Bill Gladden was 20 years old when he flew into Normandy on a military glider carrying a tank and six motorbikes on June 6 1944 from RAF Tarrant Rushton. Several waves of gliders were launched from the RAF airfield in north Dorset carrying paratroopers into Normandy on the eve of D-Day. An 80th anniversary for those who flew from the base was held on Saturday June 1.
Undated family handout photo of D-Day veteran Bill Gladden (Image: PA) During the war, Mr Gladden survived being shot by machine gun fire from a German tank and spent three years in hospital in the UK. He had been outside the French village of Ranville, near the strategically important Pegasus Bridge that the 6th Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment was tasked with protecting. READ: RAF Tarrant Rushton 80th anniversary memorial service On June 17, 1944, he carried two fellow soldiers who were wounded into a barn that was being used as a medical post.
Two days later, he was shot while he was brewing tea, and was carried into the same barn. He sustained a severe leg injury and was flown back to the UK. Mr Gladden, of Haverhill, Suffolk, died on April 24 this year aged 100 and his funeral took place at West Suffolk Crematorium near Bury St Edmunds yesterday.
A convoy of black cabs from the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, as well as a number of bikers, escorted the hearse to the crematorium. Serving soldiers from 2 Para and 3 Para walked ahead of the hearse as it neared the crematorium, together with standard bearers.