Sgt. J W Moles' D Day and Normandy Experience

My father John William Moles (born 14/7/1910) was born in Oxford and worked for the Post Office firstly as a telegraph boy then as a clerk. He married my mother in April 1939. When war broke out he realised that he would eventually be conscripted so he volunteered for the army post office and entered the army on 1/1/40. His army number was 1897331. After training he was sent to Bournemouth then to Northern Ireland and other locations in the UK.

In June 1944 he had been promoted to Sargent and to W.O. 2 before the end of his army career in 1945.

He was attached to the 6th Airbourne Division in June 1944. He was assigned to be a glider bourne reinforcement flying in on the evening of D Day from Bradwell Oxfordshire near the Cotswold Wildlife Park of today. It was his first flight by air and a beautiful sunny evening after bad weather had cleared.

He and the other soldiers were ordered to immediately deploy and not try to help wounded or injured soldiers. He told me that their destination was Ranville and that could verify that because the church has a detached bell tower.

They had a hard landing and the floor of the glider broke up but he was not hurt. The military situation was under control but a counter attack was expected and he was told to dig in. This was a wise decision because the Germans brought up a self propelled gun and started shelling hitting and blowing up an ammunition dump.

He did not give me any further details of the fighting except that the French farmer was not pleased about his fields being used as a battlefield. Nevertheless on 14th July ( the French National Day and also my Dad's 34th birthday) he brought the British soldiers some bottles of wine. Conditions were primitive. The latrine was a plank of wood over a pit in the field.

The 51st Highland Division advanced to Pegasus Bridge and marked it with HD51 to the fury of the troops who had held it. They nicknamed the 51st "The Highway Decorators".
The troops that my father was with advanced as far as Pont-L'Eveque when they were given leave to go home.