The 28 men of D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry sat in silence. As the huge plywood and steel glider – 67 feet in length and with a wingspan of 88 feet – began its final descent to the target, all that could be heard was air swishing down the fuselage and the co-pilot, John Ainsworth, counting down the seconds on his stopwatch, lit by a small hand-held lamp. Ainsworth then instructed pilot Jim Wallwork to turn 90 degrees to starboard. The second of these turns brought the glider on to a northerly heading. Directly ahead, clearly visible by moonlight, was the familiar outline of the Caen Canal Bridge that the pilots knew so well from the detailed model.
The five sappers and 23 officers and men seated behind the pilots were lost in their thoughts, each man contemplating what was to come and those he had left behind. Major John Howard had visions of his wife, Joy, and two children sleeping peacefully in their beds in Oxford. He could feel the small lump in his tunic’s breast pocket where he had placed one of his son’s first pairs of red leather shoes. Out of the open door he could see the river Orne and knew they were on course.
With the glider losing height rapidly, and rocking from side to side, Ainsworth yelled: “Hold tight!”
It was the signal for the men to adopt the brace position by linking arms and lifting their legs off the floor. Gripping their weapons tightly, the men tensed their bodies for impact. “I gritted
