Location 1 – The Glider “Coup de Main” – Pegasus Bridge

Though few on board the invasion armada crossing the Channel knew it, for “Overlord” to succeed a huge amount depended on the fortunes of just a handful of young men being towed overhead in six Horsa gliders tasked with capturing intact the two bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River. Together with the pathfinders of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne and British 6th Airborne Division, they were the spearhead of the entire Allied invasion.

Just after midnight on the 5/6 June 1944, the three Horsas bound for the canal bridge peeled off and began their approach. Powerless and with only the moonlight to guide the pilots, they silently headed for the tiny Landing Zone “X” just short of the bridge. Minutes later in a maelstrom of splintering wood and flying debris, the first of the three gliders crashed in to land. Inside were Major John Howard, Lieutenant Brotheridge and the men of No 1 Platoon of D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Later Howard remembered,

“The door had collapsed because we had telescoped. The poor glider pilots were thrown right through the cockpit and over the wire. And we could hear them moaning, but we couldn’t do anything about it because the great thing then, knowing where I’d got, first there, was to capture the bridge intact.”

Despite being momentarily stunned by the impact and disorientated by the darkness, No 1 Platoon were soon scrambling out of the aircraft to enact the plan they had rehearsed numerous times on a similar bridge over the Exeter Canal back in England. As planned the glider had crashed through the barbed wire that surrounded the bridge approach and the airborne soldiers were soon racing to secure its eastern end.

Three men engaged the pillbox protecting the bridge approaches whilst Brotheridge and the rest of the platoon charged onto the roadway just as the second glider carrying No 2 Platoon crash-landed behind the first. The German defenders were taken completely by surprise assuming the sound of the first glider to be the remnants of a British bomber struck by flak. A sentry on the bridge dived into the nearest slit trench shouting “Fallschirmjager” (paratrooper) whilst a comrade managed to fire a Very pistol to raise the alarm before he was cut down by Bren gun fire. By now No 2 Platoon began to enter the fire-fight, just as the third glider landed just yards from the other two. Sadly, it came down too close to the pond and Lance Corporal Fred Greenhalgh drowned – the first Allied casualty of D-Day.

The combat was short and confused but fierce. Dugouts and trenches on the eastern bank were taken by grenade and machine gun whilst Lieutenant Smith of No 3 Platoon led a charge to take the western bank defences. Meanwhile engineers searched the bridge superstructure for hidden demolition charges. There were none – the canal bridge had been captured intact. Sadly, Lieutenant Brotheridge was mortally wounded in the action. He became the first D-Day fatality caused by enemy fire. Both of the other platoon commanders had also been hit. Lieutenant David Wood of No 2 Platoon was hit in the leg by a burst of machine gun fire,

“…which also caught my platoon sergeant and my runner. I regret to say there were no heroics, although I had heard about folk who can run around on only one leg. I found I simply fell down and couldn’t get up. My platoon medical orderly gave me a shot of morphia, applies a rifle splint and found my hip flask in my pocket.”

In recognition of the part played by Major Howard and his men in its capture, the canal bridge became synonymous with the British Airborne Divisions and their insignia, the winged horse of Greek legend – Pegasus, thereafter being known as “Pegasus Bridge”.