Culture, Events & Entertainment, History | Posted on June 3rd, 2024 | return to news
Hundreds gather to commemorate Dorset airfield’s role in D-Day
400 people gathered for a memorial service marking the 80th anniversary of a Dorset airfield’s role in the D-Day invasion of June, 1944.
Photos by Andrew Wright
400 people, including two veterans, attended a commemoration service on Saturday 1 June to remember those who flew from and served at the Royal Air Force station at Tarrant Rushton during the Second World War.
The airfield played a vital role in the historic D-Day invasion of occupied Europe in June, 1944, when waves of Halifax bombers took off – towing wooden gliders carrying soldiers bound for Normandy.
The first British troops to land in Normandy in the first few minutes of D-Day, Tuesday, 6 June, 1944, flew in six wooden Horsa gliders that took off from Tarrant Rushton late on Monday, 5 June, 1944. The soldiers were tasked with seizing vital river and canal bridges near Caen to prevent German troops reaching the Normandy beaches.
D-Day saw two major lifts of Halifax bombers towing troop-carrying Horsa and the tank-carrying Hamilcar gliders bound for Normandy – 26 Halifaxes and their gliders took off in the early hours of Tuesday, 6 June, 1944, with another 32 Halifaxes and gliders taking off in the early evening of D-Day.
The commemoration service was organised by the Friends of Tarrant Rushton Airfield Memorial and took place close to the site of the former airfield’s main gate. Among those attending the service were two veterans who served at Royal Air Force station Tarrant Rushton in 1944: 99-year-old former ground crew Halifax engineer Bob Wakeling from Surrey, and 99-year-old former WAAF clerk Anne Martin from Fordingbridge in Hampshire.
Also attending the poignant gathering was 103-year-old Joan Clark from Wimborne, whose late husband Patrick Clark was in the Glider Pilot Regiment.
The guest of honour at the service – and representing His Majesty King Charles – was the Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset Angus Campbell, who served in the Army Air Corps which was formed in 1957 from the Glider Pilot Regiment.
Also attending was Major General Neil Sexton of the Army Air Corps who was accompanied by an honour guard from Middle Wallop in Hampshire where the Army Air Corps has a base.
After the service, members of the Dorset Gliding Club based near Wareham – which operated from Tarrant Rushton airfield in the 1970s – performed two fly pasts over the former airfield with a tug aircraft towing a glider.
“It was a wonderful and moving occasion of shared memory and remembrance,” said Friends of Tarrant Rushton Airfield Memorial chair Anne Gardner
“It was great to be able to meet and speak with so many children and grandchildren of Tarrant Rushton veterans among others. I would like to thank everyone who helped plan and stage the service as well as all those people who attended from near and far – one family travelling from Spain.
“Tarrant Rushton airfield has a remarkable and important history in war and peace. The courage of its Halifax aircrews, glider pilots and airborne troops should be remembered and commemorated. The bravery and sacrifice of the men who failed to return after flying from the airfield should never be forgotten.”
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