Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, led by Major Reginald John Howard, landed around the bridge over the Caen Canal at Bénouville in three Horsa gliders and captured it from the Germans in a swift and dramatic attack.

Control of this bridge was vital to the success of the whole Operation Overlord invasion, because it would be the route of any German counter-attack eventually with their "Panzers" against the seaborne forces which were due to start landing a few hours later on Sword.

Its wartime inhabitants were members of a local resistance group and passed the information on the canal bridge unto a cell in Caen and from there to England.

Monsieur Gondrée looked out of a window and saw black "masked" troops running over the bridge, which he later learned were British paratroopers.

In celebration, he also dug up some 99 bottles of champagne which he had hidden in the garden and in the morning of 6 June toasted his liberation with some of the men from the gliders.