COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
Killy argued about the route. Jeep trips were always spiced with
danger. But this one was like some manic motor rally as our driver,
slithering on the muddy surface, weaved between tanks and lorries to
a steady accompaniment of:
"T'is this way Pete. It is indeed! Get out of the way you fat
bastard!"
To Jimmy and myself, hanging on grimly in the back, it was soon
apparent that there would be little opportunity for sightseeing.
Whenever we entered a village, Killy remarked that there might be a
sniper in the church tower and his foot would go down even harder on
the accelerator. Eventually, on the way back to B3, he was persuaded
to stop in the middle of Banville and again for a photograph beside its
damaged church.
No manufactured goods of any sort were to be seen in the village
shops. But there was plenty of local produce - cut off from its
traditional markets in areas still occupied by the Germans. Butter by
the kilo, big discs of Camembert, even bottles of raw Calvados from
under the counter - in exchange for a few cigarettes - if you were
lucky.
The locals were mostly old men, women and children. The others
had gone to forced labour or underground with the Resistance. Those
to whom we spoke seemed bemused. A few were almost hostile -
others not unfriendly, glad that the Germans had gone, but still
cautious.
For us the breakout from the beachhead was a foregone conclusion,
simply a matter of time. The Allies had almost total air superiority and
overwhelming material resources. The enemy was forced to move
under cover of darkness or face almost total destruction by day. For
the inhabitants of Normandy it was very different. They had
experienced the Germans triumphant in 1940, had suffered four years
of occupation, and now the Anglo-American forces had ground to a
halt. Not surprising if they were still worried about the outcome.
The Prime Minister's visit could hardly have been in greater
contrast. One day, as the weather began to improve, a Fiesler Storch
appeared low in the circuit. Harry Broadhurst, AOC 83 Group, under
whose command we were temporarily operating, had arrived with
Winston Churchill.
We gathered round him as he climbed out of the aircraft, seeing
the familiar figure in raincoat and nautical cap, pleased that he was on
the beach-head and had found time to visit the Wing. Winston was in
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