The Sappers in the D-Day Gliders by Ingram Murray from issue 8 of Bugaland Saber, the military

history of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire magazine.

The plan for Operation Neptune, the invasion of Normandy, included the landing of three

airborne divisions on the flanks of the Seabond forces in order to protect them from counter-attack.

The landing zones of the Six Airborne Division laid to the east of Sword Beach, the eastern

most of the beaches, on an area of low-lying agricultural land overlooked by a ridge.

Between the landing zones of the beaches were two major water obstacles, the Khan Canal

and the River On.

To secure crossings over these obstacles, Major General Richard Windi Gale, the airborne

divisional commander, gave orders that two bridges over the canal on River were to be seized

by a Gliderborne Kudumar shortly after midnight on D-Day.

D-Company have the second battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry,

traditionally known as the 52nd Light Infantry, was selected for the task reinforced by

two platoons from B-Company.

Fourteen specially picked Glider pilots trained by day and by night, learning to bring down

their six horse-acliders in darkness on smaller and smaller landing areas.

Both bridges were built to open to permit the passage of vessels.

Within the importance and nature of the bridges, elaborate contingency plans were made to

ensure against the possibility that the bridges might not be seized or that they would be

demolished by the garrison jammed in the open position or taken back by counterattack.

A further concern was that they might prove too weak to support the passage of tanks over

the waterways.

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