Letters from Arnhem

Letters from Squadron Sgt Major Cyril Pearson

I was blessed that Mike Hyker, a member of my FB group Combat Glider Pilots of WWII , kindly sent me copies of letters his father British glider pilot Sergeant Major Pearson sent to his wife Lorna Peterson recounting some of his war time experiences. The letters date from from August - September 27, 1944, a year of a lot of action for glider pilots both British and American. Letters to a family member or spouses hold a special value as they often give us a perspective of the individual outside the formal military reports and in that respect balance the individual speaking to those closest to him with the soldier following orders

Sergeant Major Pearson and his co-pilot Ralph Blinkhorne were in the Normandy mission and upon their return began to prep for another Operation which he does not name. One objective of this cancelled operation was to trap the Germans in Paris to prevent them from breaking out. Pearson, like many other servicemen in the Allied services and their commanders, had high hopes the Germans were defeated and the end of the war was near. He expressed great disappointment when this mission was cancelled but the war was far from over with Operation Market-Garden, the Ardennes Offensive and the Crossing of the Rhine yet to come for glider pilots.

Of note is Pearson’s description of his glider load. He must have been a flying a Horsa by the larger cargo capacity he was carrying. The ‘Hadrian’, the British form of the CG-4A, would only have been able to carry the jeep and two men. The British glider pilots flew the Horsas into Operation Market- Garden - landing at the northernmost portion of the operation. To many this part of the mission was a fatal error in Intelligence Operational planning. It is still highly debated.