PARATROOPERS toured battlefields in Normandy that helped to establish the fierce reputation of British airborne troops.

Soldiers serving with Colchester-based 3 Para visited sites where their predecessors battled adversity and overwhelming odds to help secure the flanks of the D-Day invasion beaches.

Leiutenant-Colonel Huw Will-iams, the unit’s commanding officer, said visiting the historic locations – Pegasus Bridge, Merville Battery and Breville – had enthused the young soldiers with the regimental spirit.

He said: “What our veterans did on D-Day and afterwards is as inspirational to us today as it was to the people of France 65 years ago.”

At Pegasus Bridge, troops landed by glider just after midnight on June 6 to secure crossings over the Caen Canal and River Orne.

These were needed to prevent the Germans advancing to attack the invasion beaches and allow the Allies to advance.

The operation was executed flawlessly, with one glider landing less than 50 metres from the bridge, catching the Germans by surprise.

While successful, an operation hours later to capture Merville Battery – from which Colchester’s Merville Barracks take its name – ran less smoothly.

Soldiers from 9 Para, which recruited from Essex, were dropped off target, leaving only 150 soldiers from a planned assault force of more than 600 men to attack the heavily-defended gun placement.

It was thought that the battery’s weapons had the range to shell British troops landing at Sword beach.

But after troops secured the fortifications, suffering 65 casualties in the process, it was found the guns were not as big as expected.

Veteran Michael Corboy was one of those unable to join the battle after landing on the other side of fields flooded by the Germans to deter a parachute drop.

He said: “I couldn’t join up with the unit for 36 hours, but what they were able to pull together and achieve that day was absolutely fantastic.”

3 Para’s Private Adam Davies-Jones said: “It’s impressive what they managed to achieve despite that, and fascinating to come back to where it all happened.

“I can’t see any of us going back to Afghanistan in 65 years time!”

The Parachute Regiment was awarded a battle honour for its actions at Breville on June 12, 1944.

12 Para captured the village to head off German preparations for a counter-attack against Pegasus Bridge.

The village was destroyed in a battle that saw all the battalion’s officers among 162 men killed, with the unit left with only 50 fit men from the 600 who dropped into Normandy less than a week before.

After seeing the sites, Sergeant Stephen Marsden said: “I did some research before we came out and I was impressed at what I read, but having seen where it happened, I’ve got even more respect for what the veterans achieved.”

Don Jones, an 86-year-old veteran who was wounded in fighting on D-Day, said: “The present Paras are very enthusiastic and just as daft as we were – they would have had no problems doing what we did.”