Ham & Jam

The highly effective leadership of Major-General Richard Gale overcame the haphazard nature of airborne operations 1939-1945, and enabled the unproven British 6th Airborne Division to achieve its objectives during the Normandy Campaign of June – August 1944.

Despite its scattered parachute landings 6th Airborne achieved its D-Day goals, and held the line for three months, a task for which it was not equipped. This study examines the factors that made this possible and analyses Gale's impact on the Division's organisational development, preparation and training which lay behind this success.

To establish the environment within which Gale had to operate, this book explores the shaping forces which influenced the creation of 6th Airborne Division: the constraint of inadequate resources and the absence of a clear applied airborne doctrine, inter-service politics and the influence of key war figures such as Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke.