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 First Fatality of D-Day? While Lt. Den Brotheridge, taking part in the capture of Pegasus Bridge, is considered to be the first allied soldier killed in action, L/Cpl Fred Greenhalgh (3449663) was possibly the first fatal casualty of D-Day on 6th June 1944. Who was he and how did it happen? Fred was born in 1915 in Chorlton, Lancs, the son of Sam & Lily Greenhalgh. The Greenhalgh’s…
Johnny Granville joined the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment as a Second Lieutenant in August 1936, when the Battalion was in India. He quickly made his mark as an instructor and as a polo player in the regimental team, as well as a fine shot. Posted home early in 1940 he was appointed Adjutant of 7th. Battalion of the Regiment as it was formed in Aldershot. As the Battalion expanded…
Letter from Major John Howard in Normandy, 1944 These brief diary-style letters from Major John Howard DSO were published in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Quarterly Journal November 1944 and cover his experiences in the months following the successful operation to capture of the Caen Canal and Orne River bridges which he led. In the two brief entries he describes everything from his experience of landing to the quality of his…
Day by Day: A 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Diary, June 1944 After individual accounts from officers in our last two Pegasus Stories, this time we’re sharing a broader regimental account which covers the men’s experiences day by day, and at times hour by hour, following their gliderborne arrival on 6th June 1944. Building on details from the last two accounts we posted, we hear more about the…
Pegasus Stories: Captain Priday’s Account As anyone watching The Pegasus Bridge Story will know, five of the six gliders that made up the ‘coup de main’ party tasked with capturing the Orne River and Caen Canal landed remarkably close to their objective, and soon after had successfully taken them both. However one landed about 8 miles off course at another bridge near Varaville, over a different river – the Dives. The…
Pegasus Stories Following the success of The Pegasus Bridge Story, a Lockdown Lecture produced in co-operation between the Army Flying Museum and Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, we’re posting a series of blogs which include accounts of the events surrounding D-Day and the capture of the bridges from individuals involved – many written in the months that followed. In this first Pegasus Story is an account of Parachute operations in the early…
The Pegasus Bridge Story – SOFO Thanks You After a few unfortunate technical issues meant we initially had to reschedule what would be our first online talk, the Pegasus Bridge Story succesfully broadcast to an audience of over 800 viewers from 7pm on Thursday 21st January and many, many, more watching the archived video of the lecture over the following days. While the talk was the first in what we…
