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We had not much time to get ready and March 24th came around a bit too quickly. However, all was ready in time and when we were all safely locked up in camps on the various airfields in Essex the last details of the plan were gone over. It was to be an ambitious operation and the first time that true tactical landings were to be made, i.e. platoons, companies, battalions, etc. were to land right on their objectives. We were aroused at 3 a.m. on March 24th and by 5.30 were ready in our gliders to take off. We had been standing about on the airfield and not very enthusiastic about life in general when Air Marshall Harris came round. He said "Boys, you've nothing to worry about. It will be just like an exercise. The RAF will have knocked out every flak gun for miles around by the time you get there." I thought he was a bit optimistic but was not prepared for the reception we did get. We had an unpleasant take-off. When the wheels had just left the ship yawed and the port wing just scraped the tarmac. It unsteadied the glider pilot who was not very happy for the rest of the trip. We were being towed by Halifax bombers at 20 m.p.h. above the usual cruising speed of Horsa gliders. My chief worry was that at the last moment we had been ordered to take two cases of rations and a box of Piat bombs which upset my carefully calculated pay-load. I had a loaded jeep and trailer and 9 men on board. However, we got into formation over Kent in the morning sunshine and very beautiful the English country looked. It was very cold at 2000 feet and ice formed on our glider windows. The trip over the channel and France, Belgium and Holland was not too good. In line ahead formation, your glider is right in the main slip stream and bumps about badly besides "yawing" (side slipping) . Several gliders came down at various stages (broken tow ropes). After four hours' flying the Rhine came into view and we dropped to 1000 feet. One could see the line of tugs and gliders stretching away ahead and down below the gun flashes and the dense pall of smoke over Wessel. We had now only a few minutes to go so all strapped in and slipped in the last piece of chewing gum. In another few minutes we had got there, and what a night! Instead of seeing the ground laid out like a map there was nothing but smoke and haze everywhere. The gliders, instead of releasing in order to port and starboard were drifting about all over the place while flak was bursting all around. The glider pilots were obviously lost and as we got the release signals from the tug plane I moved up between the glider pilots with photographs and maps. The tow cable went curving away in the air behind the Halifax and the screaming noise of the wind dropped suddenly to a gentle sighing sound. We were now conscious of the flak bursts and the nasty bumps under the wings while down below could be heard the faint rattle of machine guns. There were several gliders going down in flames around us and one exploded in mid air. I suggested to the pilots, who seemed undecided what to do, that the best thing would be to put the nose down and get down quickly. This we did with the immediate result that the case of Piat bombs slithered down the floor against the bulkhead and petrol spilled from the jeep tank. Just then a church spire came into view and the pilot pulled out in a steep turn. We saw a small field between two roads lined with houses and put down in a nice landing but the undercarriage came off against the wire fence and brought us to a standstill. there was a lot of noise and we were just in the act of getting the side door open when a hail of bullets splintered the hull. The two glider pilots were both wounded (one abdomen and the other severe compound fracture of the knee and arm). I decided to abandon the unloading drill and order the men out to the ground while the corporal and I dragged out the two pilots. We had just got them down behind the glider wheel when the corporal was killed by a shot through the head. One bullet nipped through the webbing equipment under my armpit. the orderlies did what they could for the wounded and we had to go back into the glider again to pull out the driver who had hit his head on the jeep in the landing and was concussed. We were in a nasty spot and another burning glider had just crashed behind the houses. We simply had to glue ourselves to the ground and hope for the best. the tracer bullets were hissing into the ground all around and it was impossible to move.

I decided to take a chance and after one more trip back into the glider to collect stretchers we made a dash for it carrying the two glider pilots with the now dazed driver tagging along behind. We had to leave all our equipment out there and the vehicles. Once inside the house we got cracking on the wounded and my men went out for some more lying near a nearby glider. Several German soldiers were now advancing over the field and were using our glider as cover. Further down the road we could hear the welcome sound of Bren guns and I could see some airborne men dodging about in a back garden. Two of my men using 2 sub-machine guns we had brought into the house finished off the Germans in the field, and in a few more minutes men of the 12 Devon Bn. were coming up. We had landed right on top of Hamminkelm and were pretty lucky on the whole. My batman now found a German captain and three men hiding in the cellar of our house. They were fully armed, but the sight of the airborne invasion must have been too much for them. I now had about 10 wounded and we quickly got our jeep and trailer out of the glider. All our plasma was smashed with bullets, but the jeep was O.K. I found our Bde. H.Q. outside the village and there learned that the attack on Hamminkelm was going well, but that our landing casualties had been very heavy. We were a long way from the Field Ambulance rendezvous so I sent a man there to find out the situation and meanwhile set up a First Aid Post at Bde. H.Q. which was by now littered with casualties.

The man returned in one hour to say that there was no sign of any Field Ambulance men at our rendezvous and there was heavy fighting in the vicinity. Shortly afterwards one glider party turned up complete at Bde. H.Q. This was under Captain John Fisher, our Resuscitation Officer. With two out of seven glider parties (excluding the three light sections in six small gliders) accounted for things did not look hopeful. The news now came through that Hamminkelm was captured so I went through the burning town to the other side to see our proposed MDS site which we had previously decided on. this was a large mansion "Haus Vogelsang" which had looked pretty substantial from aerial photographs. It turned out to be so. I went straight back to Bde. H.Q. and we radioed all the btns. that the MDS was opening there. The wounded at Bde. H.Q. (about 50) were loaded on farm carts and our two jeeps and we got them all safely to the MDS. Just as we were passing through the town the church where a lot of civilians had herded received a direct hit by a shell and there was considerable slaughter. We started the MDS with 23 men (instead of 79) and 2/7s of our equipment. It took us about 10 minutes to shove all the furniture out of the windows and in another 15 minutes he departments were laid out after a fashion. Fortunately our glider loading policy helped us here, i.e. personnel and equipment of all our departments (reception, resuscitation, minor treatments, theatre, post-operative and cooks) are divided evenly over the gliders so that if three or even four of five crash we can still do something. The casualties were now streaming in and the men were working wonders. It was at this stage that one of the two surgeons turned up with his glider party and equipment complete. They had been cut off on landing and Bob Morley, the surgeon, had a fractured fibula but stood up and operated for 24 hours non-stop. We decided to abandoned all the bellies and concentrate on severe injuries. I had to open up two more big houses over the road to accommodate those awaiting evacuation. By sundown two more glider parties turned up making five out of seven, which was a relief. We were getting knocked up, and the queue of wounded waiting to be seen by me in reception filled the rather large courtyard and extended up the drive. the C.O. also turned up (a brainless regular army type) and in five minutes had put the Q.M., John Fisher, and myself under arrest for insolence. He was in a very neurotic state so we decided to carry on. He was subsequently removed and demoted. Of the two gliders missing of the MDS party, one containing our second surgeon, came down in Holland. This party, by a great effort got up to the Rhine, crossed and joined us on the second day almost in the vanguard of the 2nd Army. the other one landed several miles east of the landing zone and Fred Shaw (the M.O.) and his men were taken prisoners. They subsequently had a very bad time. Fred had to march nearly 300 miles, was wounded in the buttock by rocket firing Typhoons, was almost lynched by a civilian mob in Brunswick after the air raid and was liberated after VE Day looking a skeleton.