This was the night scheduled for the launch of the invasion. Throughout Southern England 156,000 men of many nationalities were getting ready, the following day, to embark in the invasion fleet. At Tarrent Rushton, D Company were getting ready to set off at midnight and set the invasion ball rolling. The order came through though that due to bad weather the invasion had been postponed. Disappointment set in immediately as the feeling of anticlimax was felt by everybody involved. The people at COSSAC prayed that this bad weather would not stay long as South England was on the verge of sinking under the channel at the sheer weight of men, weapons and supplies there. Fortunately it cleared.
The wind and rain having cleared the mission was given the green light for midnight and everyone who knew about the invasion took a large, deep breath and held it in. At 22:00, All the soldiers were ready to go. The six wooden Horsa gliders were ready along with the six Halifax tug aircraft that would see them safely across the channel. The twelve aircraft and nearly two hundred men took off at 22:54 from Tarrent Rushton. Private Dennis Edwards, who was nineteen years old at the time and was in the first glider with Major Howard, explains how he felt;
"I experienced an interesting psychological change in the few minutes before and immediately after take off. As I had climbed aboard and strapped myself into my seat I felt tense, strange and extremely nervous. It was as if I was in a fantasy dream world and thought that at any moment I would wake up from this unreality and find that I was back in the barrack room at Bulford Camp. Whilst we laughed and sang to raise our spirits - and perhaps to show others that we were no scared - personally I knew that I was frightened to death. The very idea of carrying out a night-time airborne landing of such a small force into the midst of the German army seemed to me to be little more than a suicide mission.
Yet at the moment that the glider parted company with the ground I experienced an inexplicable change. The feeling of terror vanished and was replaced by exhilaration. I felt literally on top of the world. I remember thinking, 'you've had it chum, its no good worrying anymore - the die has been cast and what is to be, will be, and there is nothing you can do about it.' I sat back and enjoyed my first trip to Europe."
At 00:07 the first glider reached the French coast and cast off from its tug aircraft, the other five followed at one minute intervals and so they made their descent towards the bridges. However, one of the Halifax bombers had lost their course and so glider number five, scheduled to land at the bridge over the River Orne, cast off in the wrong place. This had the potential to be a very grave mistake on behalf of the Halifax crew, but in all the months of training Howard had practised taking bridges not only with the full complement of men, but with two thirds and one third as well. So the men in the other gliders were prepared for this kind of problem.
All the nervousness of General Gale, Major Howard and all the other men like Private Edwards was put to ease when the five remaining glider pilots landed the gliders within a hundred metres of the two bridges. Possibly the hardest part of the operation had been achieved, the majority of the gliders had landed spot on target. The first glider including Major Howard even managed to break through the barbed wire which put them under thirty metres from their objective. This was due to the immense skill of the pilot, Staff Sergeant Jim Wallwork and his navigator, Staff Sergeant John Ainsworth. Both were thrown through the front window when the glider landed.