Paul Galbraith

Paul Galbraith, who has died aged 88, was one of the elite 6th Airborne Division whose courageous D-Day assault on Normandy was hailed an unsurpassed military epic.

Parachuting in pre-dawn on the morning of June 6, 1944, the young Gael from Barra clutched his radio pack as he landed on French soil to witness one of the most momentous days in the Aecond World War.

Their task was to secure vital ground on the eastern flank of the Allied seaborne invasion and, as the commander of the 1st British Corps later noted, few can have had a task demanding greater skill, courage and determination than that of holding the grimly-contested area on which the whole British second army landing was hinged.

The men, all volunteers physically tough and mentally robust, executed their duties with enviable skill, and by the end of the day all the beaches had been captured. They went on to hold the bridgehead over the River Orne and the Benouville Bridge near Caen, later re-named Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation and the flying horse emblem worn by airborne forces.

Mr Galbraith, who was mentioned in dispatches for his actions in Normandy, later wrote of his experiences in the Gaelic volume Air Druim an Eich Sgiathaich – On The Back of the Winged Horse.

He was born at Eoligarry on Barra, the son of merchant seaman and crofter Angus Galbraith and his wife Catherine Ann. Sent to complete his education on the mainland, he attended secondary school in Fort William as a boarder.

Just 16 when the Second World War broke out, he became a member of the Home Guard before joining the army and volunteering for the Parachute Regiment and the airborne division. There he was trained as a radio operator with the maroon red berets, embracing their motto Go To It when they dropped in to France on their top secret mission. Although they were named the 6th Division, they were only Britain's second airborne division and had been given the higher number to fool the enemy into thinking the country had far greater numbers of airborne troops.

After their success in France and following the end of the war he remained with the Paras, serving in Palestine until 1947 as part of a peacekeeping force.

Returning to Scotland, he then spent a period working with a firm of engineers in Glasgow before obtaining a job as a radio operator with one of the rescue tugs that worked out of Campbeltown. By the early 1950s he was enjoying a career as a Merchant Navy radio officer on a number of lines, including the passenger and cargo shipping company, the Clan Line. Around that time he married his wife, Morar girl Mary Macdonell, with whom he had two sons.

hile his wife taught in schools in Cumbernauld and Newton Stewart, Mr Galbraith's career took him on adventurous trips to various international destinations which he detailed in letters to her school pupils. These would later form the basis for a collection of stories he compiled under the title Turas Thar Chuan, which roughly translates into Voyage Overseas, and described his duties and on board ship and the places he visited.

His wife had retired in the mid-1980s and from then on the couple were based at Bracara, Morar, where his wife was brought up.

But Mr Galbraith maintained a keen interest in the events of Barra and the southern islands of the Hebrides and his book of wartime experiences also traces his early years there. It was published in 1987 and the following year won the top award for literature at the National Mod. His collection of stories of life at sea was published in 1989, the same year that he produced Morar Bheannaichte (Blessed Morar), the history off St Cumin's Church in Morar, which he attended, and the local community.

A talented writer, he was often in demand to contribute his knowledge of Gaelic in tracing the derivation of local place names for newspapers and news sheets as well as for Celtic scholars and Gaelic journals.

He retired from the sea in 1988, at the age of 65, and spent many years caring for his wife until her death in 2007.

A modest man, who typically, did not discuss his war, he was one of the veterans awarded a medal by the Mayor of Caen for his contribution on D-Day, actions reflected in the words of Field Marshall Montgomery who described the maroon red berets as "men apart – every man an Emperor".

Mr Galbraith is survived by his sons, Sandy and Donald James and their families and his sister, Peggy.