Pegasus Bridge

But for one historic day, the crossing of the Caen Canal at Benouville would have remained completely unremarkable. It sits in a quiet part of Normandy which may have never come to prominence but for the fact that it was on the left flank of the greatest seaborne assault in history.

At sixteen minutes past midnight on Tuesday, 6th June 1944 , the first of three Horsa gliders landed within yards of the Bridge. Inside the gliders were the men of D Company, 2nd Ox & Bucks Light Infantry, led by Major John Howard. In an astonishing coup de main operation, they captured the bridge intact. With the assistance of the paratroops of 7th Parachute Battalion they managed to hold the bridge until relieved by leading elements of the seaborne invasion over twelve hours later. Because of the part played by the Airborne troops in it capture, the bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge . Operation 'Deadstick', the heroic attack that captured the bridge, was surely the most audacious and significant of the Normandy landings, if not the Second World War.

It is the ordinary soldiers of D Company to whom this model is dedicated.

For further reading on the capture of the bridge see Stephen Ambrose's ' Pegasus Bridge ' - ISBN No. 074345068X, available at www.amazon.co.uk by clicking here.

The model is a mixed media kit using polyurethane resin and etched brass. It contains a full instruction sheet and plans for the layout of German defences around the bridge as they were in 1944.