D-Day’s First Battle | The British Airborne’s Fight for Pegasus Bridge
Iron Breach History
264,934 views
The Battle for Pegasus Bridge, D-Day, 6 June 1944. At sixteen minutes past midnight, six Horsa gliders came down in silence beside two bridges east of Sword Beach - the Caen Canal crossing at Bénouville and the swing bridge over the River Orne at Ranville. The 181 men of D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, under Major John Howard had one job: take both bridges intact before the Germans could blow them, and hold until relieved. If the bridges fell, the 21st Panzer Division could roll into the flank of the invasion; if they were destroyed, the whole 6th Airborne Division would be stranded east of the water. It was the first fight of D-Day, and it opened with the first British soldier killed on French soil.
This animated map account of Pegasus Bridge follows the coup de main from the first crash landing to the relief 24 hours later: Lieutenant Den Brotheridge's charge across the canal bridge and his death at the far end; Lieutenant Sandy Smith crossing on a wrecked knee; the engineers hunting through the girders for charges that were never fitted; Lieutenant Dennis Fox's platoon taking the Orne bridge with a single mortar round; Sergeant Wagger Thornton's one PIAT shot that stopped the German armour at the junction; 7 Para's fight for Bénouville and Le Port through the morning; the gunboats from Ouistreham; Private Wally Parr's captured anti-tank gun; and Bill Millin piping Lord Lovat's commandos in from the sea - Brigadier Nigel Poett, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, Major Nigel Taylor, Private Michael McGee, Corporal Tommy Killeen, and Georges Gondrée, whose café became the first house in France to be liberated.
CHAPTERS
0:00 The Plan and the Landing
1:47 The Charge Across the Canal Bridge
3:07 Hickman Turns Back, Smith Clears the Café
5:38 Fox Takes the Orne Bridge
8:04 Howard Counts the Cost, 5th Para Brigade Drops
9:20 Major Schmidt Drives Into the Trap
11:12 Thornton's One PIAT Shot
12:45 7 Para Arrive and Push Into Bénouville
14:42 Dawn Counter-Attack at the Bénouville Crossroads
16:57 The Lower Road and the Aid Posts
18:52 Gondrée's Café and the Snipers of Le Port
20:01 Gunboats From Ouistreham
21:10 Parr's Captured Gun and the Unfitted Charges
22:19 Bagpipes: Lovat's Commandos Fight Through Le Port
23:52 Lovat Meets Howard at the Bridge
24:59 Millin Pipes the Commandos Over the Orne
26:08 The Shermans Fail to Reach A Company
26:52 The Warwicks Clear Bénouville
27:40 Relieved: Priday's Lost Platoon Returns
28:23 The Cost and Pegasus Bridge
─────────────────────────────────────
FURTHER READING
─────────────────────────────────────
Stephen E. Ambrose — Pegasus Bridge: D-Day, The Daring British Airborne Raid
Neil Barber — The Pegasus and Orne Bridges: Their Capture, Defence and Relief on D-Day
Will Fowler — Pegasus Bridge: Bénouville, D-Day 1944 (Osprey Raid)
Carl Shilleto — Pegasus Bridge & Merville Battery (Battleground Europe)
John Howard & Penny Bates — The Pegasus Diaries
Antony Beevor — D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
─────────────────────────────────────
SOURCES
─────────────────────────────────────
Major John Howard — D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry after-action report and war diary, 6 June 1944 (National Archives, Kew).
7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion war diary and award citations, 6 June 1944 (National Archives, Kew).
L.F. Ellis — Victory in the West, Vol. I: The Battle of Normandy (1962). British Official History.
Denis Edwards — The Devil's Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944–45. First-hand account from Chalk 91.
Lord Lovat — March Past. Memoir of the commando advance from Sword Beach.
Bill Millin — Invasion. The piper's own account.
Richard Todd — Caught in the Act. 7 Para officer's memoir.
Peter Masters — Striking Back: A Jewish Commando's War Against the Nazis.
Mémorial Pegasus, Ranville (musee-memorial-pegasus.org) — museum archive and veteran testimony.
ParaData (paradata.org.uk) — Airborne Assault Museum unit and personnel records.
#DDay #PegasusBridge #WW2 #WWII #History #MilitaryHistory #AnimatedHistory #BattleOfNormandy #Normandy #BritishArmy #BritishHistory #DDay1944 #Normandy1944 #WorldWar2 #WorldWarII #SecondWorldWar #WW2History #WarHistory #AnimatedMap #BattleMap #OperationOverlord #1944 #6thAirborne #Airborne #Paratroopers #OxAndBucks #7Para #Commandos #LordLovat #BillMillin #JohnHoward #HorsaGlider #GliderInfantry #DDayLandings #NormandyInvasion #Wehrmacht #21stPanzer #Bénouville #Ranville
20 Comments
(Ambrose's account of this battle says Thornton hit a Mk IV. Until this video, I didn't know it was actually an up-armored French half-track. Research confirms this accounting of yours. Well played. I learned something today.)
D-Day’s First Battle | The British Airborne’s Fight for Pegasus Bridge
Iron Breach History
264,934 views
The Battle for Pegasus Bridge, D-Day, 6 June 1944. At sixteen minutes past midnight, six Horsa gliders came down in silence beside two bridges east of Sword Beach - the Caen Canal crossing at Bénouville and the swing bridge over the River Orne at Ranville. The 181 men of D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, under Major John Howard had one job: take both bridges intact before the Germans could blow them, and hold until relieved. If the bridges fell, the 21st Panzer Division could roll into the flank of the invasion; if they were destroyed, the whole 6th Airborne Division would be stranded east of the water. It was the first fight of D-Day, and it opened with the first British soldier killed on French soil.
This animated map account of Pegasus Bridge follows the coup de main from the first crash landing to the relief 24 hours later: Lieutenant Den Brotheridge's charge across the canal bridge and his death at the far end; Lieutenant Sandy Smith crossing on a wrecked knee; the engineers hunting through the girders for charges that were never fitted; Lieutenant Dennis Fox's platoon taking the Orne bridge with a single mortar round; Sergeant Wagger Thornton's one PIAT shot that stopped the German armour at the junction; 7 Para's fight for Bénouville and Le Port through the morning; the gunboats from Ouistreham; Private Wally Parr's captured anti-tank gun; and Bill Millin piping Lord Lovat's commandos in from the sea - Brigadier Nigel Poett, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, Major Nigel Taylor, Private Michael McGee, Corporal Tommy Killeen, and Georges Gondrée, whose café became the first house in France to be liberated.
CHAPTERS
0:00 The Plan and the Landing
1:47 The Charge Across the Canal Bridge
3:07 Hickman Turns Back, Smith Clears the Café
5:38 Fox Takes the Orne Bridge
8:04 Howard Counts the Cost, 5th Para Brigade Drops
9:20 Major Schmidt Drives Into the Trap
11:12 Thornton's One PIAT Shot
12:45 7 Para Arrive and Push Into Bénouville
14:42 Dawn Counter-Attack at the Bénouville Crossroads
16:57 The Lower Road and the Aid Posts
18:52 Gondrée's Café and the Snipers of Le Port
20:01 Gunboats From Ouistreham
21:10 Parr's Captured Gun and the Unfitted Charges
22:19 Bagpipes: Lovat's Commandos Fight Through Le Port
23:52 Lovat Meets Howard at the Bridge
24:59 Millin Pipes the Commandos Over the Orne
26:08 The Shermans Fail to Reach A Company
26:52 The Warwicks Clear Bénouville
27:40 Relieved: Priday's Lost Platoon Returns
28:23 The Cost and Pegasus Bridge
─────────────────────────────────────
FURTHER READING
─────────────────────────────────────
Stephen E. Ambrose — Pegasus Bridge: D-Day, The Daring British Airborne Raid
Neil Barber — The Pegasus and Orne Bridges: Their Capture, Defence and Relief on D-Day
Will Fowler — Pegasus Bridge: Bénouville, D-Day 1944 (Osprey Raid)
Carl Shilleto — Pegasus Bridge & Merville Battery (Battleground Europe)
John Howard & Penny Bates — The Pegasus Diaries
Antony Beevor — D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
─────────────────────────────────────
SOURCES
─────────────────────────────────────
Major John Howard — D Company, 2nd Ox and Bucks Light Infantry after-action report and war diary, 6 June 1944 (National Archives, Kew).
7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion war diary and award citations, 6 June 1944 (National Archives, Kew).
L.F. Ellis — Victory in the West, Vol. I: The Battle of Normandy (1962). British Official History.
Denis Edwards — The Devil's Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944–45. First-hand account from Chalk 91.
Lord Lovat — March Past. Memoir of the commando advance from Sword Beach.
Bill Millin — Invasion. The piper's own account.
Richard Todd — Caught in the Act. 7 Para officer's memoir.
Peter Masters — Striking Back: A Jewish Commando's War Against the Nazis.
Mémorial Pegasus, Ranville (musee-memorial-pegasus.org) — museum archive and veteran testimony.
ParaData (paradata.org.uk) — Airborne Assault Museum unit and personnel records.
#DDay #PegasusBridge #WW2 #WWII #History #MilitaryHistory #AnimatedHistory #BattleOfNormandy #Normandy #BritishArmy #BritishHistory #DDay1944 #Normandy1944 #WorldWar2 #WorldWarII #SecondWorldWar #WW2History #WarHistory #AnimatedMap #BattleMap #OperationOverlord #1944 #6thAirborne #Airborne #Paratroopers #OxAndBucks #7Para #Commandos #LordLovat #BillMillin #JohnHoward #HorsaGlider #GliderInfantry #DDayLandings #NormandyInvasion #Wehrmacht #21stPanzer #Bénouville #Ranville
Don't forget to Drop a like and share for the British Airborne 🇬🇧