A BRITISH parachute unit formed part of the allied airborne force which was the spearhead of the second front. It was landed behind the German lines, seized vital positions, and then linked up with the allied forces which had landed on the beaches.

I watched the unit go to war at dusk on D-1 (the day before D Day), parading with everybody from its brigadier downwards in blackened faces and wearing the camouflage smocks and rimless steel helmets of the airborne forces. Each of the black-faced men appeared nearly as broad and as thick as he was tall by reason of the colossal amount of equipment he carries with him.

The brigadier and the lieutenant-colonel made brief speeches. “We are history,” said the latter: there were three cheers, a short prayer, and in the gathering darkness they drove off to the aerodromes with the men in the first lorry singing, incredible as it seems, the notes of the Horst Wessel song at the top of their voices.

The weather was not ideal for an airborne operation, but it was nevertheless decided to carry it out. The Germans would be less likely to be on their guard on a night when the weather was unfavourable for an attack. First were parachutists whose duty it was to destroy so far as possible the enemy’s defences against an air landing. Then came the gliders with the troops to seize various points, and finally more gliders carrying equipment and weapons of all kinds. Out of the whole force of aircraft which took the unit into action only one tug and one glider were shot down.

By the time the glider on board which I was landed it was very nearly daylight, and the dawn sky was shot with the brilliant yellows, reds, and greens from the explosions caused by the huge forces of allied bombers covering the seaborne attack which was about to begin. A force of Lancasters led by Wing Commander Gibson, V.C., put out of action a German battery which otherwise would have made the landing of troops on that beach impossible.

Meanwhile the parachutists had been busy and the inhabitants of the French villages near where the landings took place awoke to find themselves free again. In little knots they gathered at windows and at street corners and watched us. They were a little shy and a little reserved for the most part, probably because they remembered Mr. Churchill’s statement that feint landings would take place, and they reflected that if what they were watching was a feint then the withdrawal of the British troops would mean that they would be responsible once again for their actions to Himmler and Laval.

As D Day went on it was possible for us, studying the maps at the headquarters of the airborne division, to see the very high degree of successful surprise which the unit had achieved. German officers were captured in their beds in several places, and it became clear that the anti-air landing precautions were not nearly as thorough as the Germans had been trying to make out for the past two years. German prisoners proved a very mixed bag, but the generally poor quality of these troops was not unexpected, and it was realized that behind them lay some of the best units of the German Army ready to counter-attack. Later German tanks and Panzer Grenadiers in armoured lorries began their attack. When the fighting was at its most critical a large force of gliders carrying reinforcements flew right into the battle-zone, and circling round landed their cargoes, in spite of continued German shelling of the landing zone. These gliders turned the tide.

The countryside looked empty, but it still looked like posters advertising summer holidays in Normandy. Small bodies of British troops moved along under cover of woods and hedges. Here and there were the discarded parachutes of our troops. Scattered over the ground were the black shapes of our gliders.