There is an odd looking aircraft sitting in a park in Normandy, France. It’s a large aircraft and the first thing that strikes you is it doesn’t have any engines or propellors. It sits just 25 yards from a bridge over the Caen Canal and it turns out that it has a remarkable story.
Pegasus Bridge is a bridge that spans the Caen Canal in Normandy, France. On June 6, 1944, it was the site of the first battle of D-Day, where British airborne troops captured it before dawn. The attack began the liberation of France and, as intended, it disrupted German efforts to counterattack Allied landings on nearby Sword Beach.
The bridge and the aircraft have been preserved as a memorial to the 6th Airborne Division’s 6th Airlanding Brigade.
The aircraft is the glider that carried a company of the British 6th Airlanding Brigade tasked to land near the bridge and hold it against any attacking German troops. It took off in England being towed into the air and out across the English Channel. The likelihood of success was low and command considered they’d be lucky to land within a quarter mile of the objective. That British glider landed exactly where it sits today, within 25 yards of the objective. The company of the 6th Airlanding Brigade took and held the Pegasus bridge for 24 hours until relieved by troops advancing from Sword Beach.
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