John Howard (British Army officer)

Major Reginald John Howard DSO (8 December 1912 – 5 May 1999) was a British Army officer who led a glider-borne Assault that captured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges on 6 June 1944, as part of the D-Day landings during the Second World War.

These bridges spanned the Caen Canal and the adjacent River Orne (about 500 yards to the east), and were vitally important to the success of the D-Day landings.

Since the war, the bridge over the canal has become known as "Pegasus Bridge," a tribute to the men who captured it.

The bridge over the River Orne later became known as Horsa Bridge after the Horsa gliders that carried troops to the bridges.

Reginald John Howard was born on 8 December 1912 to Jack and Ethel Howard, who lived in London's West End.

The eldest of nine children, Howard's family background was working class.

His father worked as a cooper for Courage Brewery after serving in the trenches in France during the First World War, while his mother kept the house and looked after the children.

During his formative years, Howard was an active member of the Boy Scouts, he also enjoyed attending school and did very well, earning a scholarship to attend secondary school.

However, the economic situation at the time was hard and at the age of fourteen he began full-time work, working as a clerk at a broker's firm.

In order to further his education he took evening classes and continued with the Scouts.

In 1931, however, he found himself out of work, after the brokerage firm that he was working for went out of business.

In 1932, Howard enlisted into the British Army and undertook recruit training at Shrewsbury and was assigned to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI).

He excelled at physical training and did consistently well on army exams.

He became a company clerk and later a physical training instructor.

On the basis of his education he applied for a commission as an officer but was rejected, although he was promoted to corporal.

Howard initially joined the British Army before the war, serving as a private soldier and then a non-commissioned officer for six years before discharging in 1938 and joining the Oxford City Police.

In June 1938, he was discharged from the Army, having served his six-year enlistment period, and joined the Oxford City Police.

In 1939 he was recalled to the army following the outbreak of the war and quickly rose through the ranks to become a regimental sergeant major in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

On 28 October 1939 he married Joy Bromley - whom he had met in 1936 - and with whom he would later have two children, Terry and Penny.

On 2 December 1939, nearly three months since the outbreak of the Second World War, he rejoined the KSLI as a corporal.

He was, however, quickly promoted to Company sergeant major and within five months of joining was the Regimental sergeant major of the battalion.

In 1940 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and eventually rose to be a major in 1942, at which time he took over command of 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Before D-Day, Howard's company was selected to carry out the Assault on the Caen and Orne River bridges and he became personally responsible for their training and the planning of the Assault.

During D-Day he led the company in a successful coup-de-main Assault that gained control of the bridges and then held them until relieved.

Offered the opportunity of a commission he went to 166th Officer Cadet Training Unit in mid-1940.

On graduation he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Ox & Bucks) on 9 November 1940.

He rose to captain commanding a company for over a year.

When the battalion was marked for conversion to airborne in early 1942, Howard volunteered, accepting demotion to 2nd lieutenant and command of a platoon.

He was subsequently promoted, becoming a major in May 1942 and became company commander of 'D' Company which he trained for the next two years.

After D-Day, Howard commanded his company until September 1944 when they were withdrawn from the line.

Due to the injuries he sustained in a car accident in November 1944, he took no further part in the war and was eventually invalided out of the British Army in 1946.

The Orne river formed the eastern, or left, flank of the Allied landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944.

Control of both bridges was vital because Allied forces needed the Orne as a geographic barrier against an immediate counter-attack against the allied flank by German forces, and because access to a lateral road would ensure supplies from Sword Beach to the 6th Airborne Division, which had been dropped to the east of Caen.

Supplies of ammunition, fuel and rations were essential if the 6th Airborne was to effectively protect the left flank of the Allied invasion force.

Furthermore, the crossings had to be held, undamaged, so as to serve as causeways from the beach landing areas, when the Allies moved forward.

Howard led 'D' Company and an engineer detachment, in a glider-borne Assault in the early hours of 6 June 1944.

Released at 8,000 feet over the Normandy coast, three gliders, each carrying about 28 heavily armed troops—in total 90 men, pilots included—clipped the tops of a group of poplar trees skirting a very small field and a dangerous pool and bounced to a halt only a few yards from each other, at precisely 0016 hours.

After this he became a public servant before he retired in 1974.

His role in the Assault on the bridges was detailed in a number of books and films since the war, and after he retired he gave a number of lectures in Europe and the United States on tactics and on the Assault itself.

He died in 1999, at the age of 86.