. The individual experiences of various paratroopers during the jump, and their exploits in and around the jump field immediately thereafter deserve a more extended record than can be written here. There were 1300 jumpers in on the first wave, and 700 more followed them two and a half hours later, when the 2nd Battalion came in. Each man among them had his own thrilling adventure story to tell; and in their living narratives, I am sure, lies the only true picture of this operation. These incidents may not constitute the history of a battle, as historians would have recorded it; but rather, they depict the history of men in battle, as few historians have imagined it.

(The smoke plume is, we believe, the result of the explosion of the magazines at Battery Ramsey.)