Operation Tonga

Operation Tonga
Part of the Normandy landings
British pathfinders of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company synchronising their watches in front of an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle
Date 5–7 June 1944 Location Caen, Normandy, France Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Canada	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Richard Nelson Gale	Josef Reichert Wilhelm Richter
Strength
8,500 men[1]	Approx 16,000[2]
Casualties and losses
800 dead and wounded[3]	estimated 400 dead estimated 400 captured

Operation Tonga was the codename given to the airborne operation undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division between 5 June and 7 June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings during the Second World War.

The paratroopers and glider-borne airborne troops of the division, commanded by Major-General Richard Nelson Gale, landed on the eastern flank of the invasion area, near to the city of Caen, tasked with a number of objectives. The division was to capture two strategically important bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River which were to be used by Allied ground forces to advance once the seaborne landings had taken place, destroy several other bridges to deny their use to the Germans and secure several important villages. The division was also assigned the task of assaulting and destroying the Merville Gun Battery, an artillery battery that Allied intelligence believed housed a number of heavy artillery pieces, which could bombard the nearest invasion beach (codenamed Sword) and possibly inflict heavy casualties on the Allied troops landing on it. Having achieved these objectives, the division was then to create and secure a bridgehead focused around the captured bridges until they linked up with advancing Allied ground forces.

The division suffered from a combination of bad weather and poor pilot navigation, which caused many of the airborne troops to be dropped inaccurately throughout the divisional operational area causing a number of casualties and making conducting operations much more difficult. In particular, the 9th Parachute Battalion, which was assigned the task of destroying the Merville artillery battery, was only able to gather up a fraction of its strength before it had to attack the battery, with the result that the depleted force suffered heavy casualties. However, the battery was successfully assaulted and the guns inside it disabled. The division's other objectives were also achieved despite the problems encountered.

A small force of glider-borne troops, from the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, secured two bridges over the Caen Canal and River Orne in a coup de main operation. The other bridges were destroyed by the division, and a number of villages were occupied. A bridgehead was formed by the division, and it successfully repulsed a number of German counter-attacks until Allied ground forces from the invasion beaches reached its positions. The actions of the division severely limited the ability of the German defenders to communicate and organise themselves, ensuring that the seaborne troops could not be attacked during the vital first few hours after landing when they were most vulnerable.