History of Sussex airfields around Sussex. During the lead-up to the D-Day landings, the people of Sussex were witness to the build-up of military personnel and materials, including the assembly of landing crafts and construction of Mulberry harbours off the county's coast. Five new airfields were built to provide additional support for the D-Day landings, four near Chichester and one near Billingshurst. A legacy of the D-Day landings are the sections of Mulberry harbour that lay broken and abandoned on the sea floor off the coast, of Selsey Bill, having missed the invasion. Sussex was an industrial county, from the stone age, with
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry with the 1st Royal Ulster Rifles, to become part of the 6th Airlanding Brigade in 6th Airborne Division. The 2nd Ox and Bucks were due to take part in the invasion of Sicily (Operation "Husky"); however in April 1943 the battalion was advised that the 1st Airborne and not the 6th Airborne were to be deployed in the landings. As part of "Operation Deadstick" just before the landings on D-Day on 6 June 1944, D Company commanded by Major John Howard as well as 30 Royal Engineers and men of the Glider Pilot Regiment (a total of 181 men), were