Len Mann was a member of the 12th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, and went on to join the 6th Airborne Division was formed. Len and his comrades travelled to Bullforf where they were glider trained in preparation for the D-day landings. However, due to a shortage of gliders, D Company, to which Len belonged, had to travel by boat instead.

On June 1st, their boat departed, and the soldiers endured six long days waiting in the choppy waters of the English Channel. When Len’s division stormed the beach at Normandy, they were fortunate that the Navy had neutralized a German machine gun, allowing them to advance unchallenged. However, trouble hit them when advancing into Ranville when they were met with shells and snipers.

The true cost of the conflict hit hard during the battle for Breville, where 160 men were killed in five minutes, including many of Len’s company commander, Sergeant, and friends. It was in these tragic moments that Len’s humanity shone through. Amid the fighting, Len gave his water bottle to an injured soldier, an act of kindness that would come full circle years later when he bumped into the soldier again in Cornwall in 1968.

Len’s service continued and as a part of the final assault, he went over the Rhine on a horse glider as a dispatch rider in the 3” mortar platoon. He talks of the troubles faced when the glider got caught on the telegraph wire and the men came under fire from a sniper. Len’s war experience shaped his life with him going on to become the chairman of the Norwich branch of the Normandy Veterans.