The objective was to capture intact two road bridges in Normandy across the River Orne and the Caen canal, providing the only exit eastwards for British forces from their landing on Sword Beach.

Failure to capture the bridges intact, or to prevent their demolition by the Germans, would leave the British 6th Airborne Division cut off from the rest of the Allied armies with their backs to the two waterways.

After a brief exchange of fire, both bridges were captured and defended successfully against German tank, gunboat and infantry counter-attacks, until relief arrived.

[4] Their primary objective was to capture the two road bridges over the River Orne and the Caen Canal and prevent a German flanking attack on the landing area.

[8] 'D' Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Major John Howard) and second in command Captain Brian Priday, was selected for the mission.

The company had trained hard and became the fittest in the battalion, often utilizing bomb-damaged inner-city areas to practice street fighting with live ammunition.

[8] Any explosive charges found attached to the bridges were the responsibility of 30 Royal Engineers from the 249th (Airborne) Field Company, commanded by Captain Jock 'Joe' Neilson.

Three were assigned to attack each bridge simultaneously with infantry overcoming the troops on guard duty while the engineers located and dismantled any demolition charges.

His orders were to seize the bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal at Bénouville and Ranville intact and hold them until relieved.

A number of small houses lie to the west of the river, connected by a track 8–10 feet (2.4–3.0 m) wide, that runs along both banks.

[1] The unit was commanded by Major Hans Schmidt and based at Ranville, 1.2 miles (1.9 km) east of the River Orne.

He also identified likely incursion points and marked out forward routes, rest and refuelling areas and anti-aircraft gun positions.

[31] However, the presence of German machineguns near the canal bridge was categorically denied by Helmut Roemer and Erwin Sauer, in: HK.von Keusgen, Pegasus-Bruecke und Batterie Mrville (014) At 22:56 on 5 June, 1944, the six gliders towed by Halifax bombers took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton.

[33] Flying over the English Channel at 7,000 feet (2,100 m), the bombers crossed the Normandy coast at 00:07 on 6 June, 1944 and released their towed gliders.

[32] One of the men, Lance-Corporal Fred Greenhalgh, was knocked unconscious following the crash landing and thrown out of his glider and died by drowning, becoming the first casualty of the operation.

[36] The Germans knew the invasion was imminent if not the exact location; Major Schmidt, in command of the bridges, had been told that they were one of the most critical points in Normandy.

As Brotheridge's platoon attacked, one ran off shouting "paratroops" while the second fired a flare gun to alert nearby defenders.

Alerted by the flare, the German machine gunners opened fire at the men on the bridge, wounding Brotheridge as he threw a grenade.

When the Germans opened fire with an MG 34, the platoon responded with a 2-inch (51 mm) mortar and destroyed the gun with a direct hit.

[49] At 00:50, aircraft carrying the rest of the 6th Airborne Division appeared overhead and the paratroopers descended onto drop zones marked out by the pathfinders.

[51] On the drop zone, only about 100 men of the 7th Parachute Battalion had made it to the rallying point but all their signal equipment, machine guns and mortars were missing.

[55] All German panzer formations could only be moved on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, who was sleeping at the time and his staff refused to wake him.

The Germans fired mortar bombs and machine guns at the paratroopers and attempted small assaults on their positions throughout the night.

[69] The German 2nd Battalion, 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment continued to attack Bénouville and Le Port, assisted by their tanks, mortars and infantry.

The attack caused serious problems for the understrength 7th Parachute Battalion, until the leading tank was blown up with a Gammon bomb, blocking the road.

By midday, most of the missing men from the 7th Parachute Battalion had arrived at the bridges and the three glider platoons were moved back to their original positions.

[74] At 21:15, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment of the 185th Infantry Brigade arrived from Sword and began taking over the bridges' defences.

[75] At around midnight, Howard handed over command of the bridges to the Warwickshire Regiment and his company left to join the rest of their battalion at Ranville.

The platoon had landed beside the River Dives, at Varaville about 8 miles (13 km) away, and had spent the previous day fighting their way towards the bridges trying to rejoin the company.

[100] Since the end of the war, Pegasus Bridge and the adjacent Café Gondrée have become a place where British veterans of the conflict visiting Normandy congregate.