One Tuesday afternoon in June I was moping around work feeling a bit down in the dumps. My mobile rings and the guy on the other end informs me I've won a trip for two to see the final of the Tour De France.
I didn't quite believe him at first but, yes it was true.
I'd re-subscribed to a Share Trading Advice Service I'd been using for years. I also signed up to trade CFD's and did a trade. That put me into a draw and five weeks later we're off.
A few firsts on this trip, first time on a A380 and first time direct to Europe....
After 27 hours travelling we picked up our little car and headed off toward Bayeux in Normandy. It's only 3 more hours travelling after that flight .....
On the way to Bayeux we decided that we should visit a couple of World War Sites on the way. First stop was the Meriville Gun battery
Pano of the battery
The Battle of Merville Gun Battery occurred on 6 June 1944, as part of the Normandy landings during the Second World War. Allied intelligence believed the Merville Gun Battery was composed of heavy-calibre guns that could threaten the British landings at Sword Beach, only 8 miles (13 km) away.
The 9th Parachute Battalion, part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade attached to 6th Airborne Division, was given the objective of destroying the battery. However, when the battalion arrived over Normandy, their parachute descent was dispersed over a large area, so instead of over 600 men, only 150 with no heavy weapons or equipment arrived at the battalion assembly point. Regardless, they pressed home their attack and succeeded in capturing the battery, only to discover that the guns were old First World War vintage, without the range to trouble the landings. Using what explosives they had been able to recover, the surviving 75 men tried to disable the guns.
Once the paratroopers had withdrawn, two of the guns were put back into action by the Germans. Another attack the next day by British Commandos failed to recapture the battery, which remained under German control until 17 August, when the German Army started to withdraw from the area. (wikipedia)
Gun Casemates
Bust of Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway who lead the assault.
Next Stop was Pegasus Bridge. The first place liberated on D Day
Pegasus Bridge is a bascule bridge (a type of movable bridge), that was built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France.
Also known as the Bénouville Bridge after the neighbouring village, it was, with the nearby Ranville Bridge over the river Orne, a major objective of the British airborne troops during Operation Deadstick, part of Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War.
A unit of Glider infantry of the British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard, was to land, take the bridges intact and hold them until relieved. The successful taking of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the Normandy invasion.
In 1944 it was renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem worn by the British airborne forces, which is the flying horse Pegasus.
On the night of 5 June 1944, a force of 181 men, led by Major John Howard, took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, southern England in six Horsa gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also "Horsa Bridge", a few hundred yards to the east, over the Orne River. The force was composed of D Company (reinforced with two platoons of B Company), 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry; 20 sappers of the Royal Engineers of 249 Field Company (Airborne); and men of the Glider Pilot Regiment. The object of this action was to prevent German armour from crossing the bridges and attacking the eastern flank of the landings at Sword Beach.
Five of the Ox and Bucks's gliders landed as close as 47 yards from their objectives from 16 minutes past midnight. The attackers poured out of their battered gliders, completely surprising the German defenders, and took the bridges within 10 minutes. They lost two men in the process, Lieutenant Den Brotheridge and Lance corporal Fred Greenhalgh.
Greenhalgh drowned in a nearby pond when his glider landed. Lieutenant Brotheridge was killed crossing the bridge in the first minutes of the assault and thus became the first member of the invading Allied armies to die as a result of enemy fire on D-Day.
One glider, assigned to the capture of the river bridge, landed at the bridge over the River Dives, some 7 miles off. Most of the soldiers in this glider moved through German lines towards the village of Ranville where they eventually re-joined the British forces. The Ox and Bucks were reinforced half-an-hour after the landings by Lieutenant Colonel Pine-Coffin's 7th Parachute Battalion, and linked up with the beach landing forces with the arrival of Lord Lovat's Commandos.
One of the members of the 7th Battalion reinforcements was Captain Richard Todd, a young actor, who would, nearly two decades later, play Major Howard in the film The Longest Day.
This isn't the original bridge, it's in the museum nearby (about 50 metres to the left and behind the bridge below) but it's pretty much exactly the same as the original.(Wikipeda)
The stone memorials mark where the three gliders landed. The bust is of Major John Howard.
This was the first house liberated on D Day. It's now a Cafe.
View of the Cafe across the canal.
D Day Memorial. These appear to be the "standard memorial at most D Day Sites.After a big day and a couple of big beers we were ready for a decent sleep.
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