Bingforce was built upon the men and vehicles of C Squadron, Inns of Court Regiment, accompanied by sappers and subalterns from the Royal Engineers. It was named after Lt Col. Bingley, CO of the Inns of Court, and comprised 24 officers and 124 men.
As a divisional reconnaissance asset for 11th Armoured Division, the Inns of Court were equipped with armoured cars – Daimlers and Daimler Dingos – and for this mission these would be accompanied by M5 half-tracks for the sappers and their equipment, organized into six half-troops mostly comprising one of each type of vehicle.
Arriving with the Canadians on Juno Beach, Bingforce were supposed to rush immediately inland with the primary purpose of manually blowing key bridges; secondarily they were to report on enemy movements. They had trained together for this for months.
After beaching late, one of their two landing craft was damaged by mined obstacles, causing casualties and further delays; this was compounded by more mine damage in the bottleneck to exit Juno. Many of Bingforce didn't get off the beach until almost noon!
Now running some six hours late, things got worse. In addition to inevitable detours and enemy resistance, Bingforce also encountered considerable ‘friendly fire’. This caused severe additional losses, but it was probably due in part to the strange decision to paint all their vehicles black, with Allied stars prominent only on the top: they are described in contemporary accounts as
