Richard Lonsdale Service Order. His citation read: Most of the 1st Airborne Division returned to the United Kingdom in November 1943 and were kept in reserve during Operation Overlord. In September Lonsdale was made second in command of 11th Battalion, Parachute Regiment and in the same month the division was deployed in Operation Market Garden. The Allies planned to use airborne forces to secure key bridges over a number of rivers and canals in the Netherlands, opening a route around the Seigfried Line and into the heart of Germany. 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine at
112th Special Operations Signal Battalion Airborne and Special Operations Forces. Over the next half century, this bond would strengthen. The 512th soldiers, then commanded by 1LT George R. Hartley, conducted signal operations in support of Brigadier General Robert T. Frederick's 1st Airborne Task Force during Operation Dragoon (15 August 1944) at Le Muy, France. They made the unit's first parachute and glider assaults into battle. Thus, earning an "arrowhead" for the unit battle streamer. The 1st Airborne Task Force blocked German counterattacks in support of an Allied landing near Cannes, France. It was an operation that tested the concept of daylight mass tactical parachute drops