Normandy revisited 1994 by Norman V Ward

Normandy revisited 1994 – 50th Anniversary of D Day

Norman Victor Ward

4th June:  We arrived in Grangues to meet our host and hostess, Michel and Veronique Tafanel, breeders of pedigree Salers cattle.  We also met their children Marion and Julien.  The Tafanels proved perfect hosts and could not have made us more comfortable throughout our stay.  I met Michel briefly in June 1993, in his capacity as Mayor.  They gave us a comfortable en-suite bedroom in their large, beautifully restored 16th Century farmhouse, set in acres of parkland, and gave us the freedom to come and go as we wished.  Veronique’s parents were also there to meet us.  I became very aware that my conversational French is below par!

5th June:  We went to the ‘new’ Pegasus Bridge at Ranville to hear John Howard’s account of the capture of the Orne canal and river bridges at 016 hrs on D Day, 6th June 1944, and of meeting the Gondree family, owners of the small café near the bridge which today proudly proclaims to have been the first to be liberated in the invasion.  John commanded a coup de main party comprising 160 lightly-armed infantrymen of the 2nd Bn The Oxf Bucks LI of 6 Air Landing Bde, who landed in six Horsa gliders close by the bridges, achieving complete surprise.  John was accompanied today by his old glider pilot, Staff Sergeant Wallwork (who, assisted by his second pilot, accomplished an outstanding feat of airmanship on D Day, releasing his tow at 6000 feet and precisely navigating to land on the rough Orne Canal bank with his glider almost touching the bridge – in the dark).

John Howard is now forced to use a wheelchair, which Wallwork pilots brilliantly.  We crossed Pegasus Bridge (a larger version of the original) on foot, for coffee at the crowded Café Gondree.  Arlette Gondree Pritchard much in evidence, to the obvious delight of veterans.

We had a picnic lunch at Franceville Plage then on to the DZ at Ranville early afternoon to secure a vantage point for the drop of 1000 British, French and Canadian paratroops at 5.30pm, from 18 Hercules transport aircraft.  They landed successfully on our original 1944 DZ/LZ.  An interesting comparison, during para training in WW2, with only one parachute per man, mention was sometimes made of broken limbs or ‘roman candles’ – fatalities resulting from undeveloped canopies.  Chatting with some of the modern paras after they dropped from a safe height on this occasion, carrying a second parachute in case of emergency, the worst injury mentioned was a bruised backside.

I was reminded of a conversation at Chateau de Grangues last year with Jacques Mallet, now a retired gendarme, about his experiences as a forced labourer under the German Occupation.  He said he was made to work on the erection of ‘Rommel’s Asparagus’ (obstructions, mainly telegraph poles, placed all over open stretches of ground, which invaders might use as landing sites for airborne forces).  Refusal to do this work would have resulted in deportation to Germany as a slave worker.  With a little grin he said ‘we did not plant them very deep’.

After forming up, the troops marched past HRH The Prince of Wales and Duke of York before settling into the tented encampments erected in Ranville.  Enormous crowds, heavy security everywhere.  Prince Charles unveiled a bust of Major General Richard Gale, our wartime Divisional Commander, which now stands outside the Marie in Ranville.

We returned to Grangues before going to the Tafanels neighbours for dinner.  We then watch the Royal Yacht Britannia and escorting destroyer arrive off Dives.  Britannia was ‘dressed overall’ and floodlit – a fine sight from our vantage point in the hills – I wondered how our Government could justify retiring her.

6th June: Merville, our car was parked under French army guard, not far from the wartime German gun battery neutralised by a much depleted 9 Para Bn on D Day.  We were then bussed into Ranville for the commemorative service in the War Cemetery – this was a ticket holders event only.  It was very crowded and the village was decorated ‘en fete’.  Inhabitants leaned out of windows calling ‘Welcome’ and ‘Thank you’.

The music for the Service was by an RAF band and HRH Princess Margaret was present.  My wife Joyce was very saddened by the ages recorded on military graves.  The average seemed to be 20 though I found young Spencer Porter was only 18, he was a RN Telegraphist killed in a glider at Grangues – his name is recorded on the memorial there.

I did my customary tour of the graves of my companions-in-arms of 1944 from G Intelligence:

• Capt Johnny Max - GSO3
• Pte Pat Piper – RASC Clerk
• Capt Freddie Scholes – IO
• L /Cpl Sid Ellis

I met a few of the paras from yesterday’s drop, including some French Canadians, and two WW2 RASC Airborne unit of 6 Airborne Div, who suffered 50 casualties in Normandy.  I also spotted Mike Hensman Div HQ G (Ops) LO in the crowd.

We returned to the wonderful hospitality of the Tafanels for dinner.  Their hospitality grows by the day as does Veronique’s English vocabulary.  She learned English when she spent some time in Birmingham in her youth and was working on her language skills.  This is just as well as my schoolboy French is drying up – I have great difficulty in switching tenses and remain in the present tense most of the time.  Michel speaks little English but his breakfast coffee is fantastic!

7th June:  We accompany our hosts to Grangues’s tiny 12th C Church for the unveiling of a memorial to the 52 British and Canadian servicemen of the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and 6th Airborne Division, who died on 6th June 1944 or shortly thereafter.  Two Stirling bombers and four Airspeed Horsa gliders crashed in the grounds of the Chateau de Grangues.  These aircraft were about 10 miles off course.  They should have deposited their troops at Ranville.

A large crowd assembled for the ceremony, including a contingent of French standard bearers, a coach of Normandy Veterans Association members, the village band, a Scottish Lady bagpiper, representatives of most of the regimental associations/units of the servicemen named on the memorial, and relatives and friends of the dead men being honoured. 

Prominent in the proceedings were the Mayor (Michel), the de Noblets and the de Charnaces, members of the family from the Chateau, John Shinner 6th Airborne Division, a survivor from one of the Stirlings and a prime mover in the scheme to install the memorial, Michael Cassady, designer of the memorial, a few regional officials, VIPs and a British preacher. 

Included in the programme was the presentation of the French Government’s Anniversary Medal to ten British ex-Servicemen, or their representatives.  I was included in this number.

The programme consisted of speeches of welcome from various French officials, the singing of the Marseillaise and our National Anthem.  The memorial was unveiled with a blessing and an excellent rendering of the Last Post by a member of the village band.  The piper played a lament.  British and French organisations laid wreaths at the memorial after it was unveiled.  It comprises a bronze plaque set on a stone plinth, bearing the name of the dead, and the insignia of their respective units/Services, including the RN, RAF and RCAF.

I met Cliff Norbury and John Woodgate (Div HQ Staff) and John Shave RE para, who demolished the bridge at Bures on D Day, at the Vin D’Honneur at the Marie which followed and at which numerous French citizens expressed their pleasure at our visit and their gratitude for their liberation in 1944.  This was all the more impressive when one recalls the death and destruction inflicted by the Battle of Normandy.

I also met Margaret Max and Pat Ward, John Max’s sisters; and Pat’s son David, whose resemblance to John is uncanny.  John was my wartime boss who in 1942 invited me to join him in G (Int) in the newly forming HQ 6 Airborne Div at Syrencot House, near Figheldean, Wiltshire.  I last saw John  shortly before take-off from RAF Harwell, a little after midnight on 5th June 1944.  We travelled in different gliders, a deliberate tactic to minimise the effect of losses on any one unit.

A glass of wine restored us after the somewhat emotional proceedings at the Church, and put us on the road to the Chateau, where 120 guests were entertained to lunch.  I read on a tablet on the Chateau wall that an ancestor of the de Noblets accompanied William the Conqueror on his AD 1066 invasion of England; a link with our past and theirs.  In the most capable hands of our hosts Jocelyn and Margaret de Noblet, Hugues and Prisca de Charnace we relaxed and chatted with old and new friends over an excellent meal. 

Afterwards we were invited to participate in a walk to the wartime crash sites, the British preacher took the opportunity of blessing the clearing in the woods where German troops had murdered a glider pilot and seven RE Para prisoners of war on 7th June 1944.  John Shinner and Margaret de Noblet conducted the tour.  The son of the wartime gardener told us of the callous attitude of the Germans who refused help to injured servicemen trapped in the wreckage of one of the crashed Horsas, and simply allowed them to die.  He said they were all dead after three days.

Also on hand was Therese Mallet, wartime nursemaid to the de Noblet children, who compiled a clandestine diary of events at the time; this document is still in her possession.

We returned with the Tafanels, somewhat drained by the day’s events but revived sufficiently to accompany them to a small creperie in Dozule for supper with Veronique’s parents.  Her father clearly recalled events in the 1944 invasion and eagerly discussed them with me.

We departed in the morning, after bidding a warm farewell to our new friends, who made us promise to return.  After a brief visit to the now deserted churchyard to pay my respects we headed off in the direction of Northern Europe with much to reflect on.  We ignored hype and rumours of Anglo-French disagreements, we found all the events we attended were extremely well organised and run in a very efficient manner by the French.  We confined our interest to those areas familiar to me in 1944.  Our abiding memory is of the warm welcome extended by the citizens of Normandy.  We feel we are closer to them than media comment suggests and wonder whether some writers have ever visited France.

Why do veterans revisit battlefields?  I can only guess at the motives of others but in my case I find I am drawn back time after time to re-live events which ought to have been forgotten, but which obstinately remain crystal clear in my memory.

I do not forget my good friends who are buried at Ranville.  They did their duty.  I feel proud that we belonged to an elite division which performed brilliantly on its first operational mission, but that pride is heavily underlined with sadness at the cost in human life of achieving that success.

12th July 1994

NVW