Major Reginald John Howard DSO (8 December 1912 – 5 May 1999)[1] 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.

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.

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.

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.

[3] 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).

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

[Note 2] All gliders were brought to an immediate halt, almost on top of the objectives[13]—the nose was "buried in barbed wire and almost on the bridge", in the words of a soldier under Howard.

[35] Later on D-Day a detachment of British Commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade, led by Brigadier Lord Lovat, marched to the bridge to the tune of Bill Millin's bagpipes.

[21] Howard was nominated for the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership during the capture of the bridges and, on 16 July 1944, was presented with the medal by Field Marshal (at the time General) Bernard Montgomery,[22] although the award was not officially confirmed until 31 August.

[25] They were not withdrawn from the line in time to take part in Operation Market Garden and in the end it had been decided not to employ a coup-de-main assault on the bridges at Nijmegen and Arnhem.

[27] 'D' Company, led by Major, later Colonel, John Tillett, went on to fight during the Battle of the Bulge, the crossing of the Rhine in Operation Varsity and in the advance across Germany to the Baltic Sea.

[28] In 1946, despite wishing to continue serving, Howard was invalided out of the Army as a result of injuries that he received in the accident, and he went to work for the Ministry of Agriculture.

[32] In his later life Howard returned to Normandy on 6 June every year to lay a wreath at the location where the gliders landed and was involved in the creation and maintenance of an airborne forces museum near the bridge.

[34] In the 1960s, Howard met and befriended Hans von Luck, a senior officer in the 21st Panzer Division who had been unable to assist in the defence of Pegasus Bridge on 6 June.