British 6th Airborne Division
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The 6th Airborne Division was an airborne unit of the British Army during World War II.
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Formation
The division was formed in the United Kingdom on 3 May, 1943, during the Second World War. It consisted of paratroop units and glider landed troops known as Airlanding.
D-Day
During the last hours of 5 June 1944 as part of Operation Tonga, transport aircraft and towed gliders carried units of the 6th Airborne to Normandy where they would land just prior to the D-Day landings that took place on the morning of 6 June. They were to land behind Sword Beach and secure the eastern flank. Some of the objectives included the seizure of Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge by D Company, 2nd Ox & Bucks (commanded by Major John Howard) and the destruction of the Merville Battery by Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway's 9 PARA, both of whom were some of the first units to land and achieve their objectives. The landings proved successful, though many units were scattered across much of Normandy. The area around Pegasus and Horsa were successfully defended until they were eventually relieved, having repulsed numerous counter-attacks by the Germans, later on 6 June by Lord Lovat's 1 Special Service Brigade, followed later by elements of the British 3rd Infantry Division.
On 12 June, during the attack on Bréville, British artillery was bombarding it when a stray shell fell short and hit a group of British officers, killing Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Johnson (CO 12 PARA) and badly wounding Brigadiers Kindersley (CO 6 Airlanding Brigade) and Lord Lovat (CO 1 Special Service Brigade).
From June to August the Division successfully defended the area to the east of the Orne river. On 2 August 1944 the division became part of the First Allied Airborne Army. In mid-August the division took part in the advance towards the Seine and early in September it returned to Britain to recuperate and reorganise, having suffered over 4,000 casualties (killed, wounded, and missing).
The Battle of the Bulge
On 16 December the Germans launched the Battle of the Bulge a last-gasp offensive against the Allies in the Ardennes forest. The 6th Airborne was rushed to Belgium shortly afterward to assist in repulsing the attack. The fighting took place in awful weather conditions, ending in mid-January 1945.
The Rhine Crossings
On 24 March the 6th Airborne took part in the airborne crossing of the Rhine (known as Operation Varsity), taking place a day after the crossing of the Rhine by ground forces. The Germans had expected them and the division suffered significant casualties in the air and on the ground. The operation was a success, if a costly one, and the 6th Airborne subsequently advanced east, eventually linking up with the Soviets near the Baltic port of Wismar in late April. The Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May 1945.
Later Operations
The war, however, continued elsewhere and the 5th Parachute Brigade was deployed to the Far East in July to take part in the campaign against the Japanese, with the intention of the rest of the division following it. The war ended suddenly in August with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanense formally surrendered on 2 September. Thus, the Division's move was halted and the 5th Brigade was employed in operations in Malaya and Singapore to assist in the disarmament of the Japanese occupation forces there. The Brigade subsequently moved to Java, Dutch East Indies, where it attempted to assist in maintaining order against hostile nationalist forces intent on preventing the Dutch from returning to the colony. The division left with the arrival of substantial forces from the Royal Netherlands Army in April 1946.
Elsewhere, the rest of the division had moved to Palestine in September 1945, taking part in internal security duties against Zionist organisations known as Irgun, Haganah and the Stern Gang who were trying to expel the British. The 6th Airborne continued to carry out operations against the groups in difficult circumstances until they were disbanded on 1 April 1948 just before the British left Palestine.
In the present-day British Army the 16 Air Assault Brigade (named to perpuate the 16 Parachute Brigade) is numbered in honour of the 1st Airborne and 6th Airborne divisions.
Commanders
- Major-General Richard Gale (7 May 1943)
- Major General Eric Bols (8 December 1944)
- Major-General James Cassels (1946)
- Major-General Hugh Stockwell (August 1947)
Constituent Units
This is the composition of the division at the time of the Normandy invasion.
3rd Parachute Brigade (Brigadier James Hill)
- 8th (Midland Counties) Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Alastair Pearson)
- 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway)
- 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel George Bradbrooke)
- 3rd Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, RA (Major Nick Crammer)
- 3rd Parachute Squadron, RE (Major Tim Roseveare)
- 224th Parachute Field Ambulance, RAMC (Lieutenant-Colonel D. H. Thompson)
5th Parachute Brigade (Brigadier Nigel Poett)
- 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Pine-Coffin)
- 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Johnson)
- 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Luard)
- 4th Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, RA (Major Peter Dixon)
- 591st Parachute Squadron, RE (Major Andy Wood)
- 225th Parachute Field Ambulance, RAMC (Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Harvey)
6th Airlanding Brigade (Brigadier The Honourable Hugh Kindersley)
- 12th Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel Dick Stevens)
- 2nd Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Roberts)
- 1st Battalion, The Royal Ulster Rifles (Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Carson)
- 249th (Airborne) Field Company, RE (Major Sandy Rutherford)
- 195th Airlanding Field Ambulance, RAMC (Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Anderson)
Divisional Units
- 53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment, RA (Lieutenant-Colonel Tony Teacher)
- 2 Forward (Airborne) Observation Unit, RA (Major Harry Rice)
- 2nd Airlanding Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, RA (Major W. A. H. Rowatt)
- 22nd Independent Parachute Company (Major Francis Lennox-Boyd)
- 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Stewart)
- 6th Airborne Division Signals (Lieutenant-Colonel D. Smallman-Tew)
- 63rd Composite Company, RASC (Major A. C. Billie-Top)
- 398th Composite Company, RASC (Major M. E. Phipps)
- 716th Composite Company, RASC (Major E. C. Jones)
- 6th (Airborne) Divisional Ordnance Field Park, RASC (Major W. L. Taylor)
- 6th (Airborne) Divisional Workshops, REME (Major E. B.Bonniwell)
- 10th Airlanding Light Aid Detachment, REME
- 12th Airlanding Light Aid Detachment, REME
- 6th (Airborne) Divisional Provost Company, CMP (Captain Irwin)
- 6th Airborne Divisional Postal Unit
Attached Units
- The Glider Pilot Regiment
- No. 1 Wing (Lieutenant-Colonel Iain Murray)
- No. 2 Wing (Lieutenant-Colonel John Place)
- HQ, 245th Provost Company, CMP
- The Glider Pilot Regiment
Related topics
External links
- Extract from a book about 6th Airborne (http://www.winisp.net/jewart/6thhistory.htm)de:6. Britische Luftlandedivision