Operation Mallard Operation Mallard was the codename for an airborne forces operation which was conducted by the British Army on 6 June 1944 , as part of the Normandy landings . The mission ' s objective was to airlift glider infantry of the 6th Airlanding Brigade and divisional troops to reinforce the 6th Airborne Division on the left flank of the British invasion beaches . Using two landing zones , one to the west of the Caen canal and the other to the east of the River Orne , Mallard was the third airborne operation involving units of the division on D - Day . The first , Operation Deadstick , had successfully captured what are now known as the Pegasus and Horsa bridges intact . Operation Tonga followed , dropping the division ' s two parachute brigades near Caen to the east . Mallard proved successful with 246 of the 256 gliders towed by aircraft from No . 38 and No . 48 Groups of the Royal Air Force , arriving safely at their designated landing zones . The landings included the first tanks to be delivered into combat by air . Background . Plans for the Normandy invasion included five assault landings from the sea , supported by airborne landings on both flanks by British and American airborne divisions . In what would be its first action , the 6th Airborne Division was chosen to land on the left flank of the British landing zone . Its primary objective on day one was to capture intact two bridges over the Caen canal and the River Orne . The division ' s secondary objective was the destruction of the Merville gun battery , which could engage ships landing nearby at Sword beach . To prevent German reinforcements approaching the invasion area from the east , 6th Airborne also had to destroy the bridges crossing the River Dives then dig in around Ranville and hold the left flank of the advance . The two bridges were captured during Operation Deadstick , a glider infantry assault by a reinforced company from the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . As part of Operation Tonga , the division ' s secondary objectives involved its two parachute brigades . The 5th Parachute Brigade provided a defence in depth for the captured bridges , deploying to the east and west of the canal and river . The 3rd Parachute Brigade destroyed the Merville gun battery along with the bridges crossing the Dives , then fell back to form a defensive line to the east of 5th Parachute Brigade . The strength of the airborne division ' s third formation , the 6th Airlanding Brigade , almost equalled that of the two parachute brigades . The constant shortage of transport aircraft meant that the airlanding brigade could not be transported to Normandy at the same time as the rest of the division . Each of the brigade ' s three infantry battalions consisted of 806 men in four rifle companies , made up of four platoon s along with a support company consisting of two Anti - tank platoons both armed with four 6 pounder guns , two mortar platoons each with six 3 inch mortars , and two Vickers machine gun platoons . There was no fixed plan for troops arriving as part of Operation Mallard – all would depend on how well the preceding units of the 6th Airborne Division and those landing at Sword beach had done during the day . But if all had gone to plan they were to cross both waterways and expand the divisions position to the south . Gliders . Planes returning from the first missions were refuelled and repaired where required and made ready to tow the gliders that evening . The airlift included 226 Airspeed Horsa gliders , each piloted by two men from the Glider Pilot Regiment . With a wingspan of and a length of , the Horsa had a maximum load capacity of as well as space for two pilots , a maximum of twenty - eight troops or two jeeps , one jeep and an artillery gun or one jeep with a trailer . The division ' s heavier equipment was carried in thirty General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders . Twenty of these would carry Tetrarch light tanks and their crews belonging to 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment , four more carried three Rota trailers carrying fuel supplies without crews , another three transported , Universal Carrier s with their crews . The last three carried two Universal Carriers converted to accommodate a 3 - inch mortar , one Universal Carrier equipped with a slave battery , sixteen motorcycles and a jeep . German forces . The coastal area was guarded by the 716th Infantry Division . comprising eight infantry battalions deployed to defend of the Atlantic wall . Poorly equipped with a mixture of foreign weapons , the unit was manned by conscripts from Poland , Russia and France under a German officer and senior Non commissioned officer s . A second division , the 21st Panzer , moved into the area in May 1944 with its battalions positioned at Vimont just east of Caen , and at Cairon to the west of the Caen canal bridge . The 21st Panzer Division was a new formation based on the former Africa Korps unit destroyed in North Africa . Although equipped with an assortment of older tanks and other armoured vehicles , the division ' s officers were veterans and 2 , 000 men from the old division filled its ranks . Further afield were the 12th SS Panzer Division at Lisieux and the Panzer Lehr Division at Chartres , both less than a day ' s march from the area . Mallard . In response to the initial airborne and naval landings , just after noon on 6 June , 21st Panzer Division received permission to attack . The commanders were informed by General Erich Marcks of LXXXVII Army Corps that : " if you don ' t succeed in throwing the British back into the sea , we shall have lost the war . " East of the River Orne , the 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment headed towards the captured bridges . The column was quickly spotted and engaged for the next two hours by Allied artillery and aircraft causing heavy losses . At 16 : 00 , to the west of the Caen canal , 1st Battalion , 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment and the 100th Panzer Regiment successfully reached the coast between the British Sword and the Canadian Juno Beach es . Here they linked up with the 736th Infantry Regiment , which had been defending Lion sur Mer . The German units gathered their strength on the beaches and waited for further orders from divisional commander Generalmajor Edgar Feuchtinger . Back in England , 256 Operation Mallard gliders carrying the remaining men and equipment of the 6th Airborne Division took off . Fifteen squadrons of fighter aircraft were deployed by the RAF to escort the gliders and towing aircraft . The force crossed the English channel unhindered , and arrived in Normandy at 21 : 00 . As it was still daylight , previous navigation problems that had affected the earlier operations were absent . As the gliders approached the two landing areas they met with anti - aircraft fire from German defenders on the ground . The gliders headed for two landing areas , Landing Zone ' W ' ( LZW ) to the east of Saint - Aubin - d ' Arquenay and Landing Zone ' N ' ( LZN ) to the north of Ranville . The remaining troops of the 2nd Battalion , Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and ' A ' Company , 12th Battalion , Devonshire Regiment landed at LZW . Given the limited availability of aircraft , even two lifts did not provide capacity to transport all of the Devonshire battalion , the rest of whom arrived by sea on 7 June . The 6th Airlanding Brigade headquarters , 1st Battalion , Royal Ulster Rifles and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment landed at LZN , the latter equipped with the Tetrarch light tank – the first time that any tank had been flown into battle by air . Watching the arriving gliders , Major - General Richard Gale later wrote : " It is impossible to say with what relief we watched this reinforcement arrive . " German reaction to the second airborne landings involved mortar barrages and small arms fire , but casualties were negligible . Generalmajor Feuchtinger of 21st Panzer Division watched the gliders descending and , believing the arriving force would threaten his lines of communication , ordered those elements of the division that had reached the beaches to withdraw to the north of Caen . The gliders ' arrival had inadvertently stopped the only German armoured attack on D - Day . Moving off LZN the 1st Battalion , Royal Ulster Rifles headed south to capture the villages of Longueval and Sainte Honorine . The 211th Battery , 53rd Light Regiment Royal Artillery then arrived at LZN equipped with eight 75 mm Pack Howitzers and were engaging German targets less than thirty minutes after landing . The 2nd Battalion , Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry , who were the furthest away at LZW , crossed the Caen canal and River Orne bridges . These had been captured twenty - one hours earlier by their own ' D ' Company who were now headed towards Herouvillette and Escoville . By midnight , the 6th Airborne Division was the only Allied formation to have seized all of its D - Day objectives . Aftermath . Reinforcement by the 6th Airlanding Brigade strengthened the 6th Airborne Division ' s weak position . Most of the parachute battalions , because of their scattered parachute drops , were well under strength . By 11 : 00 on 7 June , 2nd Battalion , Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry had occupied Escoville to the south of Ranville . The 1st Battalion , Royal Ulster Rifles , occupied Longueval south - west of the Bas de Ranville unopposed . Ordered to advance another to Sainte - Honorine , the battalion was caught in the open by German artillery and by mistake the guns of HMS Arethusa . While unable to proceed , the battalion remained in control of Longueval . The 12th Battalion , Devonshire Regiment arrived in the evening of 7 June and took over defence of the Bas de Ranville . D - Day had cost the 6th Airborne Division 821 dead , 2 , 709 wounded and 927 missing . The division remained holding the Orne bridgehead , only taking part in patrols and small scale local attacks until the 17 August when it crossed the River Dives . By 27 August , the division had reached Berville sur Mer , where it halted and remained until the beginning of September when it was withdrawn back to England .