LONDON — British army veteran Bill Gladden, who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his ankle a few days later, wanted to return to France for the 80th anniversary of the invasion so he could honor the men who didn't come home.
It was not to be.
Gladden, one of the dwindling number of veterans who took part in the landings that kicked off the campaign to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis during World War II, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 100.
Although weakened by cancer, Gladden had been determined to make it back to Normandy to take part in this year's D-Day commemorations. With fewer and fewer veterans taking part each year, the ceremony may be one of the last big events marking the assault that began on June 6, 1944.
“If I could do that this year, I should be happy,'′ he told The Associated Press from his home in Haverhill, England, in January, even as he celebrated his birthday with family and friends. “Well, I am happy now, but I should be more happy.”
Born Jan. 13, 1924, Gladden was raised in the Woolwich area of southeast London. His mother worked at the nearby Royal Arsenal during World War I and his father was a soldier.
He joined the army at 18 and was ultimately assigned to the 6th Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment as a motorcycle dispatch rider.
On D-Day, Gladden landed behind the front lines in a wooden glider loaded with six motorcycles and a 17,000-pound…
