LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Key Stages 3 and 4

Second World War

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the

Airborne Landings
Introduction
The first British troops to land in Normandy during D-Day were men of
D Company, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Part
of the 6th British Airborne Division, they were tasked with preventing
German reinforcements reaching the beaches by securing the bridges
across the River Orne and the Caen canal at Benouville. The two
bridges, guarded by German machine gun posts, had to be captured
intact so that the Allied Forces could advance inland. Just after midnight
on 6 June 1944, three gliders each with 28 men on board, landed within
meters of their objective. The Caen canal swingbridge, codenamed
Pegasus, was captured within ten minutes.

Image 1
Three of the Horsa gliders
that brought the 'coup de
main' force in on the night
of D-Day to capture the
bridge over the Caen Canal
at Benouville, which
subsequently became
known as 'Pegasus Bridge',
12 July 1944.
IWM Ref: B7033

Account 1
The location was immediately to the East of the Caen Canal (which ran
from the coast down to the town of Caen, some 10 miles inland).
Running parallel to the Canal and some 500 yards to its East was the
River Orne. As a point some 5 miles inland both were crossed by
bridges and it was the special task of D Company, the 2nd Battalion
Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to gain the two bridges
intact to enable the British Army at a later date to thrust eastwards with
tanks and other heavy vehicles. As a normal anti-invasion tactic the
Germans had prepared the bridges for demolition.
The overall invasion plan was that the first move was to be the successful
capture of the bridges so that when the Germans realised where the
invasion was to take place they would want to rush reinforcements from
the East as quickly as possible and by denying them access over the
bridges they would be forced to make a detour down to Caen. This

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 1

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

D E Edwards, 6th Airborne

Division.
IWM Ref: 78/68/1

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

would take time, and time was what the Allies needed during the first
few vital days as they fought to secure their bridgeheads along the
coastline.
It had finally been decided that the most effective method would be to
use a small handpicked glider-borne force of six Horsa gliders (each
carrying about 25 men). Three gliders to be allocated to each bridge and
all 6 to be crash landed at night-time in the small strip of rough pasture
land between the river and canal.
We spent the entire afternoon being briefed in the differing tasks of each
25 man Platoon. Then the tasks of each 7 man Section was considered
and finally in cases where individuals had special tasks, these were also
looked at in detail since, working in such a confined area, in darkness, it
was essential that everyone knew what everyone else was doing at any
given time, and to be in a position to carry out their job if the appointed
individual was not available for any reason. We worked out each of our
moves, then looked at possible counter-moves that the enemy might
make, and considered ways of blocking them. Nothing could be left to
chance and split second accuracy was vital for the success of the mission.
We studied the latest aerial photographs (some had been taken within
past 24 hours). These were extremely helpful as they showed the
bridges in minute detail. The RAF boys had been busy and had taken
considerable risks for some pictures seemed to have been taken at
treetop level. The large scale model had been compiled with the aid of
photographs, maps and local intelligence reports. Nothing that could be
of help to us had been left out every house, outbuilding, hedgerow,
gateway, ditch, tree and fortification had been meticulously recorded.
We were advised that if a pane of glass had been broken in any window
it would be shown on the model.
My platoon (No. 25) was to fly in the first of the three gliders to go
down onto the canal bridge. In theory we should be the first to touch
down. An hour after our landing we were to be reinforced by a
Parachute Battalion. Although it would hopefully only be for a short time,
the prospect of initially being the only unit of the entire Allied forces
actually in France, and facing the might of the German Army seemed to
me to be a daunting proposition.
Monday 5th June or D 1.
At 2256 hrs the steady hum of the bomber engines suddenly increased
to a deafening roar. My muscles tightened, a cold shiver ran up and
down my spine, I went hot and cold and sang all the louder to stop my
teeth from chattering. Suddenly there was a violent jerk and a loud
twang as the slack on the thick tow rope was taken by the tug-plane.
The glider rolled slowly forward.. and with a bump or two as the
heavily laden glider gathered speed, momentarily left the ground, set
down again with a bump, a final jerk and roar as the bomber engines
reached full thrust and we were airborne.
We had been underway for what seemed to be only a matter of
minutes. and were informed by one of our two glider pilots we

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 2

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

would soon be approaching the French coastline.the German

Reception Committee was self-evident. Out to our front the sky was
already lit up by a great carpet of Flak numerous multi-coloured flashes
of 20mm anti-aircraft shells, streams of coloured tracer and other
missiles.
As the time is just coming up to midnight, and although the full allied
invasion will not commence for several hours, I think that from this point
onwards I should refer to D-Day of which, at this moment in time, the
world knows nothing. Our families, relatives and friends will continue to
sleep peacefully in their beds blissfully unaware of the drama that is
about to unfold.
With our bodies taut, weapons gripped tightly, the senior pilot yelled
Link Arms and we knew that any moment we would touch down. The
time is now 0015hrs. We all held tight and braced ourselves for the
landing. With the usual slight bump, a small jerk and a much heavier
thump we knew that the glider had made contact with the ground but
only for a moment, it jerked again, left the ground for a second or so,
bumped the rough ground again, bounced wildly forward at high speed.
For about maybe 40/50 yards we bumped forward, bouncing in our
wooden seats as the vehicle lost contact with the ground, came down
again with another bump, a tug and a jerk and, for a few moments at
least, it seemed as if we were in for a very smooth landing. As that
thought flashed through my mind the darkness suddenly filled with a
stream of sparks as the underskids probably hit some stony ground.
There followed quickly a sound like a giant sheet of cloth being viciously
ripped apart, then a God Almighty crash like a clap of thunder and my
body seemed to be moving in several directions at the same time.
A few moments later the glider, skidding over the uneven ground, came
to a juddering halt and I found myself perched at an uneven angle and
peering into a misty bluey-greysih haze, and from somewhere out in
endless space there zoomed towards me tracer-like streams of multicoloured lights like a host of small shooting stars that floated in a great
speed towards my eyeballs.
The noises all suddenly ceased and were replaced by an ominous silence.
Nothing and no one moved. God help me, we must all be dead I
thought. The peace, after all the din, was quite uncanny and eerie until
others began to stir and the realisation that we were not all dead came
quickly as bodies began unstrapping themselves and moving around in the
darkness of the gliders shattered interior.
The door of the glider had been right beside my seat but now, at my
side, there was mass of twisted wood and fabric covering the exit and
we had to smash our way out. As I hit the ground I glanced quickly
around from beneath the gliders tilted wing and immediately saw the
canal swing bridge superstructure towering above me. The glider pilots
had done a fantastic job of bringing the slithering and bouncing glider to a
halt with its nose buried into the canal bank within about 75 yards of the

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 3

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

bridge. in the semi-darkness (a pale moon gave us some light) I glanced

back towards the glider and saw that the whole front had been smashed
inwards, almost back to the wings. I had been sitting just below the
forward edge of the wing. There had been some 20ft of glider forward
of my seat now there was just a twisted mass of wreckage. I had been
lucky but I reckoned that the two glider pilots and those in front of me
must have been badly smashed up or killed, but there was no time to
stop and wonder the medical lads would look after any injured within the
glider and the job of my Platoon was to fight our way across to the other
side of the bridge as quickly as possible.
The Company Commander (Major Howard) was already on the
approach to the bridge and was standing there fully exposed. Come on
boys, this is it he roared as he waved us forward. As we reached the
bridge we let fly with rifles, hand grenades and light automatics whilst
shouting as loudly as possible to put the wind up the Germans and boost
our own morale. A hidden machine gun suddenly chattered into life
we returned the fire and kept going, with our Platoon Commander (Lt.
Danny Brotheridge) leading the way. The enemy machine gun fired
another long burst and the Platoon Commander fell to the ground
mortally wounded. We were extremely upset for he was a man for
whom we had the greatest possible respect. Like all the other Airborne
officers he had never asked us to do anything that he would not do
himself and usually he did it better. It was typical of him to have been
way ahead of the rest of us in the flat out charge across the bridge.
As we neared the far side the Germans jumped to their feet and ran like
hell, scattering in all directions. When those that escaped got to
wherever they were going, I wonder if anyone believed them when they
said that they had witnessed the very beginning of the long expected
Allied assault upon Europe.
The three glider allocated to the canal bridge had landed within a minute
or so of each other with almost perfect positioning (one did break in half
upon landing but still managed to end up close to our glider) and in no
time at all the canal swing bridge was in our hands.
We now began to take an interest in what was happening at the other
bridge. A Runner came over and informed Major Howard that only two
of their three gliders had landed but that they had also been successful in
the capture of their objective. Thus by 0030 hrs we had both the
bridges in our hands and they were intact. Now all that we had to do
was to hold on to them until reinforcements arrived.
Our section made our way a short distance down the West side of the
Canal adjoining a single gauge railway which ran along the top of the
canal bank like most light railways, the sleepers were set on small
stones. We removed our bulky heavy equipment and unstrapped our
small Entrenching Tools a short wooden shaft with a metal head
having a small pick at one end and a tiny spade at the other. The
pickhead was only about 1 wide and the spade about 8 across.
These were our only digging implements They were not very effective

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 4

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

on hard groundbut they did enable us to scrape shallow indentations

in the railway pebbles to a depth that was sufficient to put our bodies
just below ground level when the enemy counter attacked, as we were
sure that they soon would. The stones that we removed from our
shallow shell scrape we banked around the top to give added
protection.
Apart from the clinking of our metal tools against the stones all was
surprisingly quiet until the stillness and peace was suddenly shattered by
the roar of powerful engines bursting into life from somewhere only a
short distance to the West. This was immediately followed by the
clanking, rattling and squealing which we knew from the past training
heralded the movement of tanks which were coming our way. With the
sudden explosion of noise it was impossible to judge numbers- there was
certainly more than one possibly three or even four. For tanks to
arrive so soon was a bit scary. We all stopped digging, kept quiet and
listened intently as the sound drew nearer and became increasingly
louder. Our concern was their size since we had nothing to stop any of
the bigger German tanks.
They approached our side of the bridge, and were less than a hundred
yards to my rear. I suddenly heard the familiar crack as one of our lads
fired our small PIAT anti-tank gun. I never considered the PIAT to be a
particularly effective anti-tank weapon.it was similar to the better
known American Bazooka but it stood on a short tripod and fired a
short fat fin-tailed bomb which we had not found to be very accurate
over more than about 75 yards (and if you fired and missed at that
range at an advancing tank there was insufficient time to reload for a
second shot)... but to my utter surprise, within a second or so of the
PIAT being fired there was a mighty explosion, followed by shouts and
screams and it was obvious that one of the lads had scored a direct and
highly effective hit against the leading tank. The bridge superstructure
was suddenly illuminated by a huge blaze of orange, red and yellow light,
quickly followed by the sound of exploding ammunition as the tank
Brewed Up. The following tanks were obviously not keen to chance
their luck and investigate further and, with a revving of engines they went
into a fast reverse and withdrew up the road along which they had come.
After the tanks were driven off we had a further spell of quietness
until the two Parachute Brigades came flying in above our heads and the
German ack-ack and ground forces began firing into the night sky. They
should have been with us within the hour it was around 0330 hrs
before the first of our reinforcements began to arrive, and then only in
dribs and drabs
Apparently during the darkness the German Commander of the bridge
force arrived at the river bridge in his staff car. Whether he was not
aware that we had already captured his bridge it is hard to say but when
he was stopped by our lads he leapt out of his car, made a move to draw
his pistol and was promptly shot and wounded before he could fire a
shot. Generally the night was good deal quieter than I had expected but
with the dawn came Germans in droves, and from all directions. Under

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 5

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

cover of darkness highly trained enemy snipers had climbed up into high
trees and buildings and, from daylight onwards, began firing their highpowered long-range rifles (fitted with telescopic sights) with deadly
accuracy. The first indication was the distant crack as they fired and,
almost instantaneously one of our lads would crash to the ground
killed or wounded.
Whilst German infantry had begun moving in towards the bridges from
daylight onwards, during the hours before dawn a fair number of the
scattered Paras had managed to reach our positions and with their added
firepower we were able to repulse successive waves of enemy attacks.
By late morning, as far as I could gather we had lost our Platoon
Commander (who died from his wounds soon after we landed), our
Platoon Sergeant (who had been sitting near me) was badly injured
during the glider landing and our Section Corporal had just been
wounded. At this point in time I didnt know how the rest of the
Company were making out but I gathered that during the night and
morning most of our Officers and Sergeants were either dead or
wounded, and nothing had been heard of the missing glider which had on
board Capt. Priday (the Company Second-in-Command) and, of course a
Platoon Commander and his men.
Our leadership seemed to be diminishing at an alarming rate and we
had only been in action for a few hours and it was likely to be several
more hours before we could expect any help from the beachhead. We
had no knowledge of how things were going there as the beaches were
several miles away and we were entirely surrounded by Germans.

Image 2
Transport moving across
the Caen Canal Bridge at
Benouville. The bridge was
renamed Pegasus Bridge,
after the mythical winged
horse on the formation sign
of British airborne forces.
IWM Ref: B5288

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 6

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Account 2
The layout of the bridge and the position of the pill boxes was identical
in every mock operation so it was fairly obvious what we were going to
land on and what we were going to dowe were doing this on a regular
basis, on a daily basis. We didnt have a clue, didnt even know where
we was going or anything else. We were shown this layout, scaled
layout - a model.
We were introduced to the glider pilots..we was very impressed- they
both had the Military Medal, and they had won these Military Medals
with their flying in North Africa and Sicily and we was told that they was
probably the best pilots that they had in the whole of the Glider Pilot
Regimentthey were exceptionally experienced.
Before we loaded on the morning of the 4th we went and got
weighedthis was to get the correct weight of the glider, the glider
load.. they weighed us on, like farmers scales we was all weighed
individually and all our weights recorded because they told us we would
be carrying a boat, a collapsible boat in the bottom of the glider. This
was for the four engineers we was taking with us. The object of the boat
was to get the engineers under the bridge to defuse the, as we were told
the bridge was mined..
At about 6 oclock that evening we was told we could go back to our
tentsthey told us it had been postponed, we wouldnt be going that
night.in a way it was a big let down because we had all sort of got
ourselves acclimatised to the fact that we were actually going that night
and then, I wouldnt say it was disappointment of not going that wouldnt
be true, but if we hadnt gone at all we would have been very happy, but
they said that we would going to have to stand down for 24 hours.we
just played cards using the fake French money we had been given.
I personally was quite frightened not knowing what to expectsome
men took a sing song mood
We joined in with a thousand bomber raid that was going on further into
France, to cover us invery little flakMajor Howard said when we got
near the coast, that was to everybody to keep quiet, as he said
afterwards he didnt want people looking up and seeing a singing glider
coming across
The glider pilot shouted out Were making our approach, so we
immediately linked all our arms together, which was the usual procedure,
lifted our feet up off the floor, if you could, and just waited for the
landing. Well the first time we hit the deck we expected to land at
about 90 miles an hour , 80-90 mile an hour I now know that we was
well over 100 when we landed, miles per hour, we hit the deck and low
and behold before we knew what we was, we were airborne again. The
wheels had come off the glider we came down a terrific thud on the
skid, the metal skid underneath the glider, the parachute was thrown out
the back door, this turned out to be absolutely useless, it caught in the

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 7

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

Frank Bourlet, 2nd Btn

Oxfordshire &
Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry.
IWM Ref: 27247 Reel 5 & 6

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

undergrowth and snapped off and we was in a shower of sparks. This

was where the metal skid was running over the flints in the earth and we
came to a thundering stop, a terrific bang. We was alright, we held on
to each other quite well and then of course it was out of the glider.
We are now alongside Caen canal .were already through the barbed
wire,.right opposite me was the exit doorit got jammedthey shot
the door over and the next thing we were outI was up onto the little
bit of high ground.Jack was by meand we went and do the job which
was to knock out the pill box the pill box was very, very simple, we
the rest of the section kept back, Jack & Pa went on just ahead of us,
thats Cpl Bailey, he put the grenade actually into the slot of the pillbox,
by this time the first section was already half way across the bridge..we
immediately ran round the back of the pill box , which we knew
contained troops. There was a large dug out built I went down one
end of the dugout and ODonell went down the other and low and
behold we caught them in bedthere was approximately 8 workers,
these I understand were digging anti-glider holes, poles they were putting
in and 3 Germans, we rounded them up and put them into the pill box
which we now found to be emptythen continued on to search the
buildingthere was a pistol shotcoming round the corner I found an
old Frenchman who had been shot through the chest, I put him into a
wheelbarrow, an old wooden wheelbarrow. Im afraid I had to leave
him.we completely reassured ourselves that there was nothing there,
because the object of us doing this was that we didnt want anybody
firing at the backs of our troops as they crossed the bridge, this was the
main reason that we, that this operation by scout section was carried
what was happening on the bridge I can only tell you is what people
told me because I wasnt there.Ive heard many, many stories about
what happened, I know that my Platoon Officer was killed on the bridge,
found that out quite a bit of time later, also know that 24 Platoon, David
Woods platoon which was the 3rd glider in, hed run into a bit of
trouble, he hed been shot in the legs, his wireless operator had been
shot, killed and his batman had been wounded as well...
Our job then was to go across the bridge .no fire as we crossed the
bridge when we got over the bridge Howard directed us to go back
and take up our position in the gun emplacement which we knew was
facing the chateau.It was still dark. we were in the dugout, been in
there for quite a time, probably an hour.
The next thing we heard was the noise of a tank, not knowing what was
going on from where we were, the next thing was we heard an
explosion and then there was a, which we now know was the tank
brewing up, the explosion all the ammunition going off inside the
tank.this tank I now know came down the road, 2 of them, Cpl
Thornton laid in wait inside one of the walls of one of the houses and he
fired the PIAT at the tank, which knocked the tank out. The other tank
turned tail and ran and this brewed up the tank in the middle of the
crossroads. That was done by Cpl Thornton for which he was awarded
the Military Medal. In the position we was in facing the chateau we
was probably the furthest point out, which is correct, which is where the

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 8

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

scout section should be, we didnt know what was actually going on up
on the road.well when it started to get first light and thats when
things began to happen. Hell of a lot of sniping, you couldnt move about
pretty well pinned down by snipers.practically pinned down any
movement we were making on the bridge. Next we hear bagpipes.
Coming down the towpath, was this officers with his white submarine
sweater on and a piper behind himthe section that was over the other
side, 24 Platoon, was shouting at them to pack it up and keep back from
the bridge areawe were shouting at them as well run, run.this
was Lord Lovat and his Commandos..
Prior to the commandos getting through we were starting to get dribs
and drabs of the 7th Battalion. They were supposed to come through us
to re-enforce Le Pont crossroads. They were promised there would be
at least 6 to 800 men. Up to half past 3, as Im given to understand there
were only 180, owing to the fact that they had been dropped all over the
place.

Account 3
Training: I did 43 fights all together, many of which were remote
release.which we did during the day and then we did that 13 times at
night, with no lights at all
We took off from Tarrant Rushton like any other night operation,
remember this is my 43rd, 44th go, of which it was the 14 at night so
whats the difference, except that there were live bods at the back?
The cockpit door was open, we conversed with each other, reassured
them. It was just a flight. It was an incredible sensation though,
emotionally, once wed sorted ourselves out and got off. Perfectly
smooth take off, got up to the height and started on our journey. As we
crossed the coast of England, it is a, I found, even at that age, enormously
emotional to know that you, a very small number of, there were just 3 of
us on this particular bridge which was the prime target, were setting off
on an adventure as a spearhead of a most colossal army ever assembled
in the history of mankind virtually. I found it very difficult to believe it
was true because I felt so insignificant.
You are up there, moonlight, and the coast came into view. decision
time to release at 7000 feet, pull the button, or the plug, like a bath plug,
and youre on your own, up there, dead quiet, floating towards and over
the coast of France and know that theres no turning back whatsoever
and as you know the Halifaxs went on as if they were on a bombing raid
and left us up in the air
Wed flown up past the bridge.the only way that you were going to
get there was by flying with extreme accuracy.this was the trick of the
thing, is if youre going to be invaded, youre going to be invaded from
the coast, right, and the main, one of the key factors, although the
contour of the ground obviously played a part, is in fact you dont expect
to have an airborne glider invasion coming from inside your own

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 9

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

Oliver Boland, NCO,

Glider Pilot Regiment.
IWM Ref: 11551 Reel 2

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

territory so we flew over the landing site, although to the side, and then
turned and did a 2 right angles and then came back descending.
I, as the first pilot, was sitting on the right hand side, the bridges are now
on my left, right, and Im coming down towards the bridges, and
descending at the appropriate rate, I had still not seen the bridges, but
my view to that extent would be masked by my pilot, cos hes, co-pilot,
hes looking, but we didnt see the bridges as such for a while, then we
suddenly saw them..
When suddenly the bridges come into view and Im quite low now trying
to see whether there are any trees, remember that we had no real
knowledge of the site, at all and its dark...landing any second now,
when gunfire right in front of my noseand we then crash landed,
literally crash landed, as we all did there the landing was very rough
indeed
Im tearing along just above the ground, tearing relatively, just above the
ground,
(question from interviewer about 90 miles an hour approximately ?)
no no, 30, very low landing speed, or less, 20, and Im suddenly faced
with Jimmy in front of me, whos crashing through and into the hedge,
and a pond, and I cant go into the pond cos I dont know how deep it is,
nobodys told me and Ive got 30 blokes in the back, full of gear, so I pull
the spoiler and drop the last foot, or so, and then I have to swerve to
the right to avoid going into the pond, so the back of the glider broke,
nobody got hurt as such, other than my co-pilot, who got a severely
pulled tendon or something, or something in his knee at any rate which
incapacitated him, made it difficult for him to walk, we put him on a
stretcher.
It was over in what was really minutes there. The main bridge as you
know, was heavily defended with a bloody great 88 in there, the other
bridge had got a sentry on, possibly one at each end there. So the
surprise was so complete, including coming from the wrong end that the
Germans really never got, were never really able to defend the bridge
except in the most sporadic way.
We started getting an increasing amount of sniper fire, because they
were able to use an awful lot of cover and youd still got parachutists
coming in from all directions and youd also got Germans now coming in,
right, mixed up with the parachutists obviously, and I suspect theyd
actually got into the wrecked gliders and were using those as cover.

Account 4
A fairly uneventful flight Underneath the Arches was sung..then we
got the order no noisewe braced arms.. we hit the ground with
this tremendous wallop..Id never had a landing like it..as we
looked so there were great red, what we thought for a minute were

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 10

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

Jack Bill Bailey, NCO, D

Coy, 2nd Btn Oxfordshire &
Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry.
IWM Ref: 11564 Reel 3

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

tracer bullets, which we were told afterwards were probably the

frictionwe hit deck and we jumped out and I always remember I went
down on one knee as I dropped out and it was wet under the knee and
there was a noise up front, breaking stuff, there was quite a bit of
splinter.grating, splintering, like a crash. there was a bit of slowness
up front..in spite of how we had been taught to react, there was a
slight hiatus, now it would have been seconds, not minutes were talking
about.
Clearly through the night there were 2 orders, or 2 noises, that night
that stick out above all else. And the first one was Dan Brotheridge
saying Cpl Bailey get those chaps moving and of course we
movedand we streamed across. Now the task of the scout section
was to neutralise the pillbox and not to interfere with anything else
that was going on and so we scrambled across.. there was a degree of
moonlight that night.there was a fair amount of cloudimmediately
we landed, when one looked across because one knew where one was
from that point of view from the briefing, the old iron work of the
bridge, that was the top section stood out as a clear back
silhouettewe went straight to the pillbox, which was on the other side
of the road, on the coastal side of the road and we used two 36
grenades there which we put through the apertures and there was
really a terrific explosion.there were great clouds of dust..we move
up to the wall and pins out and shove them through.In the meantime
Dan Brotheridge and the rest of the platoon had gone galloping across
the bridge, and Ive heard to the end of my days their boots going over
that bridge, because it was a metal based bridge and we remember in
those days we wore leather boots with studs, and you can hear that to
this day.Dan and his men went hurtling across...there was some
firing at this stage from the other end of the bridge but way above our
heads.my mouth was absolutely dry..Frank Bourlet was behind
me.when we got to that end of the bridge, were talking in seconds at
this stage of the game..and there was a body lying alongside the petrol
pump it was Dan Brotheridge and he was obviously bleeding from the
neckat this stage we called for the medic..from there I moved up to
where my first trench in Normandy was to be dug, and thats just above
the caf on that little bit of high ground.in the meantime there was a
fair amount of noise, there was shouting and there was firing
there was a great deal of light in the sky from the direction of
Caenof course what I didnt know at that time was that the lights I
could probably see there were the factory chimneys at
Colombellesthere were quite a number of Chandeliers being
dropped in the sky in that general direction, probably by the RAF people
that had proceeded us .the next move was to get the PIATS, thats the
Projector Infantry Anti Tank, from the gliders and this was one of the
jobs of the glider pilots, to bring the stuff to us.time now becomes a
problem..we had taken the PIAT up to the position..there had been
a fair amount of firing at the other bridgewe heard more distinctly
what sounded like armoured vehicle or vehicles from the village ahead of
us and we got a message back they must have a PIAT immediately and
we only had one PIAT as far as I know so we gave them the PIATit

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 11

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

knocked out this tank up by the Mairie.we then got a message

overthat said that Danny was very, he was in serious trouble and it
was at a later time than that.. when he came and told us that old Dan
had died and that shook us, I dont know why we shouldnt think that he
might have died but you dont when youre that age..
Soon were approaching, I suppose its not first light but the first para
came across the bridge from the 7th Battalion..
The noise from our own naval shells .... they were like express trains
going but of course they were going way beyond us, but they made one
hell of a noise I wouldnt want to be on the receiving end of those.
There were a fair number of bodies lying about by the end of the
morning, mainly German because most of the British obviously were
being carried awayeventually we heard the bagpipes of the
Commando approaching, that could be heard and there was a most
tremendous cheer went up through the village, right the way round.

Image 3
Gliders of the 6th Airborne
Division by John Ward. In
the foreground the tail end
of a Horsa glider lies on the
grass. In the background
are several other pieces of
glider, spread over a field,
including wings and tail fins.
IWM Art Ref: LD4586

Image 4
Crashed Gliders: The
landing-zone at Ranville,
1944 by Albert Richards.
The wrecks of several
crashed gliders; different
parts of the aircraft are
separated from the body
and strewn on the ground.
IWM Art Ref: LD4232

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 12

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Image 5
The Final Embarkation:
Four 'stick' commanders of
22nd Independent
Parachute Company, British
6th Airborne Division,
synchronising their watches
in front of an Armstrong
Whitworth Albemarle of
No 38 Group, Royal Air
Force, at about 11 pm on 5
June, just prior to take off
from RAF Harwell,
Oxfordshire. This
pathfinder unit parachuted
into Normandy in advance
of the rest of the division in
order to mark out the
landing zones, and these
officers, (left to right, Lieutenants, Bobby de la
Tour, Don Wells, John
Vischer and Bob Midwood),
were among the first Allied
troops to land in France.
IWM Ref: H39070

Image 6
The Airborne Assault:
Oblique aerial view of
parachutes and Airspeed
Horsa gliders on 6th
Airborne Division's Landing
Zone 'N' near Ranville, on
the morning of 6 June.
IWM Ref: CL59

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 13

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Account 5
The British 6th Airborne Division had been allotted the task of landing
from the sky onto the left flank of the British Army. The 6th Airborne
Division would thus be the left hand force of the entire Allied invasion.
The main seaborne force was to land, capture and secure the ground
along the coastline, move inland for several miles and pivot round in an
anti-clockwise direction towards the East. Our Division had to capture
and hold a large area on the left flank and prevent any attempt by the
Germans to rush reinforcements along the coast from the East (where
their main anti-invasion force was located).
within the past few days, probably resulting from a visit by the German
Field Marshal Rommel, local people had been recruited to erect huge
poles in the proposed Divisional main dropping and landing area. Such a
pole would easily smash to bits any troop carrying glider that hit them
for the average speed of a fully laden Horsa glider as it first hits the
ground, is between 70 and 90 miles per hour and, at that sort of speed,
it would only need the wingtip to touch a pole to rip a wing off and turn
a glider onto its back (with disasterous consequences since they were
only made of plywood and fabric and were extremely vulnerable when
landing on rough ground even without the added danger of huge poles.
The weather conditions were by no means ideal for an airborne landing
but there was some problem about the height of the tides for the landing
of the seaborne forces within the last few days the crack 12th and 21st
S.S. Panzer Divisions had moved into the area around Caen. These 2
Divisions were known to be amongst the most highly trained troops in
the German Army - and Nazi fanatics to a man! Just our luck!
Everything that we would need during the next few days we would have
to carry ourselves boxes of ammunition, light machine guns, small antitank weapons, mines, grenades, light mortars (and their bombs), tools,
food (and cooking utensils, spare clothing and every other item of
equipment that might be needed for the task ahead.
Once a fully laden glider is released from the tow plane it has just one
way to go downwards. Unlike the birds and the small one man glider
that can swoop upwards and downwards on the slightest current of air,
the heavy Horsa glider just keeps plummeting earthwards and I have the
greatest respect and admiration for the glider pilots who have to make
an immediate and once only decision. If they misjudge their approach,
unlike the pilot of the powered plane, they cannot go up again and make
another circuit.
A small group of Paras were to jump and land in the area to set up
marker lights to guide in the Para reinforcements they were being
carried on a highish wind and would be scattered over a very wide area
and not the compact Dropping Zone that had been planned this area
was heavily wooded and those that missed the Dropping Zone were as
likely to end up in the high trees, as upon open groundthe Paras had
been scattered over a very wide area which made it impossible for them

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 14

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

D E Edwards, 6th Airborne

Division.
IWM Ref: 78/68/1

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

to re-group at the designated Dropping Zone. Instead they were

banding together in groups of two or three, making their way across
unfamiliar wooded country in darkness until they reached the river or
canal bank and then following this in the knowledge that sooner or later
they come to the bridgesthe Germans were using the same method to
reach the same point and it all became very difficult as people suddenly
appeared in the darkness and it was impossible to know whether they
were friend or foe until they got to within whispering distance and called
out a pre-arranged password.

Account 6
23 June 1944
I have just changed my underclothes and washed my feet for the first
time since I left England. What we would really like is some bread
getting awfully tired of these biscuits, but the army bakers are not here
yet and the local French dont have any to spare.
Being now at liberty to talk slightly about D.Day here you are for what it
is worth
The glider flight was bloody! It was, of course, longer that most weve
done before because of the business of getting into formation, collecting
fighter escort and so on. After about hour I began to be sick and
continued until we were over the Channel where the air was much
calmer. The Channel was a wonderful sight especially the traffic at this
end Piccadilly Circus wasnt in it. We were not over the coast this
side long enough for me to be sick again and we were pretty busy
thinking about landing. The landing was ghastly. Mine was the first glider
down though we were not quite in the right place, and the damn thing
bucketed along a very upsy-downsy field for a bit and then broke across
the middle we just chopped through those anti-landing poles (like the
ones I used to cut during my forestry vac.) as we went along. However,
the two halves of the glider fetched up very close together and we
quickly got ourselves and our equipment and lay down under the thing
because other gliders were coming in all round and Jerries were shooting
things about at them and us so it wasnt healthy to wander about. Our
immediate opposition a machine gun in a little tranch(sic) was very
effectively silenced by another glider which fetched up plumb on the
trench and a couple of Huns quite terrified came out with their
hands up! Having discovered that we were all there and bound up a few
scratches we then set off to the scene of the battle. I shall not tell you
about that except that apart from a bar of chocolate and half the
contents of my whisky flask I had no time to eat or drink for a very
uncomfortably long time too much else to do, but it seems incredible
now. From my last meal in England to my first cup of char and hard
ration in France was very nearly 48 hours!

Disclaimer
All source material used in this learning pack comes from the Collections of the

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 15

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings

Captain C T Cross, Platoon

Commander, 2nd Battalion
Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry, 6th Airborne
Division Gliders.
IWM Ref: 91/8/1

LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Imperial War Museum, has been generated by the Their Past Your Future
project, or is used by kind permission. Every effort has been made to trace
copyright holders and gain permission for use of this image. We would be
grateful for any information concerning copyright and will withdraw images
immediately on copyright holder's request.
_________________________________________________________________

Imperial War Museum

PAGE 16

D-Day Pegasus Bridge and the Airborne Landings