The Pathfinder Group
Jumps in Normandy

Casemate 1 of the Merville Battery Today.

The Merville battery has been restored by British Soldiers and stands today as a shrine to those that died.

On the 5th of June in the years 2000 and 2001 members of the Pathfinder Group jumped onto the original Drop Zone at the Merville gun battery, Normandy, France.

The drop was to remember the original hard fought battle that took place more than a half-century ago on that same day in June, 1944. The mission carried out by the British and Canadian paras was to spike the German guns prior to the main assault on D-Day by the Allied Forces from the sea. The German guns would have killed many of the attacking force and could well have prevented the start of the Liberation of Europe.

Silenced German Gun

The main attack was delivered by members of the British 9th Battalion the Parachute Regiment supported on the left flank by the Canadian Parachute Regiment. The drop was a disaster, with aircraft being lost with vital equipment on board and many of the heavily equipped paras drowned in the flooded lowlands.

Despite this the survivors pressed on, regrouped and achieved their aim. It must be remembered that the German defenders fought long and hard to stop the Allies as they too realized that this was a decisive battle, the Gateway to Europe and must not fall. The Merville battery has been restored by British Soldiers and stands today as a shrine to those that died.

As he came off the drop zone after the year 2000 jump, Pathfinder leader Roy said, "This was for the veterans of 1944, making sure that what they did would not be forgotten." Still on an adrenalin high, Roy admited that unexpected gusts of wind at 500 feet caused high canopy dispersal over the gun battery. "One jumper suffered a broken ankle, two bounced off roofs and I nearly burnt my bum on an electric fence." Click on Roy's photo for his bio.

Today we jumped in good weather and in day light with GQ 7 meter, steerable canopy parachutes.

In contrast, the jump in 1944, was made at night, in high winds, and in a country that was extremely hostile. Some of the paras in the 1944 jump were drowned, some blown up by our own bombs being dropped to cover them, and others killed in the attack.

"It's not until you are at two thousand feet over the battery, under canopy, that the enormity of what the 85 survivors of the drop actually achieved, hits you.

On the left is a member of the Pathfinder Group landing near the Merville gun battery.

On the right is an aging Dakota aircraft of the type used in the 1944 jump dropping the Pathfinder Group over the Merville gun battery 5th June 2000. A Dakota would make the drop again in 2001.

Hooah! Over ninety-percent of the jumpers on this historic occasion were retired or still serving paratroopers of the British Army. But, civilian jumpers, who have completed a military jump course under the tuteledge of the Pathfinder Group and awarded official military jump wings, were invited to participate in the jump.

Robert Si'Ree, one of the few Pathfinder civilian members walks off the DZ after the drop. His face say's it all.

Bruce Cox, a Canadian veteran para of the World War II jump at Arnhem is seen here after the drop with members of the Pathfinder Group in blackend faces and regular soldiers from 2 Para who on observing the Pathfinders drop had nothing but praise.

Cox made the jump with the Pathfinder Group again in the 2001 Commemoration.

As part of the anniversary of the D-Day landings, 2 Para made a mass drop to mark the historical event. Prince Charles, who is the Colonel in Chief of the Parachute Regiment, opened the new Pegasus Bridge Museum at Ranville which details the assault on Normandy, including Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal, in June 1944 by allied forces.

Members of 2 Para with representatives of the other British Airborne units
jump onto the Pegusus bridge DZ Normandy France.

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