Battle of Bréville
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The Battle of Bréville was fought by the British 6th Airborne Division and the German 346th Infantry Division, between 8 and 13 June 1944, during the early phases of the invasion of Normandy in the Second World War.
British Parachute and Commando troops in Normandy, June 1944
German troops moving towards the front
Two soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division man a trench beside the Caen road just outside Ranville
German patrol moving past a crashed Waco Hadrian glider
Richard Gale (British Army officer)
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General Sir Richard Nelson "Windy" Gale, was a senior officer in the British Army who served in both world wars. In the First World War he was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 whilst serving as a junior officer in the Machine Gun Corps. During the Second World War he served with 1st Parachute Brigade and then the 6th Airborne Division during the D-Day landings and Operation Tonga in 1944. After the end of the conflict, Gale remained in the army and eventually, in 1958, succeeded Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Richard Gale (British Army officer)
Brigadier Gale (left) in conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Down (third from right), CO of the 1st Parachute Battalion, during an inspection of Down's battalion at RAF Ringway, 1941.
Major-General Richard Gale talking to troops of the 5th Parachute Brigade, in front of an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle, June 1944.
Major-General Richard Gale, GOC 6th Airborne Division, addresses his men, 4 June 1944.