My late mother, then Elizabeth Willett, was almost 14 in June 1944. In her memoirs she wrote of her memories of D-Day. She was away at boarding school (Sherborne Girls School) in Dorset.
During the night of the 5th – 6th of June 1944, every girl in my house was woken by the staff and prefects to watch the gliders being towed over to Normandy at the start of D-Day.
I’ve always been grateful that we were made to watch this historic moment. The silhouettes of the gliders and their tow-planes were etched blackly against a crystal clear night sky; even the individual tow-lines were visible. For what seemed an incredibly long time this massive air armada roared overhead and, when they had finally disappeared, the sound of the towing planes still seemed to pulse in our ears as we tried to settle back to sleep.
Next morning we could hear the naval bombardment quite clearly, and were horrified when we realised how close the Germans had come.
There were three service hospitals nearby, and we watched the military ambulances across the valley winding their way down the hill every evening. Soon a long hospital train would snake into view and stop at the local station. Later on, the ambulances began the slow crawl back up the hill, taking the wounded to the hospitals. It was a moving sight and another we will never forget.
Faulder, EP., Private Memoirs
Presumably an alert teacher noticed the first gliders going over and realising what was happening decided to rouse her pupils so they would have that memory.
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