As some of you know I moved to Dorset recently - there's a lot of history to take in but today whilst casually navigating my good lady around the countryside visiting garden nurseries we happened upon this little gem:
RAF Tarrant Rushton
So what you say, a disused airfield, runways dug up, control tower gone, similar to many scattered across the south of England - I thought that too until I saw the memorial bearing the image of a tug and glider.
Subsequent digging reveals what I suspected from that moment - a D-Day launching place for glider borne infantry... not just any old glider borne infantry though but the 2nd Battalion, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard.. or put another way, those that assaulted Pegasus Bridge as it became known..
Point of interest: Among the Horsa glider pilots was Jim Wallwork, on a Horsa nicknamed Lady Irene. The Tarrant Rushton gliders landed in occupied France shortly after midnight. Wallwork's aircraft was the first to touch down, but it landed heavily: the force of the impact catapulted both Wallwork and his co-pilot John Ainsworth through the front of the cockpit. Although stunned, this made them the first Allied troops to touch French soil on D-Day !
That's not all though - have a read..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Tarrant_Rushton
Hamilcar heavy glider clears the airfield to the north after being towed off Runway 19 at Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, by a Handley Page Halifax target tug of No. 644 Squadron RAF, during an airborne exercise. The photograph was taken from the rear turret of the Halifax. AA position can be seen beneath the glider to the right of the tow rope. Copyright: © IWM.
Hamilcar gliders from Tarrant Rushton arrive on Drop Zone 'N' carrying Tetrarch tanks, 6 June 1944.
As it appeared in 2010:
and pretty much what it looks like today
Another interesting site with lots of images and maps of the airfield before much of it was cleared
http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlant..._t_rushton.php
And another interesting link:
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5955713
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