It makes me smile, and I do truly hate to spoil the long held legends of Pegasus Bridge. But it is a simple fact that the Royal Engineers got to the Bridge shortly before the Commandos. The RE sergeant was leaning against the ironwork, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette when the commandos and the Piper arrived. Though the taking of the bridge was a truly fine work of arms. The film about D day had it wrong with the glider positions by the way. It was much closer to the bridge than they showed. How do I know? I have been inside the thing. That also begs the question, when the vets return to Pegasus where do they all come from? We were there assault bridging, and defending the bridge against direct enemy attacks. In point of fact there were precious few soldiers there...And for a good reason. It was not a healthy place to be, under constant sniping artillery and mortar fire. So quite frankly I am sometimes quite surprised to see how many Veterans claimed to have been at Pegasus Bridge. At one point the shelling forced the assault bridging to a new point the other was too fiercely shelled. I am also quite surprised at the claims about the cafe there. We were too damned busy to notice things like cafes. Unless there was a different war to the one I took part in? Sapper
Hi, I've just finished reading Stephen Ambrose book on Pegasus Bridge, I took the moment from there, sorry if it's incorrect no offence intended! Soren
Stephen Ambrose? you have read him? I heard a lot about him. But have not read his book myself. I think that when researching facts, never use books that refer to others manuscripts. Why? because they want to sell books, and use their personal prejudice to do just that. that is why folk write books .........To sell. The best read is written by those that experienced war first hand. Anything else is suspect, the veterans are sometimes quite amazed at what is written and accepted as true. All that is known about the invasion of Normandy is now the Hollywood version, and because of constant repetition is now the accepted legend. Much to the Veterans disgust! As an example take Sword beach.That has always been portayed by Hollywood as an "Easy landing" ...CRAP! For many years it was claimed that we had it easy on Sword Beach, not true, the following from one of the assault ships log, lays this misinformation to rest. What follows is Stan Hough’s record taken from the log of one of the ships that carried the Assault craft. Princess Astrid. Bless her! She hit a mine in the channel after the war and sunk! The Princess lost 4 out of her 8 Assault landing craft. Princess Charlotte lost 7 out of 8. MV Victoria lost 5 out of 6. Prince Henry lost 5 out of 8. Finally Prince David lost all 8. On reflection, the loss of 29 Assault craft out of a total of 38 with only 9 saved, hardly bears out the idea of an "Easy landing" But, such is the power of Hollywood propaganda, that these myths are assumed to be true, and become fixed as part of the Legend of D Day. What made Sword a success was the discipline, the sacrifice, and the fighting qualities of the British. The ability to carry out their duties when all around was chaos, many officers and men with specific duties were lost, despite that, the rest just carried on with determination and thrust. many of the vital officers were killed before they got to their alloted D day tasks. Nowhere on the whole of the Normandy invasion coast..Nowhere! could be found the strength of defences that surrounded Sword Beach. Hillman alone was a massive defensive position, a fortress in depth 650 meters by 450 metres The whole area was a mass of guns. How do I know? because our officer Lt Arthur Heal Creux de geurre, was the one that opened up a path through Hillman. And we used at for a short while as a base...But always outside. Never inside. Sapper
Hi Soren, Sorry? what are you sorry for, You see it and post what you think, or have been told, or read. No need to apologise. You write what you like. When you like. I send my sincere and very best regards to you. Sapper
