Pegasus Bridge and Swords beach

We rode from our digs to Honfleur. Now this is one of the prettiest towns in northern France, steeped in history and very picturesque. A perfect place to stop, due to a complete lack of planning however we decided to stop at a McDonald’s on the outskirts of Honfleur and ended up just riding through kicking ourselves that we had missed it so we have included a picture from the web so we can pretend at least that we visited,

Thank you Google maps for this photo

We then rode to Villerville the setting of a very famous French film from 1962 called Un Singe en Hiver (A monkey in winter). ‘When a young guest arrives, an innkeeper who has vowed never to drink again succumbs to the temptation, setting off a chain of unintended consequences.

The bar made famous in the film and where we first discovered Picon Bier was unfortunately closed.

Muriel to the main characters, oh yeah, and one of them American Bikes that sounds like a tractor.

Very Art Deco!

Not entirely sure what this building at the edge of the beach is supposed to be for?

We then found some fantastic roads on our way to Pegasus bride war museum.

The capture of the River Orne bridge at Ranville and the bridge across the Caen Canal at Bénouville is the most famous mission of the airborne division. 180 troops of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, commanded by Major John Howard, captured the bridges after landing in Horsa gliders only metres from their objectives.

In less than ten minutes both bridges had been captured intact. The sea borne reinforcements commanded by Brigadier Lord Lovat, preceded by his bagpiper Bill Millin, were able to cross the waterways to reinforce 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank. Among these Green Berets, 177 French Commandos commanded by Philip Kieffer.

On June 26th 1944, the Caen Canal bridge was baptised Pegasus Bridge as a tribute to the British troops. Pegasus, the winged horse, was the emblem worn on the sleeves of the men of the airborne division. The insignia was chosen by the author Daphne du Maurier, wife of the wartime commander of British airborne forces General Sir Frederick Browning.

The old bridge was replaced on 2002 and was moved into the memorial museum

These dummy parachutes were dropped stuffed with explosives……very sneaky them Brits

A Horsar glider, these things were incredible with the weight that they would carry over the channel.

The pilot used one of these models to calculate where they needed to position all the weight in the glider

I had to copy this into the blog, the worst job in the army???

BilI MILLIN, Lord LOVAT's Piper on D-Day :

*I commenced playing just after we jumped into the water and | gave a few selections up and down the beach while the Brigade was preparing to move off inland. These selections were on special request by Lord LOVAT and the Brigade Major.

When we moved off the beach I played from time to time until we reached Benouville where we were temporarily held up. I played through Benouville and along the road leading to the Pegasus Bridge I stopped playing just before we reached the bridge which was under sniper fire at that time.

I commenced playing again just after we crossed the

bridge and continued playing along the road until we sighted the second bridge (over the River Orne) which was also under fire. I noticed two paratroopers on the far side of the bridge who were waving at us to stop. I looked around at Lord LOVAT who was strolling along as if he was out for a walk round his estate

He indicated to me to carry on over the bridge, which I did.

It was the longest bridge I had ever crossed! Later, as

we approached the village of Amfreville we were diving for cover during a mortar attack when the bagpipes were struck by two mortar splinters which put them out of action. I dismantled the damaged pipes, put them in my rucksack and eventually took them back home.