Excercise OVERLORD APPRECIATION

Early in May 2007, 6 RAF Marham personnel took part in a Force Development Exercise entitled Overlord Appreciation. The aim of the Exercise was to give the participants an overview of ‘Operation Overlord’, the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, whilst simultaneously satisfying many elements of the 5 ‘Pillars of Force Development’.

In essence, the plan was to deploy 2 microlight aircraft from their hangar at RAF Honington, to the D-Day beaches in Normandy. Personnel would visit various D-Day related museums en-route, camping at airfields along the way.


Preflight checks in illustrious company

Well, that was the theory anyway, but a glorious April was followed by an awful May; all I could do in the week leading up to the Exercise was monitor the long range forecasts, which showed the weather getting steadily worse as our very own D-Day approached. In fact, the forecast for the Monday was so bad that the start had to be postponed to Tuesday. At 0800 the troops departed Marham for Honington, while the 2 pilots prepared the aircraft in ominously rising winds. Just before the minibus from Marham arrived, we decided to do a weather-check flight, to see if it was actually flyable. A quick 10 minute hop convinced us that it was do-able, although only just. The minibus arrived and the first 2 passengers strapped in to their respective aircraft. SAC Lee White flew with Sgt Gary Taylor in the more conventional looking 3-axis microlight, while SAC Liam O’Leary would fly with Cpl Paul Flaherty in the hang glider style flex-wing microlight. Meanwhile, JT Adam ‘Hobbsy’ Hobbs and SAC Ed Cash would drive the minibus with all our equipment onboard to the first stop, the Imperial War Museum at Duxford near Cambridge.


An impromtu stop at Stoke - note leaden skies

We had to detour some distance from our planned route to avoid low cloud and heavy rain, at the same time fighting a stiff headwind, all the way to Duxford. Thankfully the landing itself was straightforward although due to the strong wind reducing our groundspeed, it was more of a near vertical descent than conventional landing. Safely tied down outside the Duxford Air Traffic Control tower, witness to so many Spitfires during the Battle of Britain, we took the time to explore this superb museum. There really is something for everyone at Duxford, from WW1 Biplanes through to Concorde. There are also many tanks and armoured vehicles and, of particular interest given our final destination, an exhibit entitled the D-Day Experience. Entry to the exhibit is through a landing craft, accompanied by the sound of bombs and machine guns. You can only shake your head in wonder at the incredible bravery displayed by thousands of young men who charged into a cold sea that June morning in 1944.

By the middle of the afternoon, we were hoping to push on to Headcorn in Kent, where we planned to spend the night before flying to France the following morning. The weather however had other ideas, gusting 30 kts, our 2 aircraft were literally being shaken all over, only held in place by stout lashings. We delayed all afternoon, but there was simply no way to fly out safely; disaster would have been almost guaranteed. It was then that we had a stroke of good luck. Playing the Air Force card at an ex WWII base led us to the Airfield Manager, Mike Martin. He generously offered to hangar our aircraft for the night (in the company of some rare and interesting machines) and then offered us the floor of the old Astra Cinema building behind the former Officers Mess. Needless to say we jumped at the chance. It was quite eerie, the cinema is largely original and it didn’t take much imagination to picture our WWII counterparts watching a black and white movie in a smoke-filled hall. Although we didn’t know it, that was the only quiet night we would experience.

The following morning we were unable to fly out before 1000 due to Airfield regulations, but nonetheless at 1010 we lifted off in medium wind and some patches of blue, bound for Headcorn in Kent. As predicted by Marham’s excellent Met Office Forecasters, the cloud base slowly lowered towards the South Coast and, with Ed and Hobbsy aboard, we made a snap decision to land at Stoke, a small microlight strip adjacent to a microlight factory, just South of Canvey Island. A necessarily brief but pleasant visit ensued and it was nice to see a British designed aircraft being built at the small Medway factory.

Lifting off from Stoke, it was quickly apparent that we had nearly left it too late to get into Headcorn. Visibility was down to around 1.5 – 2 KM with a ceiling of 600’ – 800’ as we closed on the strip. We scraped in by the skin of our teeth and in strengthening winds tied down our aircraft and with some difficulty pitched our tents. Next we all jumped in the minibus and set off in search of the Battle of Britain (B of B) memorial which overlooks the cliffs at Folkestone. A slight (and unintentional) detour took us to the old B of B Station at Hawkinge, which is now mostly covered by a housing estate. Curiously and somewhat poignantly there are a few buildings left, substantially intact but very run down.


Battle of Britain Memorial from the ground


Battle of Britain Memorial from the air

The B of B memorial itself is particularly impressive and thought provoking, a giant 3 bladed propeller picked out in light coloured brick, at the centre of which sits a solitary stone pilot gazing out to sea, flanked by a marble wall inscribed with the names of combatants, a Spitfire and a Hurricane.

Retiring to our tents for the evening, little sleep was had due to extremely strong winds with driving rain and I was very relieved next morning to find that our relatively frail machines had survived such a horrible night in the open. The days forecast was for a low cloudbase over the channel with strong gusting conditions – time for a painful decision (particularly for the 2 pilots). It was now obvious that we would be unlikely to get our planes to France, and even if we did manage a safe crossing, we would be unable to fly them. This would mean leaving them stranded in France, which would involve an expensive and complicated recovery at a later date.

Conditions were however suitable for a short local flight, before the weather was due to close in for the day, so with Lee and Liam aboard we quickly took off and headed southeast. Our flight took us once more to Hawkinge and the B of B memorial, which can only fully be appreciated from the air, then on to the Channel Tunnel Terminal, and the innocuous looking tunnel itself. Disappearing into a hillside, the only thing that gives its ultimate destination away is the absence of an exit at the other side of the hill. Back at Headcorn we landed in lowering grey skies and gusty winds. The 2 aircraft were reluctantly pushed into a crowded hanger and that was the last we would see of them for a week.


Ready for action at Headcorn

A drive to the Chunnel followed by a short railway ride saw us in France; a phone call to our contact at St Omer airfield established that he would be more than happy to let us camp there, even though we’d been forced to leave our aircraft in England. We thus headed straight for the impressive museum of ‘La Couplole’ a stones throw from St Omer, (some 45KM East of Calais). La Coupole has to be seen to be believed, a series of huge interlinked underground caverns, surmounted by a massive concrete cupola. The whole complex was intended to allow the Nazi’s to launch hundred if not thousands of V2 rockets at England, whilst remaining impervious to Allied bombers. The work was completed in just 9 months, but thankfully never used in anger as it was overrun by Allied ground forces soon after D-Day.


La Coupole Museum - definitely worth a visit if you're near St Omer

Setting up camp at St Omer, the recurring theme of the week (extremely strong winds and driving rain) came back to haunt us, and another largely sleepless night was spent wondering whether we had driven in those tent pegs far enough! An unexpected find at St Omer airfield was a large plaque near the entrance, bearing the familiar motto ‘Per Ardua Ad Astra’. I was surprised to find that not only was St Omer the largest British airbase of WW1, but Marham’s very own 9 Sqn was formed there. Memorabilia on the clubroom wall bears ample witness to this connection.


Pegasus Bridge

Friday saw an early start, as we would be doing a marathon 500 mile round trip to Normandy. The driving was broken by a seemingly unending round of stops to pay the tolls that are so prevalent on French roads. After around 240 miles, we arrived at the Pegasus Bridge Memorial, next to the Caen Canal. The bridge itself was a vital allied target which was secured in the early hours of D-Day by men of the Airborne Division in a daring gliderborne assault. Since replaced with a more modern structure, the original Pegasus Bridge sits in the place of honour next to a dedicated and impressive museum building. One item in the museum that caught my eye was a Paratroopers helmet which was worn by the CO of the attacking troops, Major Howard. Targeted by an enemy sniper, his helmet has a neat entry hole at the front and a ragged exit hole at the rear. Incredibly, the Major was only grazed and continued to lead his men on to their famous success.


German Battery at Longue Sur Mer

Next on our whistle-stop tour was a drive along the coast to visit a German artillery battery at Longues Sur Mer. It is the only such battery to retain its huge guns, and inflicted quite some damage to the British landing before being knocked out. The observer’s fortified position overlooking the cliffs would be familiar to fans of old war movies as it was used in the film ‘The Longest Day’. A long drive back to St Omer was followed by a very welcome meal in a French restaurant. Comic relief was provided by Hobbsy whose impersonation of a frog had to be seen to be believed (he wanted to know the word so he could ask for frogs legs – don’t ask!). Initially the waitress thought he was some sort of demented athlete having a fit, but she eventually got the gist - it’s Grenouille, by the way, should you ever feel the need…

Another horrendous evening of torrential rain and violent winds was at least partially dulled by the consumption of an excellent ‘vin du maison’.

Early on Saturday morning we broke camp for the final time, crossed (well, went under really) the channel and returned to Headcorn. Our hopes of bringing the aircraft back with us were dashed by yet more strong winds. We unhappily bade them ‘adieu’ and departed for Suffolk, arriving in – yes, you guessed it, strong winds and driving rain! The aircraft were finally recovered a week later when the winds had abated but the rain was still with us. All weather microlights anyone…?

All in all, although the initial concept of the Exercise was forced to change by some appalling weather, contingency planning and teamwork saw us achieve our goals nonetheless.

Our sincere thanks go to TD Flt, various OC’s for releasing their personnel, Marham’s forecasters and all those at home and abroad who went out of their way to help us.

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