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Brigadier Poett, everyone was pleased to note, was also there and very happy looking he was too, as well he might be. Things were going well. Both bridges had been captured and both were intact. The simplest of the plans could now be used and all the heavy boating equipment could be dumped. The Brigadier urged the battalion to hurry as if he thought they had been dawdling up to then and hurry they did for the rest of the trip was carried out at the double by everyone.

The distance between the two bridges was only four hundred yards but it contained plenty of evidence of the thoroughness with which Howard's men had done their job. Many of the battalion got their first sight of a dead German on that bit of road and few will forget it in a hurry, particularly the one who had been hit with a tank busting bomb while riding a bicycle. He was not a pretty sight.

Howard's men were naturally in very high spirits and much friendly banter and chaff took place as the battalion hurried past them. They had done a most splendid job which rendered the task of the battalion immeasureably easier. There would now be a bridge head on the West of the canal for certain and, with any luck at all, it would be as deep as had been planned too.

The leading troops crossed the Canal bridge at 2 a.m. and moved straight off to their allotted positions. The CO took his stand by the Canal bridge itself to deal with the various problems of the commanders as they passed.

The chief problems were connected with the various battle outposts, found from C Company, and the best employment of the specialists, such as mortarmen, machine gunners and signallers, none of whose containers had been recovered and who were therefore without their instruments or specialist weapons.

The battle outpost problem was a difficult one because each outpost was small and had been highly trained for its job. Now they were not complete, and many of them were without their leader.

It had been intended to hold one platoon of C Company as a small reserve force at Battalion HQ; this was a small enough reserve, in all conscious, but it had now to be even further reduced in order to bring the outposts up to strength.

The outpost commanders knew that they had to remain in their areas, whatever the opposition against them, and were not to withdrew unless ordered to do so over the wireless. But now they could not be given the order, as they had no wireless. The CO gave each commander authority to withdraw, under pressure, at his own discretion and watched them move off into the night with considerable anxiety. These outposts did sterling work and not a single commander gave the order to withdraw.

The specialists were collected near Battalion HQ where, combined with what was left of the reserve platoon of C Company, they formed the CO's immediate reserve. They are all specially selected men and would be first class in action but they were not armed now to fight at anything but close quarters. Each carried the pistol with which they would defend themselves if their specialist weapons were overrun and some had fortunately retained the sten gun which every parachutist carries for immediate use on landing.

Battalion HQ was established at 2.30 a.m. in the position that had been selected for it from the model and it was then possible to reflect on the situation as it stood.