Major John Howard was 57 when I met him and he instantly made an impression on me, as he did with so many people. He was then head of the Ministry of Agriculture branch office in Agar Road, Truro, Cornwall.
His manner made you feel he was your friend from the start and I soon discovered that once he had met you he remembered your name every time you met him. He was a man who knew how to look after his troops, regularly visiting the room you shared with your co-workers, and on first name terms with everyone, addressing them personally, in his friendly, open and jovial manner.
He was a man you knew you could trust. Who accepted you for who you were. A man who liked people and trusted them, taking them on face value, and expecting the best of them.
He always had time to listen to any problems you had, although, knowing his wartime experiences, which he never boasted or talked of in the office, you realised any problems you had were quite minor compared to what he and his men had experienced all those years ago.
This is how my husband and I remember this very special man and as the days and years passed, during which time we worked together, we learned more about Major Howard and our respect for him grew.
I have always felt it was an honour to have just stood on the periphery of his life. No-one in the office ever felt he was just plain ‘Mr’ Howard. No - to us he was always ‘Major Howard‘, he had earned his rank, and everyone who worked for him felt a special fondness and pride that he was our ‘chief’.
Probably few people under the age of forty will remember having heard of him but just say the words ‘Pegasus Bridge’ and his experiences will come to mind.
Major Howard commanded the airborne assault that captured Pegasus Bridge from the Nazis in the early hours of 6 June, 1944, a strategically vital victory for the D-Day forces.
Since then he has been described as ‘a brilliant trainer and a hard man‘ although in the years we knew him he showed no sign of hardness. It was said of him ‘. . he trained his men meticulously beforehand with dedication, and left nothing at all to chance. The fact that the operation was so precise and successful was fundamentally down to his training.’
He and his men were the first to go into action on D-Day. Briefly - on the night of 5 June 1944, a force of 181 men, led by Major John Howard, took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, southern England in six Horsa gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also "Horsa Bridge", a few hundred yards to the east, over the Orne River.
' The 6th Airborne Division played a crucial role in the early stages of Operation Overlord, the Allies' invasion of North West Europe. Its task was to take control of areas north of Caen and east of Sword beach, protecting the eastern flank of the landing zone on D-Day.
The first phase of the operation went to plan: at 20 minutes past midnight, three gliders landed within metres of their objective, two bridges across the River Orne and the Caen canal. The Caen canal swingbridge, codenamed Pegasus, was in British hands within ten minutes: the first engagement of D-Day.'
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ff7_pegasus.shtml
John Howard received the DSO from Field Marshall Montgomery in France, and on 6th June, the 54th Anniversary of the battle, he received the Croix de Guerre from the French Government.
2012 is the 100th anniversary of his birth. It is hoped that those who remember this man and the men under his command who helped save our freedom all those years ago at Pegasus Bridge, will celebrate his birth on the 8 December this year, and will raise a glass in his memory.
Although there are various written memories of the event, including those of Major Howard himself, you might want to read one man’s memories of the training and events at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/09/a4069109.shtml
1 comment:
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