Dick remembers D-Day

A local veteran is speaking about his trip last summer on the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

Dick Brown, age 91, is a veteran of World War II where he served as a gunner in the Royal Air Force.

Although the Handley Page Halifax airplane that he flew in was classified as a bomber, they never dropped a single bomb during the war.

Instead, his crew was responsible for making supply runs to the underground resistance across Europe and for towing gliders into the air.

These weren’t your typical gliders. They were used to carry equipment and troops into battle.

The largest of these gliders could actually carry jeeps or a tank.

“We took over the gliders that seized a couple of bridges on the left flank of the British army that had to be seized,” said Brown.

Had those bridges not been seized prior to D-Day, the troops who landed on the beaches may have become stranded and not been able to complete the Allied invasion that eventually liberated Europe.

He was selected by the Canadian government to be among 100 Canadian veterans taking part in the D-Day celebrations last June in France.

“As I said to somebody on the ground, one of the French immigration officers when we landed, I said, ‘this is the first I’ve flown over the coast of France that somebody didn’t shoot at me.’”

Click here to view the video interview with Brown on our sister site, LOCAL2.