Military exercises included capturing and holding airborne bridgeheads, road or rail bridges and coastal fortifications. A large part of the training consisted of assault courses and route marching. Training was therefore designed to encourage a spirit of self-discipline, self-reliance and aggressiveness, with emphasis given to physical fitness, marksmanship and fieldcraft. Airborne soldiers were expected to fight against superior numbers of the enemy, who would be equipped with artillery and tanks. The division's first GOC, Major-General Richard Nelson "Windy" Gale.įrom June to December 1943, the division prepared for operations, training at every level from section up to division by day and night. Between May and September, the remainder of the divisional units were formed, including the 5th Parachute Brigade, the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, the 53rd (Worcester Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment, Royal Artillery and the division's Pathfinders the 21st Independent Parachute Company. At the same time several officers who were all combat veterans from the 1st Airborne Division, were posted to the division as brigade and battalion commanders. The airlanding brigade was an important part of the airborne division, its strength being almost equal to that of the two parachute brigades combined, and the glider infantry battalions were the heaviest armed infantry units in the British Army. Under his command would be the existing 3rd Parachute Brigade, along with two battalions (2nd Ox and Bucks and 1st Ulster Rifles) transferred from the 1st Airborne Division, to form the nucleus of the new 6th Airlanding Brigade. This second formation was numbered the 6th Airborne Division, and commanded by Major-General Richard Nelson Gale, who had previously raised the 1st Parachute Brigade. Then on 23 April 1943 the War Office authorised the formation of a second British airborne division. On, a joint Army and RAF memorandum was approved by the Chiefs-of-Staff and Winston Churchill it recommended that the British airborne forces should consist of two parachute brigades, one based in England and the other in the Middle East, and that a glider force of 10,000 men should be created. In Palestine, the division went through several changes in formation, and had been reduced in size to only two parachute brigades by the time it was disbanded in 1948. Initially sent to Palestine for parachute training, the division became involved in an internal security role. Their final airborne mission followed in March 1945, Operation Varsity, the second Allied airborne assault over the River Rhine.Īfter the war the division was identified as the Imperial Strategic Reserve, and moved to the Middle East. While still recruiting and reforming in England, it was mobilised again and sent to Belgium in December 1944, to help counter the surprise German offensive in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge. The division remained in Normandy for three months before being withdrawn in September. The division's first mission was Operation Tonga on 6 June 1944, D-Day, part of the Normandy landings, where it was responsible for securing the left flank of the Allied invasion during Operation Overlord. The Division consisted of the 3rd and 5th parachute Brigade and the 6th Airlanding Brigade Despite its number, it was actually only the second of two airborne divisions raised by the British Army during the war, with the other being the 1st Airborne Division. It was formed in World War II, in mid-1943, and was commanded by Major-General Richard Nelson Gale. The 6th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War.
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