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I'm Warrant Officer Walter Barratt, from Manchester.
I served with 296 & 644 Sqn (38 Grp).

I was a navigator that dropped the glider on the pegasus bridge, just before midnight at the beginning of D-Day.

We dropped the glider, but got caught in search lights. The rear gunner tried to shoot out the search lights, but unfortunately he got killed by anti-aircraft fire.

Then one of the engines caught fire, and we crash landed in Ford airfield in Sussex.
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We also dropped gliders at Arnham. That was called Operation Market Garden, and the Rhine crossing, which was Operation Varsity.

Inbetween these we dropped supplies to the resistance movements in France, Holland, Denmark, and Norway.

One airfield we dropped at, in France, the Germans had taken over the airfield, so we didnt drop. We knew this had happened, because, although light was scarse, as we were flying by moonlight, we could still see the troops on the ground. We thought something was wrong so we turned round and came back.

Another time we were dropping supplies in Norway, the wind changed so much that we hit problems and couldnt reach base as we only had so much fuel. We had to make for the nearest base, which was Scotland, and we crash landed at an Airfield there, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

Out of the original crew, only myself and Fred Howard, the wireless operator remain. We still keep in contact after all these years.

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