known as the flying coffin) was used by British, Canadian and American airborne forces during the invasion. Approximately 100 glider pilots were killed or wounded during the D-Day operations. |
D-Day, Sword Beach, Normandy 1944 by David Pentland. After suppressing the initial German defences, the Sherman Crab flail tank of Lance Sgt Johnson, 3 Troop C Squadron the 22nd Dragoons, 79th Armoured Division, clears a path through a minefield to allow tanks of 27th Armoured Brigade, and men of 3rd Infantry Division to breakout from the beaches. Fire support from surviving Sherman DD (amphibious) tanks of 13th /18th Hussars (QMO), proved invaluable in the initial push towards Caen |
Coup de Main, Pegasus Bridge, Normandy, 6th June 1944 by David Pentland. As a prelude to the invasion of Europe, certain important targets were attacked by airborne forces. Among them the bridge over the Caen canal which would protect the allies left flank. Major John Howard (D Company Ox and Bucks Light Infantry) gliders achieved complete surprise and the bridge was taken in a matter of minutes. Ever after it has been known as Pegasus Bridge in honour of the airborne forces emblem. |
Closing the Gap by Robert Taylor. As Typhoon Mk1b fighter-bombers of 247 Squadron exit the target area near Falaise at full throttle, the havoc wreaked in their wake bears witness to the devastation of their powerful rockets. Fuel and ammunition from the retreating German column explode with shattering detonations, the savagery of the attack demoralising the enemy into stunned oblivion. The Typhoons will hurtle back to base to re-arm and hastily re-fuel, ready for yet another withering strike on the encircled Wehrmacht columns. This stunning rendition from the the worlds premier aviation artist pays tribute to the brave young RAF fighter pilots of the twenty squadrons of rocket-firing Hawker Typhoons who flew those perilous ground attacks during the Battle of Normandy. |
Liberation - Sainte Mere Eglise by Richard Taylor. For nearly four years, the swastika had flown belligerently over the small town of Sainte Mere Eglise in Normandy. Suddenly, shortly after midnight on the night of 5/6th June 1944, parachutists from the 82nd Airborne Division began landing in and around the town. By 04.30, after a tough fire fight, troopers from the 505th PIR had raised another flag over the town - the Stars and Stripes - and Sainte Mere Eglise had become the first town in Normandy to be liberated by the Allies on D-Day. Sherman tanks landing on nearby Utah beach with the US VII Corps were soon passing through the newly liberated town on the way to the front. |
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