The Devil's Own Luck

Review contains spoilers.

The events in the book are mostly based on the author’s diary which was kept despite strict orders to the contrary. The first part spans from D-Day until September 1944, whilst the latter part covers a period spent in the Battle of the Bulge and a final glider-borne assault across the Rhine, covering March to May 1945.

Denis Edwards was born in 1924 and enlisted with the 70th Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire regiment in 1941 at the age of 16. Following a posting to Northern Ireland, he volunteered to join the 2nd Battalion, which was to become one of the four glider battalions of the 6th Airborne Division. In May 1944, the troops were moved to Exeter to practice capturing a pair of bridges, which was a foretaste of their mission on D-Day. The plan was for the Division to capture and hold the area to the south of Juno beach, in order to block German reinforcements approaching from the east. An integral part of this strategy was the capture of two bridges over the Caen Canal (Pegasus bridge) and the River Orne (Ranville bridge), which would deny their use to the Germans and permit rapid expansion out of the beachhead.

In the immediate days after the successful capture of the bridges, the glider troops joined forces with the soldiers coming ashore from the beaches and a conflict more reminiscent of the Great War developed. In the labyrinth of hedgerows, ditches and orchards, the glider troops fought daily battles against snipers and dug deep trenches for protection against the enemy artillery. In one unusual instance, a patrol fired a PIAT (infantry anti-tank weapon) at a sniper in a tree, which seemed to dampen the Germans’ enthusiasm for further sniping. The book has many fine details of combat, which are frequently and understandably not provided in similar accounts. On D+7, the Battalion moved up in support to a ridge-line to the east of the River Orne, which was being stubbornly defended by the Germans due to its commanding view of the beachhead. Following a terrible night-long artillery battle, the soldiers drew to the top of the ridge in the early light:

“I had never seen the result of warfare so grimly demonstrated, with every ditch, gully, hedgerow, track and roadway strewn with dead and shattered bodies of both British and German soldiers of various units. Every square foot of ground seemed to be strewn with parts of human bodies, shattered, burnt, some still burning or smoldering. All around was to be seen equipment, weapons, clothing, ammunition, grenades, guns, vehicles and tanks.”

Considering the Allied air superiority, the troops were largely safe from the attentions of the Luftwaffe and were sometimes in greater danger from their own air forces:

“…I made the mistake of waving to a low-flying RAF Typhoon that came hurtling in my direction. I gave the pilot a cheery wave, only to be greeted by a burst of cannon fire in return. As the cannon shells exploded in the ground all around me I dived headlong into the nearest ditch… reputedly the American pilots were the worst offenders, being not at all fussy about who or what they shot up, although personally I was never unlucky enough to be targeted by one of their number.”

Following a protracted period of limited manouevre and fierce artillery exchanges, the Allies finally broke out of the pocket in mid-August 1944 and pushed eastwards towards the Seine. The German troops conducted a fighting withdrawal and for the British soldiers, each village was a potential defensive position to be taken. The Allied troops reached the Seine valley in early September 1944 and the remnants of the Division returned to England. Their losses had been heavy and of the 180 men that had dropped into Normandy, only forty remained.

The returning soldiers went on some well-deserved leave and spent the next months training the incoming replacements. On Christmas day 1944 the regiment was rushed to the Ardennes to prop up the Allied defence during the critical period of the Battle of the Bulge. Apart from an initial - but fortunately brief - encounter with several Tiger tanks, there was not a lot of action since the German attack had been largely blunted by the time the regiment arrived. Much of the subsequent action comprised squad-sized patrols along the River Maas bordering Belgium and France, with frequent moves as the Germans withdrew. By February 1945, the regiment returned to England where glider training resumed in preparation for the final push into Germany.

In late March 1945, the British launched a glider assault across the Rhine into Westphalia in order to prevent the destruction of several vital bridges. The Germans were well prepared and the thin-skinned gliders were literally shot to pieces on approach.

“Bullets zipped through one side of the flimsy plywood fuselage and out of the other as we approached our landing zone, and as we came in to land part of one wing, an aileron, and the tail section were shot to pieces by shellfire.”

Although their glider losses were heavy, the Allied air forces were able to suppress the German troop and tank movements and the action was over in 36 hours. During this time the author was officially reported as dead when a large calibre shell killed a number of men around him and knocked him out. When he recovered consciousness he simply rejoined his unit and carried on in the fighting.

Similar to the situation in Normandy, the soldiers moved steadily eastwards into Germany, dealing with small but well-defended positions that sadly killed many soldiers almost right up till the end of the war. Whilst scouting ahead, the author came across what would later be identified as a satellite camp of Belsen, where he observed first-hand the terrible conditions in the camps. By this time too, the Germans had ceased resistance and were streaming towards the west in an attempt to avoid capture by the Russians. One German officer stopped to talk to the advancing English troops:

“…he told us that the German and British people had a great deal in common, whereas the Russians were nothing but savage barbarians. He suggested that if we were wise we would join forces with the Germans, attack the Russians and drive them all the way back to Siberia… with the nightmare memories of living skeletons and piles of dead bodies, we were not too impressed with his stories of Russian atrocities. …we told him about the death camp that we had liberated a week earlier. It was quite obvious from his baffled expression that he simply did not know what we were talking about.”

On the 3rd May 1945, the British troops met the advancing Russians in Bad Klienen and for them at least, the war was over. Relations with their allies deteriorated immediately, when overnight some Russian troops raided the British camp and stole most of their rations. The next morning they pointed out who they believed was the main culprit to a Russian officer:

“… he nodded, then turned and strode across to the suspect that we had indicated. We assumed that he was going to question him, or bring him over to us for positive identification. Instead, he drew a revolver from its holster, put the barrel against the man’s mouth and fired, blowing off half of his head. … I remembered the words of the German officer who, only a few days earlier, had told us that the Russians were different!”

The book is a personal and honest account, with many small and sometimes humorous anecdotes. It is well-paced and easy to read, without too much technical jargon which some military biographies can suffer from. The author provides detailed dates and locations and several helpful maps and photos which help to put the action in its historical context. Highly recommended. 9/10.

Finally, check out my interactive map of the locations in the book. All dates, events and locations are best-effort based on the author’s original text and any errors or omissions are my own. The full-screen version can be found here.