Not long ago I read an excellent book called ‘The Day the Devils Dropped In’ about the 9th Battalion, Parachute Regiment in Normandy from D-Day to D+6. One of the stories in there was of Private Emil Corteil and his para dog Glen. They were killed together and

were later buried together.

9 PARA had a number of targets on the morning of 6th June but chief among them was to assault the Merville Battery. This was thought to contain four heavy guns which threatened the Sword Beach landings. The drop was scattered over a wide area so the Commanding Officer, Lt/Col Otway, had to carry out an improvised attack with 150 men rather than the 650 men the initial plan required. Fighting their way through a minefield, past machine gun nests and finally into the casemates themselves, 9PARA took their objective. Of the 150 attackers, 65 had been killed or wounded. Today the Merville Battery is preserved as a museum.

http://www.1940.co.uk/history/article/merville/merville.htm

http://www.1940.co.uk/extra/merville/index.htm

Vee