The story of this place
Just after midnight on 6 June 1944, six Horsa gliders carrying men of the British 6th Airborne, led by Major John Howard, crash-landed within yards of the bridge over the Caen Canal at Bénouville. In a ten-minute assault they seized the bridge intact, denying it to German reinforcements—the first Allied action of D-Day. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, shot in the attack, became the first Allied soldier killed by enemy fire on 6 June. The bridge, later nicknamed Pegasus after the airborne emblem, was held until relieved by Lovat's commandos from Sword Beach. The original bridge now stands in a nearby memorial museum.