Tag: D Company

Winged Pegasus - 1944

80th D-Day Commemoration – Remembering the British & Soviet Sacrifice! (6.6.2024)

Specifically, the troops of the 1st Buckinghamshire (Light Bobs) Battalion of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (Territorials) – my grandfather’s Unit (he was part of an Anti-Tank Platoon) – intended to relieve D Company (Glider Troops) of the 2nd Battalion of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry (Professional). My grandfather at one-point was barracked in Bovey Tracy in Devon – whilst his Unit trained around the Exeter Canal System – due to this place possessing a similar structure to that of the Canal System of Caen. This could have been to familiarise the “Light Bobs” with the Caen area they were supposed to advance toward from Sword Beach. This could have been my grandfather’s route into France – but I possess his shoulder badge – which is a Winged Pegasus (worn by Glider Troops). Whatever the case, his Unit was wiped-out and he fought on in the hedge-rows of France – fighting Vichy French and Nazi Germans.

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WWII: My Tribute to the Excellent British ‘Home Guard’ (LDVF) and Some of My Published Work! (6.10.2023)

My maternal (‘Gibson’) family used to live in Lewisham, East London – until they were bombed-out by Hitler during the Blitz of September 1940 (the Blitz would go on to kill 70,000 British people between 1940-1941 – with 40,000 deaths in London alone). The Gibson family were then evacuated to the ‘Forest Hill’ area of Oxfordshire – due to them having a ‘nephew’ living in the area. In 1983, a book focusing on local history was commissioned entitled ‘Forest Hill with Shotover – A Portrait (1983)’. This was published by the ‘Forest Hill Women’s Association’. The Story of my grandfather – Arthur Gibson – and his family arriving in the area is recorded on Pages 28-29

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