NORMANDY 

Normandy - The Pegasus bridge at Benouville-Ranville battery and cemetery

Memorial sites
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D-Day beaches and War Memorial

Ste-Mere-Eglise

 Caen-Musée pour le Paix

Pegasus Bridge
Benouville
Ranville

Caen-Benouville, a short trip today, a hell on June 1944.
Take the road direction Cabourg and in a few minutes you are in BENOUVILLE.
A charming little city at the shores of the Orne river. Its most famous landmark, the PEGASUS BRIDGE, with its metallic structure was unfortunately dismantled, to the great furor of the local population but also a great deception for the many surviving British red berets that risked their lives to defend that bridge. Some even say: was it worth all that sacrifice? And I cannot blame them…
The PEGASUS BRIDGE was indeed the symbol of courage and tenacity of the British army. The objective, at the eastern end of the beaches, was an early objective in the campaign to establish an eastern foothold on French soil and is a natural starting point for a tour of the D-day beaches.
June 6th, 1944, just after midnight gliders and paratroopers of the British 6th Airborne division (insignia was flying horse= Pegasus) landed in the nearby fields and quickly secured the bridge. The café Gondrée, at its western end was the first French house to be liberated, and is today an affectionate port-of-call for returning veterans.  But after the taking of the bridge it was transformed into a hospital. The owner has its way to celebrate the event. He claimed having buried to hide 3,000 bottles of Champaign from the Germans and offered them to the troops.  Today, a mythic spot, with numerous souvenirs all over the walls!
The conquest of this site which entered History under the name Pegasus Bridge was under the command of major John Howard, immortalized in the "Longest Day".
One of the many anecdotes of this taking of the bridge was the arrival of the green berets and their bag-piper, Lord Lovat, the Scot who commanded the little troop, and greeted major Howard with a:"Sorry Sir, I am 2 minutes late."
The MUSEE PEGASUS BRIDGE or MUSEE DES TROUPES AEROPORTEES BRITTANIQUES ET CANADIENNES is located rue du Commandant Kieffer tel 0231446254. Open every day from April to mid-October. Closed in low season. Entrance fee. It recalls the events of that night with maps, photos and diverse souvenirs: uniforms, arms and the famous bagpipe everybody who saw the "Longest Day" will remember!
On the east side of the Orne river there are two more sights you should visit (D 514) In the village of RANVILLE the British and Commonwealth war cemetery contains 2536 dead, including that of Lt. Den Brotheridge, the first allied soldier killed in invasion. Neat lawns, rows of white headstones and a parish church built in Norman style from soft-toned Caen stone paint a very English scene.
If one of the contemplative pleasures of touring the D-day beaches is to compare the different styles with which nations choose to honour their dead, another is to try to imagine the ferocious dramas that took place around what are now dull and twisted lumps of concrete. Just beyond Sallenelles, a village still living in 1940, are the remnants of the MERVILLE BATTERY: tel 0231242357, open from April 1 to Sept 30 every day. On a 16 hectares site protected by barbed wire, mines and anti-tank ditches, this was a heavily armed brick, one of the most impressive in the Atlantic wall of the Atlantic Wall. Capturing it proved a costly affair—70 men were lost to capture this artillery piece of four enormous canons protecting Ouistreham and the environing villages. Today the battery resembles a mid-20th century tumulus: cows and horses graze nonchalantly beside its casements, while one of the 4 casemates (protected by 2 meters of reinforced concrete) is transformed into a small museum, which struggles to be an “aide-memoire”.

Bibliography

A holiday history of France, by Ronald Hamilton (London-Hogarth press), Region Normandie, ses merveilles, ses cicatrices, by Louis Letellier (ed. Cloison, Rouen 1995), Holt’s battle field guides, Normandy Overlord by Holt, Tonie and Valmai (Sandwich, Kent), La France des petits chemins: Normandie, by J. de la Valléé (ed. Cité presse, Paris 1998), Six armies in Normandy, by John Keegan, (paperback ed. Pimlico), Juno-Sword, plages de feu et de sang by, Lt. J.Kieffer (ed.Barbet-Rouen 1975)

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