A drop into Pegasus bridge Saturday 9th July 2016

Helen doesn't really know any details of her Dad's activities other than that he was in 7th Parachute (light infantry) Battalion and that he was there.  It would be a real bonus to find direct evidence of Jock himself, but just being there today will be great. Let me show you round the memorial.

This picture shows the front entrance to the museum. Note the stylised para wings badge built into the porch. This motif is repeated on the side of the building as you can see in the next picture. Also note the flags of the Allied combatants, I'm sure you can work these out for yourself. 

The memorial itself is dedicated to the 6th Airborne Division and rather sidelines the role of 7th Parachute. The 6th Airborne did take the bridges but it was the responsibility of the 200 parachutists to defend the crucially strategic targets against the inevitable German counter attacks which came in the form  of planes, tanks, gunboats and heavy infantry fire. All of these were successfully repulsed at some considerable cost until the arrival of Lord Lovat's commandos at 13-30.

In the background here is the original Pegasus bridge. It was built in 1934, liberated in 1944 and replaced in 1994 when the canal was widened. It now stands in the memorial grounds. As does a replica of the Horsa glider and a section on the remarkable Bailey bridge. See below. 

You can see the present day Pegasus bridge in the background of this picture. As you come to expect with "other ranks", there is not much mention of names unless they are casualties so it came as no surprise to find no reference to Jock in the museum. Except..... he is in here somewhere! 

The next picture shows the famous Gondree Cafe as it was next to the bridge it trades on the epithet "first house to be liberated" in France. It has done so successfully for 74 years and is still run by the granddaughter of the war time owners. 

Back to Caen for an evening out. The efficient modern tram runs past our road end, so it's the obvious choice. Caen was of course flattened in WW2 with little surviving  except for the Abbeys where 2000 locals optimistically sheltered from the bombs. 

The Abbey aux Hommes built by William the Conquerer to atone to the Pope for his religiously illegal marriage to Matilda. 

The architectural style is of course Norman, as you can see inside and out.

Also inside you can see the last resting place of the good King. 

Finally some pictures of  "old" Caen. Tomorrow will be much the same as Friday only the other way round as it were. 

We did indeed have a good run back, enhanced by Lewis Hamilton's win in the British Grand Prix and Andy Murray's Wiimbledon title. 

A drop into Pegasus bridge Friday 8th June 2016

Just after midnight  on the morning of 6th June 1944 Helen's father Bill (Jock) Mitchell  landed by parachute in German occupied Northern France. He was part of Operation Deadstick and the mission was to capture the road bridges over the Caen canal and the Orne river and thus prevent a German flanking attack on the landing beaches.
Just before midnight the 6th Airborne Division arrived silently by 6 Horsa gliders. These were navigated expertly right up to the bridges allowing the 180 members of the Oxon and Bucks light infantry to capture their objectives. The 7th Parachute Battalion dropped in a few minutes later with a strength of 200 men. Their  job was to secure the bridges against German counter attack for the next 24 hours until Lord Lovat's commandos could arrive from the beach landings to reinforce them. Below I have a contemporary photo of the bridge two days after its capture.

Until this weekend Helen has never visited the site of Pegasus bridge, so we decided to take a break from the builders and drive across to Normandy to put matters right. Leaving promptly (nearly) at 8am, we encountered roadworks at Peterborough but otherwise made good time to Dover and even got on the same ferry that we had booked. We enjoyed an alfresco and expensive drive on the peage through France and even the inevitable bouchon provided some entertainment in front. See below (circa 1958? Porsche geeks might enlighten me). Further research suggests that this might be a scruffy 356 (1948-56), is this right?

Pont du Normandie is another memorable feat of French engineering. This crosses the Seine just upstream from I' Harve and carries the motorway over the estuary to Caen.

After a coffee and refuelling stop we eventually book into our accommodation at Apart'city Caen at about 7.30. Thank goodness for our EU sat navigation. What a shame that the government will be collecting them all in now that we have voted out. Finally for today, a couple of shots of the apartment which will do very nicely.