Taking Pegasus Bridge

The most famous glider operation of World War II

The British capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges on the night before D-Day has to be the best-known glider operation of World War II. The assault is a perfect example of the speed, courage, precision and aggression we commonly associate with airborne, and more specifically gliderborne, troops. Today’s article is about the operation often incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick, which set a new standard for glider assaults.

The amphibious landings of D-Day were prepared by airborne operations the night before (Read our earlier article – Jumping into chaos), which destroyed or captured strategically important towns, bridges, causeways and artillery batteries to help incoming troops link up with each other and prevent the Germans from launching a counterattack against the vulnerable beachheads. While the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed on the Cotentin Peninsula to the west of the landing zones, the British 6th Airborne Division carried out similar operations on the eastern flank of the British and Canadian beaches under the collective name of Operation Tonga.

One of these operations targeted a pair of bridges crossing the Orne river and the Caen canal. These two waterways run southwest to northeast, parallel to each other from downtown Caen (a major target during the landings but only liberated much later) to the seashore at the very eastern end of the landing beaches. Any German forces, most notable tank units, that wanted to attack the British and Canadian beachheads from the east would need to cross the two waterways to do so. The best location to do so was near the town of Bénouville. Here, the strip of land between the two waterways was roughly 550 yards (500 m) wide, with a road crossing both waters on a pair of bridges. The eastern bridge, over the Orne, was fixed, while the western one, over the canal, was a drawbridge that could be raised to allow ship traffic through. Capturing these two bridges and holding them against German forces would keep the landing zones safe from attacks from the east.

The best way to capture both bridges was decided to be a coup-de-main, the French phrase meaning an attack that relies on speed and surprise. In fact, the official name of the operation was Operation Coup de Main. It’s usually referred to as Operation Deadstick, which is technically incorrect; that operation, named after “deadstick landing,” landing without propulsive power, was actually the name of a glider landing training operation performed before the attack.

Major Reginald John Howard was selected as the commander of the operation, which was to be carried out by ‘D’ Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment, 6th Airlanding Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division. Howard trained his company hard, using bomb-damaged urban areas in Britain for exercise using live ammunition. He expected the attack to involve night-fighting, so he had his men adapt to nocturnal activity: for several weeks, the company had to get up at 8 p.m. and train and work until 1 p.m. Glider pilots practiced landing both day and night, sometimes using darkened goggles to simulate limited visibility. The training exercises revealed that ‘D’ Company alone was not going to be enough, so its four platoons were expanded by another 2 from ‘B’ Company. Additionally, 30 Royal Engineers were added to the force; their task was to quickly defuse any explosives the Germans might have rigged the bridges with.