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during the landing. He was a great character very proud of the fact that he came from Yorkshire and whose chief worry in life seemed to be that he had been allotted a less powerful bulldozer than some of the other drivers in his unit although he was the senior and, in his opinion, much the best one. He though that life was very unfair and full of hardships.

As the afternoon wore on and still no signs of a relieving seaborne battalion were apparent the question of holding on for another night has to be considered carefully. It would be a supreme test and orders were issued for a closing in of B Company and the reserve force held around Battalion Headquarters into a much smaller perimeter in the area of the bridge itself. There were not the men to do more than this and essentially defensive though it was, it would mean that the bridge itself would not be lost and the battalion would not fail in its mission.

All through the day the efforts to reach A Company had been going on continuously and, at one time, a large part of the valuable reserve provided by the Coup de Main party was brought over the bridge into the area of Battalion Headquarters in order to relieve every available man. These were formed into a force and sent off under command of Lt Archdale to get through to the company. They succeeded in doing so and did invaluable work in bringing out casualties; they found the company very scattered and the job of contacting them was far from easy because of this. Soon after this party had started out Capt Webber, the Second—in—Command of A Company, got back himself to Battalion Headquarters and gave a verbal report. He had been wounded himself but nevertheless made the journey. He reported that Maj Taylor had been wounded and that all the officers were casualties, control was difficult but the position was still in the hands of the company and morale was very high although the men were now getting very tired. Webber should have been evacuated himself (he was later found to have had a bullet through the lung) but as he was the only officer who really knew the situation there and, what was more important, the only person who could find his way back there he was allowed to carry on and make the return trip. He was to contact Lt Archdale on his way back and make what use of that force he wished.

At 7 p.m. Gen Gale paid another visit to the battalion and informed the CO that he was then in touch with the seaborne troops by wireless and that he had informed them that the relief of the battalion must be treated as a first priority job. He gave generous praise to the efforts of the battalion and chatted with the casualties who were in the aid post at the time.

Within half an hour the commander of 5rd British Infantry Division (Maj Gen Rennie - who was later killed while commanding the 51st Highland Division) arrived at the bridge himself in a carrier. The CO gave him a quick appreciation of the situation and he sent back an immediate signal for a battalion of his division to be rushed up in transport and for it to take over the defence of the bridges. Gen Rennie then explained that the battalion which was to have done this according to the original plan had suffered heavily in the landing and had then encountered further stiff opposition. In its weakened state it was still dealing with this. The fog of war had also played its part and the general had been informed that the battalion had been driven off the bridges and that both of them were back in German hands. He appreciated that a strong attack would be required to re-take them and intended to launch this attack in the morning.