Godfrey Yardley

20 year-old Lance Corporal Godfrey Yardley served in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. This unit of approximately 800 men was part of British 6th Airborne Division. On March 24th, 1945, the battalion was to land in 66 gliders near the Issel River north of Hamminkeln railway station. Each British "Horsa" glider had a capacity to carry 25 soldiers, which was the equivalent of a platoon. Flying at the head of the formation Yardley's aircraft was one of the first to reach the landing zone. His battalion would suffer heavy losses during the airborne operation – 104 men from the unit were killed. Today, a memorial stone on Güterstrasse at the Hamminkeln railway station commemorates the victims.

Some three hours flying time passed uneventfully; as many such flights had done in the past, except that this one was for real. Darkness turned into a lovely morning with a clear sky and the promise of good weather, now and then the sight of the escort fighters brought the feeling of some security against attack by the Luftwaffe.

At last the river Rhine came into view and as we approached at about 3,000 ft the order was given to open two doors, one forward on the port side and one rear on the starboard. As I sat on the starboard side forward I watched Ginger Belsham pull the forward door upwards. At that precise moment flak burst under the port wing banking the aircraft over to starboard and almost throwing Ginger out of the door only for him to be pulled back by the platoon commander and sergeant. This all happened in the space of two seconds but it only allowed this man to live for another few minutes as he was one of the 60 per cent of the platoon soon to die. The drop zones and landing zones were shrouded in smoke which must have made target identification difficult for the pilots. I felt the gentle jerk of the tow line being cast off and next thing the nose of the glider dipped down as the landing procedure began. We all linked our arms together for landing and offered a silent prayer. The enemy were prepared for us and waiting with a concentration of Ack-Ack guns and being the first gliders in our Regiment we took the full weight of the attack.

We descended through a heavy barrage of flak. Many lives were lost during these first few minutes including one of the pilots, Sgt Geoff Collins, while S/Sgt Bill Rowland was wounded. One chap by the name of Shrewsbury who sat opposite me in the glider got a burst of machine gun fire through the back, the bullets passing through a gap of about eight to ten inches between the heads of myself and Ted Tamplin who sat on my right. Some of the glider controls had been damaged and there was no compressed air to operate the landing flaps, consequently we flew right across the landing zone over a railway and the river Issel and crashed head-on into a wood at ground level. Whilst all this was going on Number 1 glider carrying 17 Platoon had also been badly hit by flak and was breaking up in mid air spilling out men and equipment. It finally crashed as we had done although in this instance there were no survivors.

I was one of the lucky ones; having been sat in the centre of five men I was sitting in one piece of seat with my harness on. With the exception of a few cuts and bruises we five were ok. (…) Several other chaps were alive but wounded, but most were dead including the platoon commander, sergeant and two corporals, leaving only a corporal, myself and another L/Cpl and seven others unhurt. The wounded were attended to by the platoon medic, L/Cpl Greenwood, and Ted Noble who did sterling work during the following few hours during which time a reconnaissance patrol reported a tank at the west end of the next wood and large enemy troop concentrations in the area. From the information we had on the enemy strength and their position it was agreed that the best plan would be to try and link up with the nearest Allied unit which was the 1st Ulster Rifles at their objective on one of the two bridges over the River Issel. As the shortest distance between two points is a straight line we had to run like hell over 1000 yards to reach it.

There were eight of us capable of making the dash. However, Ted Tamplin had an injured ankle and offered to stay behind with the wounded knowing that he would probably be taken prisoner or maybe even shot. He was captured but escaped some days later however and managed to rejoin the regiment. (…) And so with the old saying in mind "He who fights and runs away (may) live to fight another day" we ran like bats out of hell. A line of bobbing red berets waving across an open field must have appeared an easy target to the enemy who promptly opened up from all angles, but either we had been trained very well or the Germans were a bad shot as none of us got hit - or maybe we were very lucky?

Fortunately the Royal Ulster Rifles had taken the bridge and the sound of a rich Irish voice shouting 'Halt, who goes there' was the most welcome of sounds. We crossed the bridge between bursts of machine gun fire and reported to an officer with a request for some stretcher bearers and some help to go back to our wounded. The request was denied and was coupled with an order to stay put. We eventually rejoined our regiment the next day - March 25th - my birthday.

(recorded for the British website “The Pegasus Archive”/www.pegasusarchive.org)