With his comrades of the 13th Parachute Battalion, he fell from the sky to pave the way for the Normandy landings. John "Jock" Hutton died at the age of 96, the UK Ministry of Defense announced on Friday August 14th. The Scotsman was dropped over Ranville, near Pegasus Bridge, between Caen and Ouistreham, on June 6, 1944 around 1 a.m.
At 19, he was among the first men tasked with preparing the ground for the large-scale early morning operations. The young “para” remembered the welcoming of the inhabitants, as he had told Martial Bordais, the mayor of Sannerville, in 2019: “He said that he would have gladly shared a glass of Calvados again with local farmers, because it had been very well received at the time. "
"He was in great shape, barely out of breath"
If the chosen one knows this anecdote, it is because on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the veteran had fallen from the sky again, almost face to face with him. "It's a huge memory, we still talk about it at the town hall," says Martial Bordais. The former soldier had wanted to take part in the homage parachuting on June 5, 2019, above Sannerville. “It had left Duxford in Dakota, a plane of the Second World War, says the city councilor. It was the first time he made the trip by plane, like D-Day. He was in great shape, barely out of breath after a parachute jump at 94! "
John Hutton had become a devotee of the commemorations. A "friend of the Pegasus Memorial Museum in Ranville", according to its curator Mark Worthington. The latter had known the veteran for more than twenty years. “For a long time, he never told his story. It was difficult to talk about the war. He started coming to Normandy after his retirement. In the early 2000s, the Scotsman freed his word to his comrades on birthdays. “He said it was easier to talk to those who had experienced the same thing as him,” slips the curator.
He never forgot to greet his brothers in arms
Wounded on June 22, he returned to France, mobilized in the Ardennes, at the end of 1944. "The courage and state of mind of Mr Hutton must never be forgotten", underlined the British Ministry of Defense. The veteran had never forgotten to greet his brothers in arms. "It was a great emotion when they spoke of them," remembers Martial Bordais, touched upon learning of the death of John Hutton.
“Tough, a bit far-fetched, not very expansive, like the Scotsman he was,” depicts Mark Worthington: the British veteran leaves a vivid memory. That of an elite soldier, one of the very first liberators, able to replay his parachute drop 75 years later "because he said that at his age, he had not much to lose". Definitely a high-pitched hero.
