Staff Sergeant Leslie J Catt

Leslie Catt was the son of Gabriel John and Margaret Catt, of Ore, Hastings, Sussex;  and husband of Pauline May Catt, of East Hendred, Berkshire.

He joined The Royal Sussex Regiment on 3 January 1939 as a boy soldier, while only 16 years old. Leslie Catt volunteered for airborne forces and the newly formed Glider Pilot Regiment when he became old enough for adult military service and it is possible that he took part in airborne operations in the Mediterranean in1943.

As a member of 17 Flight he took part in Operation Mallard, the reinforcement lift of the 6th Air Landing Brigade on the evening of D-Day, 6 June 1944. Taking off from RAF Harwell he flew as first pilot of a Horsa glider with men of the 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and 195 Field Ambulance to LZ W on the west bank of the River Orne in Normandy. He landed the glider safely with his second pilot Lieutenant CHD Michell, and they were withdrawn back to England the next day.

His next mission, with second pilot Sergeant P Harrison, was Operation Market-Garden - the massive airborne landings in Holland. He took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton as the first pilot of a Horsa glider (Chalk number 922) carrying men and equipment of No 1 Platoon, 250th Light Composite Company, RASC on Monday 18 September 1944, bound for LZ X near Renkum. Again he landed the glider successfully.

He was able to withdraw back across the River Rhine after nine days of battle, but had been slightly wounded during the fighting.

Staff Sgt Catt next took part in the largest single lift airborne mission of the war, Operation Varsity, the combined British and American assault across the Rhine in Germany.

Unfortunately this was his last operation, as he was shot down and killed in his glider on 24 March 1945, aged just 22 years.

Staff Sgt Leslie Catt now lies at rest in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany.