Roland Smeets

Pegasus Bridge

In June 1944, at 21.30 hrs, C-47 Dakota and Albermale aircraft, pulling about 200 gliders, took off from their bases. The first wave had on board 'Pathfinders' - scouts specially trained to mark out the dropping zone. Some time after midnight, the first scouts were parachuted, three fighting sections went quickly out of the gliders and took control of the Pegasus Bridge. This military operation has remained a model example: after some gunfire, the sections quickly overcame the Germans and seized the bridge over the Orne without any major difficulty.