Oxfordshire D-Day Stories: Abingdon’s D-Day Four – Guest Blog with Steve King
In this guest blog from Abingdon historian Steve King, he tells the story of four of the town’s D-Day heroes - at least one of whom will be instantly familiar to regular visitors and readers of the blog!
Abingdon’s D-Day Four
Steve King
3 June 1944 (D -2)
The greatest invasion force the world had ever seen has assembled along the south coast of England, from Cornwall to the Thames estuary, 6,939 ships and landing craft are in place and ready to take their cargo of 156,115 U.S, British and Canadian troops across the channel to Normandy.
On airfields throughout the land 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders were ready to deliver airborne troops, as well as to bomb strategic targets and provide combat support for the June 5th ‘D-Day’ invasion. Operation Overlord is the plan to form a bridgehead in Normandy from where allied forces will push out through France, Belgium, Holland and on to Berlin, but already the weather is playing a pivotal part with plans.
Local men too play their part in D-Day, and I'm attempting to tell the story (without a tear) of how the day goes for our four heroes from Abingdon. They are:
Major John Howard, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, from Burcot, age 32.
Major James Macrae Wicks, 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, from Abingdon, age 29.
Lieutenant Ray Belcher, 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, RAC, from Abingdon, age 20.
Squadron Leader John Viney, RAF Halifax Pilot, from Abingdon, age 24.
4 June1944 (D -1)
The weather is not good and the forecast for tomorrow’s invasion day is even worse. Field Marshall Montgomery and his staff are agonising whether to postpone or even abandon the mission as troops by the thousands are pouring toward their south coast embarkation ports to board their respective vessels for the overnight/early morning crossing and the subsequent battles that lay ahead.
Meanwhile, our four men are preparing for their own battles.
Major John Howard is giving final briefings to the 181 light-hearted men of 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, men of the Glider Pilot Regiment and Royal Engineers. Their mission, a ‘Coup de Main’ operation, is vital to the success of Operation Overlord!
Six Halifax "tugs" will take off at approximately 2300 hrs tonight towing six Horsa gliders carrying the force of 181 men from D and B Company, 2nd Bn, Oxf & Bucks LI.
Their objective is to let go from their tugs and crash land their gliders as close a possible to two bridges in Normandy, once there, they will storm, capture and hold the bridges until the invasion force proper can relieve them sometime later in the day!
Major James Macrae Corrie Wicks, Officer Commanding Support Company, is bound for Gold Beach. As one of the first officers on the beach his role will be to organise troops coming ashore into fighting forces then break out from the beaches.
Needless to say, he will be scrutinising every map available, so when the break out comes he'll know instinctively where to take his men!
Lieutenant Raymond Charles Belcher was granted an emergency commission in January 1943, and served in the Royal Armoured Corps. He subsequently served with the Airborne Light Tank Squadron, RAC.
The unit was expanded and redesignated as the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (6AARR) in January 1944. Lt. Belcher volunteered for parachute duties and attended Course 99 at RAF Ringway, which ran from 19 January to 3 February 1944, for parachute training.
He was placed in charge of the regiment's Harbour Party, which consisted of approximately fifteen men who were trained parachutists. Their role was to jump with the leading pathfinder units, reconnoitre and secure the area to which the regiment would later deploy by glider.
Squadron leader John Viney - his mission? To destroy the massive Nazi gun battery at Grandcamp-Maisy, situated just behind Omaha Beach. He is to take off just after 2300 hrs tonight from RAF Rufforth in his Halifax bomber of 158 Squadron, Bomber Command.
Today he's briefing his crew and readying his aircraft.
All Stop !
Meteorologists concluded the weather is too bad for tomorrow’s invasion, high winds, low cloud and sea swell with rough surf make for impossible conditions to launch such an invasion. So, the decision is made by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower to delay for one day, hence D-Day now becomes the 6th.
A dispatch rider (my father) rides through the night with new orders!
June 5th 1944 (D -1)
The waiting over, so it begins!
Our four men spend today going over and over their plans and as darkness spreads her veil across England our four are brimming with nervous anticipation.
The time is fast approaching 2256 hrs when the stillness of the night is shattered by a cacophony of noise, a combined 24 Rolls Royce Merlin engines burst into life as the six Halifax tugs, each one towing a Horsa glider and the men of D & half of B Company of the Oxf & Bucks Light Infantry, take off from their Dorset airfield and disappear into the night sky.
Each man has an idea where he's going, each man has an idea what to do, each man has an idea he's not coming back - 2nd Bn, Oxf & Bucks Light Infantry are about to make history
A few minutes later and next to be airborne is Squadron Leader John Viney, at the end of the runway patiently waiting for the green light to go. His Halifax bomber, code LV 920, call sign NPD is fuelled to the maximum, bomb bays loaded, gunners ready. He steers NPD on to the threshold, waiting - waiting - waiting and waiting, then a single green light at the end of the runway lights up - Green on - Go - and Viney's Halifax is up and on its way to Normandy, passing over Abingdon en-route!
Next up, at 2340 Hrs, is Lieutenant Ray Belcher and his crack team of Paras in their Short Sterling medium bomber EJ116, call sign QS-U, of 620 Squadron. Lt. Belcher and his team are on their way to Ranville, Normandy, but what fate awaits them? Will our Lieutenant ever see Abingdon again?
Meanwhile, Major Wicks and his men have now spent some 2 hours at sea, at night, in a landing craft and many were suffering from the effects of sea-sickness, for them it will be another 3 or 4 more agonising hours before they see land. ‘Jimmy’ Wicks’ thoughts momentarily drift to his parents back home in their house overlooking Albert Park and a snap shot of happy days. Back to the job in hand, and thinking of when the ramp goes down, he'll hit the beach praying adrenaline will take over from sea-sickness!
June 6th 1944 (D-Day)
At about 0020hrs this morning Horsa gliders carrying Major Howard and D elements of B company of the Oxf & Bucks crash land just 200 yards from their objective, 3 Horsa's next to one bridge and 2 next to the other. One has strayed, coming down some 7 miles away, however, the determined troops will still make their way through enemy territory and will manage to rejoin their comrades later that evening.
Breaking out of their broken gliders, these men were the first Allied troops to land on D-Day. Well rehearsed, with each man knowing his position, they stormed the two bridges, surprising and overwhelming the troops left defending them.
It's now around 0040hrs, 6 June, and the Oxf & Bucks LI have secured their objective. Major Howard is re-organising his men from an attack force to a defensive one, for the next hour or so they alone will fend off wave after wave of relentless attacks.
To a man they stand fast and repulse the enemy, but welcome reinforcements are at hand. From the sky, 7 Para take up the battle at the two bridges, and by the evening they eventually link up with their Oxf & Bucks LI comrades at the bridgehead.
As Lieutenant Ray Belcher and his 15 men of the 6th Airborne Armoured Recce Regiment approach the south coast and venture out over the channel, they realise they're past the point of no return.
Approaching the coast of Normandy, his Short Stirling aircraft is hit by a wall of enemy flak. The plane catches fire, detonating the shells, bullets and other ordinance aboard and subsequently crashed killing all on board. The crash site is deemed too dangerous for recovery of the bodies. Many months later, locals will persuade the Allies to arrange a military team to make it safe enough for the deceased to be removed.
Two members of Major Howard’s Oxf & Bucks LI are often regarded as the first fatalities of D-Day - however my research suggests Lieutenant Belcher and all on board EJ116 may have been the first.
Squadron Leader Viney's navigator has successfully plotted a course through a shield of Flak and anti-aircraft shells toward their target, steady, steady - and at precisely 0045 Viney's Halifax unleashes its deadly cargo directly onto the Nazi gun battery. "Bombs gone", came the shout over the intercom, and John Viney turns his Halifax "NPD" sharply to starboard, crossing the Cherbourg Peninsula and makes for the Channel Islands - while standing the mighty Halifax almost on its wing in an attempt to reduce its target area for the incoming flack. Once safely past Guernsey he then steers a course home.
At sea, Major Wicks and his men of the 1st Royal Hants (the Tigers) have another 2 hours to go before they hit their allotted position on "Gold" beach.
It’s around 0400hrs now, and a hint of light is appearing as the Nazis get their first sight of the seaborne invasion, as far and wide as German eyes can see, ship after ship appear over the horizon, while at the forefront is Major Wicks. The wind is blowing his landing craft further east than planned and as the ramp comes down they wade through the surf and run onto Gold beach, weighed down with kit. They come under heavy machine gun fire, Major Wicks takes a hit and falls to his knees, 2 or 3 or 4 seconds pass but he's up on his feet again, managing to organise his men, and leads them off the beach, silencing the MG en route.
They make their way inland to the village of Asnelles, where they liberate the village and capture 25 of their enemy. Children of the village rush to meet the "Tiger" Liberators. "Jimmy" Wicks receives first aid along with the offer to be evacuated home - an offer he rudely refuses. For his action today Major Wicks will be awarded the Military Cross.
By 0900hrs the invasion is well under way, more 7 Para are parachuting into Normandy.
John Viney has landed November Papa Delta safely back at base.
It’s 1400hrs and Major Howard and his men have been reinforced, he takes a moment to reflect on the day. Of the 181 men who crash landed and captured the bridges, two were lost. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge (Platoon Commander) was the first to storm the bridge, but was cut down by a rake of machine gun fire that cut through his neck and killed him. Lt. Brotheridge is thought to be the first allied serviceman killed in action on D-Day. Lance Corporal Fred Greenhalgh had been killed earlier when he was knocked unconscious during the landing, his glider slid into the water and he drowned, but there is much debate as to who was the first fatality of D-Day.
Back at base, Squadron Leader John Viney and his crew have a brief respite, but only brief. In a few hours, with the same crew in the same aircraft, they're up again, this time taking Halifax LV920 to bomb a railway yard in Germany.
Lieutenant Raymond Charles Belcher, son of Abingdon Wine Merchant B. C. Belcher, is buried along with the 24 other souls who perished in the crash at Ranville Commonwealth War Cemetery.
Ranville was the first place in France to be liberated from the Nazis, Ray, AKA ‘Bunny’, is remembered on the Abingdon War memorial. His son Anthony was born three months after his death.
Major James Macrae Corrie Wicks MC, son of Reginald & Eleanor Wicks of Park Road, Abingdon, was eventually cut down by German gunners while charging a machine gun post ahead of his men.
He is buried in the Hottot-les-Bagues cemetery, Calvados and is remembered on the Abingdon war memorial.
Major Howard retired to live in Burcot, he lived a long life, and is now buried in Clifton Hampden Church cemetery.
One of the bridges Major Howard's men of D Company, OBLI captured was re-named Pegasus Bridge.
After 50 missions in two tours, Squadron Leader John Viney was promoted to Wing Commander and awarded the DFC & DSO, eventually retiring after the war from the RAF at the rank of Station Commander. He is fondly remembered for his contributions to Abingdon Carpets and Viney's furniture stores.
We will remember them!
-Steve King
