Bernard Halsall MC - Glider Pilot Regiment
17/04/11 11:55
“I joined the Liverpool Scottish, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, a territorial unit, on my 18th birthday which was in March and then I got mobilised towards then end of August 1939 so I was in a week before it started.
I was batman to a group of three officers and then I got sent to Colchester officers training unit in February the following year and commissioned in June 1940. I was posted to the Liverpool King’s Regiment training recruits where I did various courses. I eventually got fed up with training recruits and asked for a transfer. I decided I would go for the first request that came and it was for glider pilots, which had never crossed my mind before. I went for a medical and an interview and before I knew it I was in. The Colonel asked who was born in Corsica and I told him Corsicans to which he replied that if I survived the war and got married never forget to tell my children where Napoleon was born and that was my introduction to the Glider Pilot Regiment.
We trained on the Hotspur glider at Weston-on-the-Green but before we went onto gliders we had to train to fly a powered aircraft. That was at a place called Selingford, near Farringdon, where we had to do 150 hours on a powered plane before we could get on a glider. When we got onto gliders it was a Hotspur and then at Brize Norton we moved onto Horsa gliders and then I went out to Africa in 1943.
Gliding was wonderful. The glider came down no matter what you did soothe training focused on landing. How to get the glider down and land accurately and we put in many hours to get this right. I think gliding was the second best experience there is, it was like being a bird, everything looked so small and insignificant, and there was no noise either marvellous!
Sicily
I was sent out as reinforcements as the main body of troops had gone out some months before. We were stationed somewhere in Algeria near the Moroccan border I think. We had to fly American gliders from Algeria to Sousse where they had got four or five airstrips. We had to fly through the Atlas Mountains because we couldn’t get through them in a glider. We took the troops with us so the also had the experience of flying through the Atlas Mountains. I think we lost two gliders on the way but otherwise it was all right and it was from Sousse that we did our briefings for Sicily.
There were American Dakota planes to pull us and we had fortnight to wait during which we had an explosion in the camp when the ammunition dump went up which burnt my mosquito net. It was the first sea and air invasion of Europe by the allies. Monty’s army had come up trough Tunisia and were ready to go into Italy. The gliders hadn’t been used on any scale before and it was thought that we could land first on the night of the night of July and Montgomery’s army would land at dawn on the 10th some 15-20 miles away from us. We had to capture a bridge just South of the deep seaport of Syracuse. The bridge was over two water obstacles, I think it was a canal and a river, and it was the only bridge for miles and miles and we had to capture it so that Montgomery’s tanks could move over into Sicily. There 1500
men took off in about 140 gliders mainly pulled by Dakotas although some Horsas had been flown out and they joined in.
We were to go at night and land about midnight, capture the bridge, the original plan being for the 1500 troops to move off into Syracuse once the bridge had been taken. I wasn’t conscience of any pressure, we had trained hard and had a wonderful gang of chaps and there was a job to be done. We took off about 0640 which gave us an hour of daylight before the dark set in at which time we were about half way to Malta. We had to fly at 100 feet to keep out of enemy radar which meant you had to concentrate hard on the tow rope. The flight was about three and a half to four hours during which a strong wind had blown up and we actually had sea spray hitting the cockpit at times. It was not as gentle as we had been led to believe it was going to be. I don’t remember being frightened but it was easier for the pilot because you were so busy. The troops were amazing really as they had to sit for four hours just waiting to be dropped into battle.
We had trouble in our glider because when it got dark the lights failed on the tug aircraft which was very dangerous if you couldn’t see where it was. So we had to hack a hole in the Perspex so that we could see the towrope better and we flew on starring at the rope for well over half the trip until we got to the Island. The moon came out for a short while and we could see the coastline, we had maps of the coastline and where we were didn’t resemble the coast I had studied at all. Then some flak started to come up and we could see firing on the ground and then the moon went in.
I can remember crossing the coast and seeing the sand from about 300 feet. Then it went pitch black – I was told after that hit a stone wall at about 85 mph and we were all knocked unconscious. One chap broke his leg and another wasn’t too clever but the rest of the troops were alright and we moved off towards the objective. We had to get around about three pillboxes and dawn was breaking when we got sight of the bridge. There was quite a gathering of us by then, around forty of us, and we left the wounded at a crossroads. There was pretty heavy fire going down to the bridge where one glider, a Horsa, which had landed within 20 yards of the bridge flown by Staff Sergeant Galpin. On his glider there was a Major Beasley of the Royal Engineers who took the detonators out of the explosives that the enemy had laid around the bridge and that helped us enormously.
We split the area up around the bridge and I took the southern bank. The firing against us got progressively worse and we had a lot of trouble with machine gun and mortar fire. I can remember standing up three or four times on the bank and I could so the dust of Montgomery’s approaching army and I as shouting because they weren’t getting to us as quickly as they might. By 3 o’clock we had ran out of ammunition and there were very few of us left so we decided to surrender as it was the only possible thing left to do. Officially 78 of the 1500 reached the bridge and there were only nine of us left when we surrendered. The Major was next to me when a burst of machine gun fire shot him through the head and caught a few others, it made a hole in my red beret but that was one of the advantages of being small! We were marched away over a river where we suddenly met a British patrol were we were freed again.
We went back down to the bridge and the 8th Army had got through and there was one 8th Army soldier dead on the bridge and I always think of him at a time like this because he shouldn’t have been there if we could have hung on for another quarter of an hour, but we couldn’t so that was that. He was from the Green Howard’s Regiment.
I was relieved that Montgomery’s army had got there but sorry that we hadn’t lasted out. I was just glad to have survived I think really. You didn’t give thought to those that were missing because you didn’t realise just how many had gone. The majority of the 1500 men were drowned. A storm had blown up and we were only a 100 feet over the sea. It had been a long trip and the tugs were worried about the amount of fuel they had left and they released the gliders too early so we suffered very heavy casualties.”
I was batman to a group of three officers and then I got sent to Colchester officers training unit in February the following year and commissioned in June 1940. I was posted to the Liverpool King’s Regiment training recruits where I did various courses. I eventually got fed up with training recruits and asked for a transfer. I decided I would go for the first request that came and it was for glider pilots, which had never crossed my mind before. I went for a medical and an interview and before I knew it I was in. The Colonel asked who was born in Corsica and I told him Corsicans to which he replied that if I survived the war and got married never forget to tell my children where Napoleon was born and that was my introduction to the Glider Pilot Regiment.
We trained on the Hotspur glider at Weston-on-the-Green but before we went onto gliders we had to train to fly a powered aircraft. That was at a place called Selingford, near Farringdon, where we had to do 150 hours on a powered plane before we could get on a glider. When we got onto gliders it was a Hotspur and then at Brize Norton we moved onto Horsa gliders and then I went out to Africa in 1943.
Gliding was wonderful. The glider came down no matter what you did soothe training focused on landing. How to get the glider down and land accurately and we put in many hours to get this right. I think gliding was the second best experience there is, it was like being a bird, everything looked so small and insignificant, and there was no noise either marvellous!
Sicily
I was sent out as reinforcements as the main body of troops had gone out some months before. We were stationed somewhere in Algeria near the Moroccan border I think. We had to fly American gliders from Algeria to Sousse where they had got four or five airstrips. We had to fly through the Atlas Mountains because we couldn’t get through them in a glider. We took the troops with us so the also had the experience of flying through the Atlas Mountains. I think we lost two gliders on the way but otherwise it was all right and it was from Sousse that we did our briefings for Sicily.
There were American Dakota planes to pull us and we had fortnight to wait during which we had an explosion in the camp when the ammunition dump went up which burnt my mosquito net. It was the first sea and air invasion of Europe by the allies. Monty’s army had come up trough Tunisia and were ready to go into Italy. The gliders hadn’t been used on any scale before and it was thought that we could land first on the night of the night of July and Montgomery’s army would land at dawn on the 10th some 15-20 miles away from us. We had to capture a bridge just South of the deep seaport of Syracuse. The bridge was over two water obstacles, I think it was a canal and a river, and it was the only bridge for miles and miles and we had to capture it so that Montgomery’s tanks could move over into Sicily. There 1500
men took off in about 140 gliders mainly pulled by Dakotas although some Horsas had been flown out and they joined in.
We were to go at night and land about midnight, capture the bridge, the original plan being for the 1500 troops to move off into Syracuse once the bridge had been taken. I wasn’t conscience of any pressure, we had trained hard and had a wonderful gang of chaps and there was a job to be done. We took off about 0640 which gave us an hour of daylight before the dark set in at which time we were about half way to Malta. We had to fly at 100 feet to keep out of enemy radar which meant you had to concentrate hard on the tow rope. The flight was about three and a half to four hours during which a strong wind had blown up and we actually had sea spray hitting the cockpit at times. It was not as gentle as we had been led to believe it was going to be. I don’t remember being frightened but it was easier for the pilot because you were so busy. The troops were amazing really as they had to sit for four hours just waiting to be dropped into battle.
We had trouble in our glider because when it got dark the lights failed on the tug aircraft which was very dangerous if you couldn’t see where it was. So we had to hack a hole in the Perspex so that we could see the towrope better and we flew on starring at the rope for well over half the trip until we got to the Island. The moon came out for a short while and we could see the coastline, we had maps of the coastline and where we were didn’t resemble the coast I had studied at all. Then some flak started to come up and we could see firing on the ground and then the moon went in.
I can remember crossing the coast and seeing the sand from about 300 feet. Then it went pitch black – I was told after that hit a stone wall at about 85 mph and we were all knocked unconscious. One chap broke his leg and another wasn’t too clever but the rest of the troops were alright and we moved off towards the objective. We had to get around about three pillboxes and dawn was breaking when we got sight of the bridge. There was quite a gathering of us by then, around forty of us, and we left the wounded at a crossroads. There was pretty heavy fire going down to the bridge where one glider, a Horsa, which had landed within 20 yards of the bridge flown by Staff Sergeant Galpin. On his glider there was a Major Beasley of the Royal Engineers who took the detonators out of the explosives that the enemy had laid around the bridge and that helped us enormously.
We split the area up around the bridge and I took the southern bank. The firing against us got progressively worse and we had a lot of trouble with machine gun and mortar fire. I can remember standing up three or four times on the bank and I could so the dust of Montgomery’s approaching army and I as shouting because they weren’t getting to us as quickly as they might. By 3 o’clock we had ran out of ammunition and there were very few of us left so we decided to surrender as it was the only possible thing left to do. Officially 78 of the 1500 reached the bridge and there were only nine of us left when we surrendered. The Major was next to me when a burst of machine gun fire shot him through the head and caught a few others, it made a hole in my red beret but that was one of the advantages of being small! We were marched away over a river where we suddenly met a British patrol were we were freed again.
We went back down to the bridge and the 8th Army had got through and there was one 8th Army soldier dead on the bridge and I always think of him at a time like this because he shouldn’t have been there if we could have hung on for another quarter of an hour, but we couldn’t so that was that. He was from the Green Howard’s Regiment.
I was relieved that Montgomery’s army had got there but sorry that we hadn’t lasted out. I was just glad to have survived I think really. You didn’t give thought to those that were missing because you didn’t realise just how many had gone. The majority of the 1500 men were drowned. A storm had blown up and we were only a 100 feet over the sea. It had been a long trip and the tugs were worried about the amount of fuel they had left and they released the gliders too early so we suffered very heavy casualties.”