D-Day veteran who survived being shot by a German tank dies at 100
A “one in a million” D-Day veteran who flew into Normandy on a military glider and survived being shot by a tank has died at home aged 100.
Bill Gladden, of Haverhill, Suffolk, was just 20 years old when he arrived in France on a Hamilcar glider carrying a tank and six motorbikes on June 6, 1944.
He moved to an orchard just outside the French village of Ranville, near the strategically important Pegasus Bridge that the 6th Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment was tasked with protecting.
While holed up on June 17 he carried two of his fellow soldiers, who were wounded, into a barn that was being used as a medical post.
They died of their injuries and are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Ranville.
Mr Gladden was himself injured by machine gun fire from a Panzer tank two days later, while brewing tea, and was carried into the same barn.
He was flown back to the UK with a severe leg injury and spent the following three years in hospital.
His family threw him a surprise party for his 100th birthday in January of this year and Mr Gladden was open-mouthed as a crowd sang Happy Birthday to him.
As people set off party poppers the veteran, who was brought into the party venue in a wheelchair, raised his cupped palms to his sides and mouthed “thank you”.
When asked later by a guest if he had any idea about the surprise, he replied: “No idea whatsoever.”
Mr Gladden died at home yesterday. He was a regular on trips to Normandy and the Netherlands, as well as to events in the
UK, with the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.
Dick Goodwin, honorary secretary of the Taxi Charity, said: “Bill was one in a million who was adored by everyone he met.
“He had a wonderful gentle voice and loved nothing more than singing some of his favourite wartime songs.”
Mr Gladden, who grew up in Woolwich, south-east London, had volunteered for airborne duties and flew into Normandy from the former RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset.