Improved 2 part episode of the Merville assault.

In the early hours of June 6th, 1944, the men of the 9th Parachute Battalion will jump into the darkness over Normandy. Their objective is the Merville Battery, four guns in reinforced concrete, behind wire, mines, and a garrison of one hundred and sixty men. From its emplacements the battery commands the approaches to Sword Beach, where the British infantry will come ashore at dawn. It must be silenced before the landings begin.

This is part one of the Merville Battery. We follow Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway and his battalion from the intelligence picture in the spring of 1944, through the plan, the rehearsals on a full-scale replica of the position, the glider pilots and their compressed Rebecca-Eureka course, and the final days in the transit camp. We follow them to the airfields on the evening of June 5th. We follow them across the Channel into a storm of flak, and down into the fields and floodwaters of Normandy. Part one ends as the last men jump from their Dakotas into the night sky over France.

In part two, the assault itself.

This episode draws on the work of Neil Barber, Carl Shilleto, Jon Cooksey, Stephen Wright, Kevin Shannon and the official war diaries of the 6th Airborne Division. Full sources at worldwar2-sof.com.

#DDay #WW2 #WW2History #MervilleBattery #9thParachuteBattalion #OperationTonga #6thAirborneDivision #BritishAirborne #Normandy1944 #SwordBeach #WW2Podcast #MilitaryHistory #SpecialForces #Paratroopers #June61944

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