Pegasus Bridge and Merville: The British Airborne on D-Day
Normandy, France
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Pegasus Glider Rider
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250
XP
+100 France
= 350 total
1 day
Pegasus Bridge and Merville: The British Airborne on D-Day
250 + 100 XP
At 00.16 on 6 June 1944 Jim Wallwork put the first Horsa glider down 47 metres from the Caen canal bridge without the German sentries hearing it; two more landed at 00.17 and 00.18, and Major John Howard's men took both this bridge and the Orne bridge within minutes. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, shot here, was the first Allied soldier killed in action on D-Day. A few kilometres away, 150 men of the 9th Parachute Battalion stormed the Merville Battery before dawn to silence its guns above Sword Beach.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk across Pegasus Bridge over the Caen canal at Bénouville, the bridge taken by Major John Howard's glider troops on 6 June 1944
2
of 4
Have a drink at the Cafe Gondree, 20m from the bridge, where Therese and Georges Gondree were living on the night; find the 1954 plaque calling it the first house in mainland France to be liberated, then look across the road at the Picot house that at least one historian says was entered first
3
of 4
Visit the Memorial Pegasus at Ranville, between the canal and the Orne, and stand on the original bridge of 1935 that the glider troops took, kept in the museum grounds since a longer replacement went in for the fiftieth anniversary in 1994
4
of 4
Walk the four casemates at the Merville battery, built for 150mm guns but armed only with four Czech Skoda howitzers left over from the First World War, and find the orientation tables on casemate 2 that show what the guns covered over Sword Beach; then go aboard the C-47 SNAFU Special parked on the site, and work out how 150 of the 600 men who should have been there took the place anyway
Walk across Pegasus Bridge over the Caen canal at Bénouville, the bridge taken by Major John Howard's glider troops on 6 June 1944
Have a drink at the Cafe Gondree, 20m from the bridge, where Therese and Georges Gondree were living on the night; find the 1954 plaque calling it the first house in mainland France to be liberated, then look across the road at the Picot house that at least one historian says was entered first
Visit the Memorial Pegasus at Ranville, between the canal and the Orne, and stand on the original bridge of 1935 that the glider troops took, kept in the museum grounds since a longer replacement went in for the fiftieth anniversary in 1994
Walk the four casemates at the Merville battery, built for 150mm guns but armed only with four Czech Skoda howitzers left over from the First World War, and find the orientation tables on casemate 2 that show what the guns covered over Sword Beach; then go aboard the C-47 SNAFU Special parked on the site, and work out how 150 of the 600 men who should have been there took the place anyway
Before you go
Pegasus Bridge still lifts for boats on the canal and carries the D514; cross on the footway and keep clear of the barriers.
The Merville battery is a five-hectare site with uneven ground, low doorways and unlit concrete interiors; it takes 75,000 visitors a year and is very busy in the first week of June.
Both the Memorial Pegasus and the Merville battery are paying museums with winter hours; around the D-Day anniversary the whole area is closed to through traffic and parking is impossible for a motorhome.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
250 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
350 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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