The seizure of Pegasus Bridge by six glider borne platoons of the
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry under Major John Howard
very early 6th June 1944, is one of the better-known stories of D-Day.
Landing just yards from vital bridges over the River Orne and the Caen
Canal near Bénouville, Howard's men took and held the bridges in a
remarkable coup de main operation with minimal casualties. The 7th
Parachute Battalion dropped in soon afterwards to relieve Howard's men
and the action remains, by any standards, a remarkable feat of arms. But
it was only one act in a much grander production put on by 6th Airborne
Division that night to secure and protect the eastern flank of the
Allied landings inland from Sword, the British landing beach. Key
bridges over the Dives had to be blown to foil possible German counter
attacks and to north east, at Merville, a battery of guns which the
allied planners thought could wreak havoc on the beaches and ships at
sea, had to be eliminated. The task fell to the men of the 9th Parachute
Battalion, whose actions in assaulting the Merville Battery became
another D-Day epic - but for very different reasons.
