Major-General Hopkinson had persuaded General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Eighth Army, to include the 1st Airborne Division in the invasion of Sicily, against the wishes of both the commander of the British Airborne Forces, Major-General Browning and the commander of the Glider Pilot Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Chatterton. Both men were concerned that they had insufficient aircraft for the complete division to take part while British pilots and infantry were not familiar with the Waco CG-4 gliders that were to be used. Their concerns proved correct as there were only enough aircraft for two of the division's four brigades to take part in the invasion. The 1st Parachute Brigade was assigned to Operation Fustian with orders to seize and hold the Primosole Bridge over the River Simeto. Prior to that, the 1st Airlanding Brigade was to take part in Operation Ladbroke, a glider assault on the Ponte Grande bridge across the Anapo river south of Syracuse. The brigade was to hold the bridge until relieved by the advance of the British 5th Infantry Division. The 1st Airlanding Brigade was allocated 136 Waco and eight Airspeed Horsa gliders for the operation. Six of the Horsas carrying two infantry companies were scheduled to land at the bridge at 23:15 on 9 July in a coup-de-main operation. The remainder of the brigade would arrive at 01:15 on 10 July using a number of landing-zones between away, then converge on the bridge to reinforce the defence.