Operation Tonga began at 22:56 on the night of 5 June, when six Halifax heavy bombers took off from Tarrant Rushton towing six Horsas carrying a coup
face, –main force consisting of D Coy, Ox and Bucks LI reinforced with two extra platoons from B Coy and a party of sappers, who were tasked with capturing the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne. 6th Airborne Division―which included 1st Canadian Para BN had been allotted three specific tasks to achieve, apart from protecting the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne landings. First, it was to capture intact the two bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River at Benouville and Ranville. Second, the division was to destroy the heavily fortified Merville coastal artillery battery located at Franceville Plage, to ensure that it could not shell the British forces landing on Sword Beach. A third task was to destroy several bridges spanning the River Dives at Varaville, Robehomme, Bures, and Troarn. The division would then hold the territory that it had seized until it could be relieved by advancing Allied ground forces.
PAST & PRESENT: 6TH AIRBORNE : NORMANDY 1944
£9.99 £3.99
For a visitor to Normandy, this will be a very handy then-and-now” reference if you want to travel around the area, and understand more about the places that today are quiet and peaceful and which you might otherwise drive past without fully appreciating what happened there back in June 1944.
Out of stock
Description
Additional information
Author/Editor | Leo Marriott, Simon Forty |
---|---|
Product Code | 30830 |
Delivery | This item is usually dispatched Next Day |
Format | Softback, 64 pages |
ISBN | 9781612004211 |
You may also like…
-69%
-20%