D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Alfred Guenigault 

Alfred Guenigault, Aged 98, Airborne Division

Interviewed 24 September 2023

Died May 2024

A paratrooper and a member of the Royal Ulster Rifles, Alfred Guenigault from Dorset landed in a glider in the early hours of D-Day as part of the airborne assault ahead of the beach landings.

He was dropped sixty metres from Pegasus Bridge at Ranville, which had been seized in order to help the Allies advance. 

He said: "We all sat in a long line having a little sing-song.

"Thinking it was going to be easy, which it wasn’t. As soon as it lands, all out as quick as possible. Thirty men, two trailers full of ammunition. You didn’t want to get hit with that lot in there.

"And you see a lot of gliders alight, burning up. Maybe some people in there, maybe not.

"But you could hear your own friends all shouting. Nothing in particular. That was the first bit of luck.

"This was early morning and it was still dark. We landed - loads of people - all in the same area and our rendezvous was going down the river about half an hour away and dig in there. German reinforcements were coming across the river to where the British were.

"We was digging in and there was a big farmyard and we got in there.

"There was a lot of snipering going on around the farmyard and we had a few snipers and they got a few of our lads. 

"It was very frightening at times."

The task after landing was to help protect nearby villages, some of which were still in German hands.

"We knew where we had to go," he added.

"When we first landed it was all excitement to me. We were making our way to a little village and we see a British paratrooper laying there blown to pieces and from that minute it was not exciting, it was serious.

"And all you had to do was make sure you got home again."

About three weeks after he landed a sniper’s bullet hit him in the face and he was returned home.

"I had gangrene," Alfred said.

"So they put me on a boat to Southampton and then a train to South Shields and hospital."

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