Lieutenant Eric Charles O'Callaghan
Unit : No.3 Platoon, 9th Field Company
Army No. : 243580
Awards : Military Cross
Lieutenant Eric O'Callaghan was Second-in-Command of No.3 Platoon, 9th Field Company. The following is his report on Glider No.135.
The Glider load consisted of Captain Wyss, 2/Lt. Badger and 27 O.Rs of the South Staffs besides myself.
We took off at 1930 hrs, and had a rough flight over the Mediterranean. We were flying at about 3000 ft, approximately 40 miles from the Sicilian coast when one engine of our tug caught afire. It was quickly "feathered" but having only three engines we began to lose height slowly. The tug pilot decided to tow us over into Sicily, and we jettisoned all our stores and heavy weapons. We were released about five or six miles inland and landed, I afterwards decided, in the area - square 0926, but this must be taken as very approximate. We actually landed at 2230 hrs. The glider struck a wall and broke in half, skidding over the ground until it hit some trees and stopped. Three men were injured in the crash - Capt. Wyss and 2 O.Rs. We made the injured as comfortable as possible and left them by the glider. We then marched North East as we had already decided that we had landed North West of our objective.
There was very little enemy activity apart from occasional sniping to hinder our progress, although the flares dropped from our aircraft over Syracuse made movement very difficult. At dawn we crossed a canal and immediately came under fire from high ground to our front. The platoon worked its way around the right flank whilst myself and 1 O.R., stalked and killed three snipers who were shooting at us from the rear. Unfortunately the Platoon Commander shot himself in the hand whilst carrying out this flanking movement, but throughout the day he led his platoon and refused to hand over his command to me, although he was in considerable pain. We assaulted the high ground, taking three prisoners, and killing several of the enemy. We suffered two casualties here - 1 O.R. - G.S.W. [Other Rank - Gunshot Wound] to the shoulder and 1 O.R. wounded by a grenade. A medical orderly stayed behind with the wounded in a farm in this area. Six other ranks of the Border Regiment joined us as we were about the leave the farm. We then advanced and moved over the main road about 200 yards South of Bilston before the enemy could bring fire to bear on the road. Throughout the day we worked our way towards "Waterloo" fighting various small actions like the first, including an action with two German Armoured Cars. Throughout all these encounters we suffered very few casualties. I believe our total casualties were about 2 killed and 6 wounded. We reached an orchard about 800 yards from the bridge "Waterloo", and decided to rest.
Capt. Foot of the South Staffs and 10 S/Section joined us here. After a rest of about an hour we decided to re-take it. As we were moving up to the bridge I met Capt. Holmes and a few Sappers from 9/S/Section who joined in the party. We had almost reached the bridge when a number of Bren Carriers of the 8th Army moved on to the bridge and captured it. The Brigade which was rapidly increasing in strength concentrated in the area of "Waterloo" and "Walsall". The Sections task (9 & 10 S/Sections) was to hold "Walsall" - a rather weak road block. That night there was no enemy counter attack as we had anticipated and apart from sniping the night was comparatively quiet. On Sunday morning we moved into Syracuse and spent a pleasant 3 days salvaging our equipment.
We were evacuated on Wednesday and returned to the Company on Thursday evening.
For his actions on Operation Ladbroke, Lieutenant O'Callaghan was awarded the Military Cross. His citation reads:
This Officer displayed in a high degree, resource and initiative. Having landed too far from the objective to be able to reach it in time, he decided that rather than lie hidden till relieving forces arrived, it was better to create as much disturbance and disorganisation in the enemy lines as possible. With this in view he sought out an enemy position by observing the fire. This turned out to be a battalion headquarters which he and his men assaulted and dispersed with heavy casualties and the resulting confusion in the enemy camp must have greatly assisted the ground forces.