Horsa Bridge, also known as

Ranville Ranville () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Ranville was the first French village liberated on D-Day. The village was liberated by the British 13th Parachute Battalion, commanded by Lieute ...

Bridge, over the

Orne river The Orne () is a river in Normandy, within northwestern France. It is long. It discharges into the English Channel at the port of Ouistreham. Its source is in Aunou-sur-Orne, east of Sées. Its main tributaries are the Odon and the Rouvre. The ...

, was, along with

Pegasus Bridge Pegasus Bridge, originally called the Bénouville Bridge after the neighbouring village, is a road crossing over the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham in Normandy. The original bridge, built in 1934, is now a war memorial and is the cent ...

, captured during

Operation Tonga Operation Tonga was the codename given to the airborne operation undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division between 5 June and 7 June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings during World War II. The paratroopers and ...

by gliderborne troops of the 2nd

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...

(the 52nd) in a ''

coup de main A ''coup de main'' (; plural: ''coups de main'', French for blow with the hand) is a swift attack that relies on speed and surprise to accomplish its objectives in a single blow. Definition The United States Department of Defense defines it as ...

'' operation in the opening minutes of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, 6 June 1944. The seizing of both bridges was considered to be critical to securing the eastern flank of the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

area, preventing German armour from reaching the British 3rd Infantry Division which was due to start landing on

Sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

at 07.25hrs. Horsa Bridge, a road bridge, was over 400 yards east of Pegasus Bridge towards the village of Ranville.

Renaming of the bridge

Following the capture of the bridge over the Orne, members of the ''coup de main'' operation supported naming the bridge 'Light Infantry Bridge'. The captured Benouville Bridge had been sign-boarded Pegasus Bridge. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the bridge over the Orne became known as Horsa Bridge, in recognition of the

Horsa glider The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British troop-carrying glider used during the Second World War. It was developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited, alongside various subcontractors; the type was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century c ...

s that had carried the troops to the bridge. The original bridge, which was a steel lattice swing bridge, was replaced in 1971; however, some of the original bridge support structure remains. In June 1989, on the forty-fifth anniversary of D-Day, the mayor of Ranville unveiled a plaque to commemorate the capture of the river bridge, and the bridge was officially named Horsa Bridge. The memorial plaque was dedicated to the glider pilots and Lieutenant Dennis Fox's and Lieutenant Tod Sweeney's platoons, which had captured the bridge before the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches began.

Book and film

The operation to capture the bridges was portrayed in the book '' The Longest Day'' by

Cornelius Ryan Cornelius Ryan (5 June 1920 – 23 November 1974) was an Irish-American journalist and author known mainly for writing popular military history. He was especially known for his histories of World War II events: '' The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D- ...

and the eponymous film of 1962.

References

* ''The Pegasus Diaries'' by John Howard and Penny Bates (2006) * ''Pegasus Bridge'' by Stephen Ambrose (1984) * ''The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry'' (The 43rd/52nd Regiment of Foot) by Philip Booth (1971) * ''The Longest Day'' by Cornelius Ryan (1959) * ''The Pegasus and Orne Bridges'' by Neil Barber (2009) * ''The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, War Chronicle'' Vol IV 1944/1945 (1954) * ''All Spirits'' by John Vaughan (1988) * ''Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge'' by Carl Shilleto (2010) * Massy-Beresford, Michael (2007). Gliderborne: The story of the 2nd Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (The 52nd) in World War 11 {{coord, 49, 14, 25, N, 0, 16, 00, W, region:FR_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title British airborne landings in Normandy World War II sites in France Buildings and structures in Calvados (department)