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10 Jun 2009 15:09:51
Three men from the University of Bedfordshire will never forget how they marked 65 years since the D-Day landings in the early hours of Saturday morning.
They were among 200 runners who took part in a 65-mile run from Devon to Normandy in France, named Project 65.
The event was to honour the men who took part in operation Coup de Main which saw the capture of the bridges over Caen Canal and River Orne at the outset of the D-Day landings on 6 June, 1944.
The trio were 70-year-old semi-retired Adrian Randall from Oakley near Bedford, who works part-time helping students with language problems, senior lecturer in sports psychology Robert Anderson and Paul Cavendish, senior technical officer (psychology). Bob from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and Paul from Luton are mere youngsters at 53 and 40 respectively.
Adrian said: “It was quite an experience and very moving to be there. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world but there were times when we wondered what we were doing!
“The longest I had run previously was 30 miles about a month before to prepare, and I think most of us have now got blisters on our feet!”
The runners set off at 2pm on Thursday (4 June) from Tarrant Rushton Airfield in Dorset, the airfield from which the gliders left, to run the 62 miles to Portsmouth Harbour, scheduled to arrive by midday the following day with a couple of breaks for refreshments.
They arrived with an hour to spare and boarded the afternoon ferry which arrived in France at 9.30pm local time before all those taking part walked the final three miles in glider formation.
This meant they arrived at 00.16 hours on Saturday - the exact time and date that the first combat of D-Day began 65 years ago - at Pegasus Bridge (which was renamed just weeks after the D-Day landings). A plaque was unveiled to all the veterans at a ceremony later that same day.
Adrian said: “We arrived at exactly the right time, of course, although some of the runners needed the support vehicles to get them there on time.”
The event organiser was Barry Tappenden, Bedford’s town crier and town mayor Frank Branston’s chauffeur. Barry’s dad, Ted, survived the original D-Day landings.
As well as honouring the men who took part in the Coup de Main, each runner involved in Project 65 aims to raise at least £1000 for the disabled and wounded men and women both past and present of the armed forces.
Funds raised will be divided among the British Legion, BLESMA, St Dunstan’s, the RAF Benevolent Fund, the Army Benevolent Fund and Help for Heroes. For further details of the Project 65 event, visit www.project65.net
Photo: Paul Cavendish, Adrian Randall and Robert Anderson perch on a glider and proudly show off the University of Bedfordshire flag.
Latest news» 2009» June» Remembering 65 years since the D-Day landings
