An elite company of British soldiers GLIDERS understood the risks that came along with Horsa gliders had a wingspan of 88 feet 27 m glider missions They also recognized the and hinged nose panels so jeeps or other immense size of the task ahead of the wheeled vehicles could be loaded and unloaded Allied armies Still they had volunteered easily The gliders were constructed from for a special mission They would be among wood making them lightweight and relatively the first Allied soldiers to set foot on inexpensive to build It also meant they would French soil on D Day not use steel which was needed for other more heavily armored vehicles The company flew in six British built Horsa gliders each carrying 30 men They were towed across the English Channel toward the French coast by powerful Allied transport aircraft Below them in the stormy channel the men caught occasional glimpses of white streaks They were the wakes left by the vast array of ships headed for Normandy DESCENDING INTO FRANCE When the glider towing aircraft reached the French coast late on the night of June 5 they released their gliders The tow aircraft turned back to the United Kingdom to pick up more men The gliders soared on heading toward their assigned landing zone near the Caen Canal and the Orne River These bodies of water marked the eastern edge of the Allied invasion area The glider forces were assigned the task of capturing two key bridges there Bénouville and Ranville The structures were only a hundred yards apart They had to be taken few intact since Allied troops would soon need them for their advance inland from the
Allied gliders came to a rest in the open fields of the Normandy
The gliders descended silently in a ragged single file line Pilots slowed the planes as much as possible Still they were traveling approximately 90 miles per hour 145 kmh as they prepared to touch down in moonlit fields The men inside the aircraft interlocked arms and braced for the landing The ground rushed up toward them One glider splintered to pieces as soon as it hit the dirt The bottom was ripped away and the front canopy was smashed knocking the pilots unconscious The glider careened sideways as the men inside struggled to shield themselves from flying wood fragments rocks dirt and sparks The wreck finally came to rest PEGASUS BRIDGE nose first against an entanglement of The Bénouville Bridge over the Caen Canal barbed wire at the far edge of the field was later renamed Pegasus Bridge after the flying horse emblem worn by British airborne TAKING THE BRIDGES troops Local authorities replaced the bridge in Amazingly few men were injured They 1994 using the same design as the old bridge poured out through the side door and the The original structure was moved to a memorial museum nearby gaping hole in the front of the plane and prepared to attack Nearby other gliders skidded to a halt They were within a few yards of the German defenders guarding the bridges Yet until British soldiers began firing and throwing grenades the Germans had no idea enemy troops had arrived A German guard who rushed outside after hearing a noise in the nearby fields became the first soldier to die in combat on D
Securing key bridges was one of the most important objectives in the early hours of the D Day
