TWO pensioners will today be marking the 70th anniversary of an event that literally changed their lives forever.
On March 24, 1945, 23-year-old Private Sam Langford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (OBLI) took off in a glider from an Essex airfield for Operation Varsity.
Corporal John Tapping
In another was 27-year-old Sergeant Richard Ayres of the 1st Royal Ulster Rifles.
Some 540 aircraft towing more than 1,300 gliders flew into German fire over Wesel to capture the Nazi’s last defensive stronghold on the Rhine.
One hundred soldiers from the OBLI were killed and another 300 wounded. In all 1,100 Allied servicemen died.
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Pt Langford, from Didcot, survived thanks to swapping seats in his glider with Cpl John Tapping.
But Sgt Ayres, whose baby daughter Pat was about to celebrate her first birthday, died.
Pat – now 71 and living inCowley – will be travelling to Reichswald Forest War Cemetery to pay her respects to the father she never knew.
She will take a photo of her father’s name at the cemetery and that of Cpl Tapping having learnt about his fate in the Oxford Mail’s report on the Turning of the Pages ceremony.
She intends to give the picture to 92-year-old Mr Langford, from Didcot, who says he has had a long and happy life thanks to the actions of his corporal.
Speaking ahead of the anniversary, Mr Langford, a retired police officer said: “It won’t be a happy day.
“I shall be thinking about what happened 70 years ago.”
Brigadier Robin Draper, honorary colonel of the Oxfordshire Battalion (The Rifles) Army Cadet Force, said it was important to mark the anniversary.
He said: “Despite the fact that 100 soldiers were killed that day, the 2nd battalion OBLI succeeded in achieving all its objectives.”
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