D-Day, Arnhem & The Rhine: 'Important' Chichester memoir gives glider pilot's first-hand account of Second World War missions

It is rare to read a first-hand account of such a specialist role in the Second World War, so Jonathan Walker, the editor of D-Day, Arnhem & The Rhine, and publisher Pen and Sword Books say the memoir has particular importance.

Robert Ashby started to set down his experiences during the approach to the 50th anniversary of D-Day and contributed a number of items to The D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth soon after it was established.

Son Richard Ashby, who lives in Southbourne, said: "My father describes his experiences as a glider pilot during World War Two. He was at D-Day as part of the Pegasus Bridge operation, at Arnhem, where he barely escaped capture or drowning, and at the final assault, the Crossing of the Rhine, where he was convinced he would die.

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"This account gives an unvarnished view of these operations, in particular the extensive fighting around Arnhem and his rescue, and is trenchant in its criticism of the operation and its execution.

"Such accounts of one who participated in these operations and in such a specialised flying role are quite rare."

Robert served mainly in the Glider Pilot Regiment and was one of the few to carry out three airborne operations as a glider pilot, the first being D-Day, when he flew into Normandy with a bulldozer in the back of his glider.

Soon after he returned from France, he was granted 48 hours' leave to marry Jeane at a church in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. The couple tied the knot on Jeane’s 19th birthday, July 8, 1944. Afterwards, as Jeane was waving him off, Robert had a message at the last minute to say he could have an extra week off.

Two months later, Robert flew a mission at Arnhem, now famed for the film A Bridge Too Far, and other at Nijmegen.

Speaking to the Observer in 2014, Robert said: "Being a glider pilot, my prospects of survival weren’t very good. It was a one-way trip for us. You could only fly the glider inwards and had to get out by using your wits.”

D-Day, Arnhem and the Crossing of the Rhine: A Glider Pilot’s Memoir by Robert F. Ashby is available from booksellers, including Kim's Bookshop in Chichester, priced £20.

Robert and his wife Jeane were married more than 70 years and lived in Prinsted, then Chichester, from 1980 to 2015, when they had to move to care homes.

The couple first met in Hitchin Library, where Robert was a librarian. They had just started to get to know each other when he was called up by the Army.

After the war, Robert returned to library work and later became county librarian for Surrey. He was also the curator for a museum in Kettering.

The couple attended the 50th anniversary of D-Day commemorations at Southsea Common in 1994 and it was around this time Robert started on his memoir.

Robert died at Lordington Park Residential Home in Funtington in December 2019 aged 103.

Jeane spent many years as a volunteer at St Wilfrid’s Hospice and was a tour guide at Chichester Cathedral for more than 20 years. The couple had two sons and two daughters.