Ox and Bucks troops paraded for photo (From Oxford Mail)

Ox and Bucks troops paraded for photo

10:00am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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THESE men from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry may look relaxed, but this was a challenging time for them and their fellow troops.

This is part of a panoramic picture of the regiment’s 2nd Battalion, also known as the 52nd Light Infantry, taken at Bulford Camp, in Wiltshire, in October 1942, at the height of the Second World War.

The unit was one of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry’s two Regular Army battalions.

Men from the battalion would later take part in the famous glider attack on D-Day – June 6, 1944 – to seize Pegasus Bridge on the Caen Canal and Horsa Bridge on the River Orne, to prevent German attacks on troops landing on the Normandy beaches.

The photograph belongs to Tony Evans, of Grays Road, Headington.

His uncle Frank Evans served with the battalion, but was killed soon after the picture of him was taken, when he was hit by a grenade in an accident during a training exercise taking place at Cranborne Chase, 30 miles from Bulford.