British army veteran Bill Gladden, who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his ankle a few days later, wanted to return to France for the 80th anniversary of the invasion so he could honor the men who didn’t come home
FILE - World War II veteran Britain's Bill Gladden, left, speaks with U.S WWII veteran Jack M. Larson in the Pegasus Bridge memorial in Benouville, Normandy, Monday June 5, 2023. Gladden, one of the dwindling number of veterans who took part in the landings that kicked off the campaign to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis during World War II, died Wednesday, April 24, 2024, his family said. He was 100.
Born Jan. 13, 1924, Gladden was raised in the Woolwich area of southeast London. His mother worked at the nearby Royal Arsenal during World War I and his father was a soldier. Based in an orchard outside the village of Ranville, Gladden spent 12 days making forays into the surrounding countryside to check out reports of enemy activity.
After the war, he married Marie Warne, an army driver he met in 1943, and spent 40 years working for Siemens and Pearl Insurance. He is survived by their daughter, Linda Durrant and her husband, Kenny. Though he was happier talking about his family than reminiscing about the war, Gladden chronicled his wartime story in a scrapbook that includes a newspaper clipping about “the tanks that were built to fly,” drawings of the glider landings and other memorabilia.
“These are the flashes we wore on our battledress blouses,” reads the caption in Gladden’s neat block letters.
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