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Pegasus Bridge: The Complete D-Day Visitor Guide for 2026

Pegasus Bridge is a lifting road bridge over the Caen Canal at Bénouville, just 9km north of Caen and around 14km from the Portsmouth to Caen ferry terminal at Ouistreham — making it one of the easiest D-Day sites to combine with a Sword Beach visit. Its Pegasus Bridge location, on the direct route between the ferry port and Caen, means most visitors pass within a few minutes of it without realising quite what happened here in the opening minutes of 6 June 1944.

Pegasus Bridge WW2 history begins just after midnight on D-Day, more than six hours before the first troops waded ashore on the beaches. A force of 181 British glider-borne infantry, flown in total silence and landing within yards of their target, captured this bridge — then known as Bénouville Bridge — in a swift, near-flawless assault that is still studied at military academies today. It was, by common agreement among historians, the first Allied action of the entire Normandy invasion.

This complete guide to Pegasus Bridge France covers everything you need to plan your 2026 visit: the full story of the glider assault, who took part and what happened to them, the origin of the name “Pegasus,” and a practical guide to visiting today — including the original bridge itself, the Café Gondrée next door, and the Pegasus Bridge Museum a short walk away.

Last updated: July 2026 | Facts verified from the Imperial War Museum, the official Mémorial Pégasus museum, Wikipedia’s primary-sourced military history entries and published accounts including Major John Howard’s own papers.

British forces at Pegasus Bridge after its capture. The Horsa Gliders can still be seen in the background. Pegasus Bridge Day Trip

Christie (Sgt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Pegasus Bridge — Key Facts for 2026

9km from Caen · 14km from the Ouistreham ferry port · Captured 00:16, 6 June 1944 · 181 men, D Company Ox & Bucks · 6 Horsa gliders (3 at this bridge) · Bridge and café free to visit; museum closed 31 Aug 2026–May 2027

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🪖 Pegasus Bridge at a Glance

9km
From Caen — around 15 minutes by car
FREE
The bridge itself, memorials and the café
00:16
The moment of landing, 6 June 1944 — before any beach landing
10 min
How long it took to capture the bridge once the gliders landed
  • ✅The bridge itself — a modern structure since 1994, but standing on the exact spot of the 1944 assault, with three glider-landing plinths marking where Major Howard’s men touched down. Free, always accessible
  • ✅Café Gondrée (Pegasus Bridge Café) — the first house liberated in France, still run by the same family. Open daily 9am–6:30pm, mid-March to mid-November
  • ✅Mémorial Pégasus (Pegasus Bridge Museum) — houses the original 1934 bridge and a full-scale Horsa glider replica. Closed for renovation 31 August 2026 to May 2027
  • ✅Glider landing plinths & memorials — mark the exact spots where the three gliders came to rest, within 43 metres of the bridge. Free, always accessible
  • ⚠️Museum closure affects 2026–27 visits. The bridge, café and outdoor memorials remain open throughout — only the indoor museum exhibition is closed during the works

What Happened at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day

Pegasus Bridge D-Day history technically begins with an operation named “Coup de Main” — often popularly, though not entirely accurately, referred to as “Operation Deadstick,” a term that actually described the specific silent-glide flying technique used, rather than the mission itself. Whatever it’s called, the objective was simple to state and fiendishly difficult to execute: capture two bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne, intact, before the Germans could either defend or destroy them.

A Silent Glide Into the Dark

At 22:56 on 5 June 1944, six Horsa gliders took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, towed by Halifax bombers, carrying 181 men of D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, reinforced with Royal Engineers and glider pilots, under the command of Major John Howard. Three gliders were assigned to the Caen Canal bridge at Bénouville — the crossing that would become Pegasus Bridge — and three to the parallel bridge over the River Orne, a few hundred metres east, later renamed Horsa Bridge. Released from their tugs, the gliders fell silently through the dark, navigating by little more than a map, a compass and a stopwatch.

At 00:16 on 6 June — more than six hours before the first Allied troops set foot on the beaches — the first glider touched down just 47 yards (43 metres) from the canal bridge, an almost impossibly precise landing achieved entirely without engines. Two more gliders landed close behind it. The element of surprise was total: German sentries had heard the tow aircraft overhead but had no reason to suspect gliders were following, since a “training exercise” using blank ammunition had been scheduled for the bridge’s defenders that same night.

Ten Minutes That Changed D-Day

Howard’s men stormed out of their shattered gliders and across the bridge under fire. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, leading the first platoon across, was shot through the neck and became — by the most widely accepted account — the first Allied soldier killed by enemy action on D-Day; Lance Corporal Fred Greenhalgh, thrown into a pond as his glider crash-landed, drowned under the weight of his equipment at almost the same moment, making his death arguably simultaneous. Despite the losses, both bridges were in British hands within about ten minutes — captured entirely intact, exactly as planned. Major Howard signalled success to the wider invasion force using the now-famous codewords “Ham and Jam”: “Ham” confirming Pegasus Bridge over the canal was captured, “Jam” confirming Horsa Bridge over the Orne river was captured too — together, word that both objectives were in British hands.

Securing the bridges was only half the task — holding them was the other. Reinforced from around 03:00 by the 7th Parachute Battalion, Howard’s small force spent the rest of D-Day and into the next fighting off German counterattacks, including probing armour, under near-constant sniper fire once daylight came. Around 02:00, Panzer IV tanks of the 2nd Battalion, 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment advanced on the bridge; a single PIAT anti-tank round destroyed the lead tank, blocking the narrow approach road and forcing the rest to withdraw — a moment of pure luck that may have saved the position. Fighting around the bridges continued, in various forms, for around 21 hours in total before the position was fully secure, at a further cost of dozens of British casualties beyond the original assault force. By the time Lord Lovat’s commandos — who had landed at Sword Beach that morning — reached the bridge on foot in the early afternoon, the men at the bridges had already done their job. Their arrival was announced, famously, by the sound of bagpipes: Lovat’s personal piper, Bill Millin, played them across the bridge under fire, a story told in full on our Sword Beach guide.

🍾 Georges Gondrée’s Buried Champagne

Georges and Thérèse Gondrée, who ran the café beside the bridge, had quietly gathered intelligence on the German defences and passed it to the Resistance throughout the occupation. Once the British arrived, Georges dug up around 90 bottles of champagne he had buried in the garden in 1940, handing them out to the exhausted glidermen — reportedly the first proper celebration of D-Day anywhere in France.

🎬 The Actor Who Was Really There

Among the paratroopers of the 7th Parachute Battalion who reinforced the bridge in the early hours was Lieutenant Richard Todd — a young actor before the war, and the first man out of his aircraft that night. Eighteen years later, Todd played Major John Howard himself in the 1962 epic The Longest Day. Producers had actually offered Todd the chance to play himself, but he chose to portray his old commanding officer instead. Todd wore his own beret for the role, swapping the insignia for that of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. Howard served as a consultant on the film, and the production returned to shoot the Pegasus Bridge scenes on location at the real bridge in Bénouville — so a visit today puts you on the site of both the actual 1944 assault and its most famous screen depiction.

🐦 A Pigeon Carried the News

Radio silence and the risk of jamming meant Howard’s “Ham and Jam” success signal was sent two ways at once: by radio, and by carrier pigeon released to fly back across the Channel — a wartime backup method that sounds almost quaint today, but was standard practice precisely because it couldn’t be intercepted or jammed by the enemy.

Who Captured Pegasus Bridge? The Ox and Bucks

Unlike the five main invasion beaches, Pegasus Bridge was the objective of a single reinforced company — proof that a small, superbly trained force could achieve results out of all proportion to its size.

🇬🇧 D Company, 2nd Bn Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

Command: Major John Howard, reinforced with two extra platoons from B Company for a total of six infantry platoons.

Force composition (181 men total):

  • Six platoons of glider-borne infantry, Ox and Bucks Light Infantry
  • 20 Royal Engineers, 249 (Airborne) Field Company, tasked with disarming demolition charges
  • 12 NCO pilots, Glider Pilot Regiment, “C” Squadron

Reinforcements from 03:00: 7th Parachute Battalion (Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Pine-Coffin), part of the wider 6th Airborne Division’s Operation Tonga | Lord Lovat’s 1st Special Service Brigade, arriving on foot from Sword Beach in the early afternoon

🎖️ Recognition and Losses

Major John Howard was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, presented personally in the field by General Bernard Montgomery. Lieutenants Sweeney and Smith received the Military Cross; Sergeant Thornton and Lance-Corporal Stacey the Military Medal; eight of the glider pilots the Distinguished Flying Medal. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge was posthumously mentioned in dispatches.

The initial glider assault itself cost remarkably few lives given its ambition — two men killed in the first minutes — but the wider battle to hold the bridges against German counterattacks over the following 21 hours cost significantly more, with around 65 further British casualties before the position was fully secure.

The German Defenders

The bridges were guarded by a relatively small garrison, chiefly from the German 736th Grenadier Regiment, part of the 716th Infantry Division, supported by a scattering of machine-gun positions, a pillbox, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns dug in along the canal banks — sufficient, on paper, to hold the crossing, but taken completely by surprise by the speed and silence of the glider landings. Larger German armoured forces, including elements of the 21st Panzer Division stationed nearby, posed the real danger to Howard’s men in the hours that followed, as they attempted, unsuccessfully, to break through and retake the bridges before the wider Allied invasion could consolidate.

What to See at Pegasus Bridge Today

Pegasus Bridge today combines an easy, atmospheric outdoor visit with one of the most personal small museums on the D-Day coast — though timing matters in 2026 given the museum’s closure (see below).

🌉 The Bridge Itself & Landing Plinths

The bridge crossing the Caen Canal today is not the original — a modern, wider bascule bridge replaced it in 1994 to accommodate larger canal traffic — but it stands on exactly the same site, and the road across it is officially named “Esplanade Major John Howard.” Three plinths on the western bank mark the precise spots where the three Horsa gliders came to rest, the nearest just 43 metres from the bridge itself — a distance that, seen in person, makes the precision of that night landing genuinely hard to believe.

Nearby stands a Bofors anti-aircraft gun of the type that defended the bridge, along with a memorial to the 6th Airborne Division and Lord Lovat’s commandos, and the Pegasus Bridge Signal Monument marking the wider operation. All free, outdoors, and accessible at any time.

☕ Café Gondrée — The Pegasus Bridge Café

Traditionally regarded as the first French house liberated on D-Day, Cafe Gondree (Café Gondrée) — also widely searched as the Pegasus Bridge cafe — sits directly beside the bridge and is, remarkably, still run by the same family — Arlette Gondrée, who was four years old when the British arrived in 1944, has managed it for decades and was appointed a Chevalier of the French Ordre national du Mérite in 2024 for her work keeping the story alive. The café itself became an impromptu aid station within minutes of the assault, with Thérèse Gondrée — a trained nurse — helping treat the wounded on the family’s own dining table. Inside, the walls are covered with photographs, letters and mementoes left by decades of veterans and their families.

Address: 12 Avenue du Commandant Kieffer, 14970 Bénouville, on the western bank of the canal directly beside the bridge. Visiting: Open daily, typically 9am–6:30pm, from mid-March to mid-November; closed over winter. Café Gondrée serves drinks and simple food — note that reviews suggest prices are on the higher side and card payment isn’t always accepted, so carry some cash. This remains one of the most quietly moving stops on the entire D-Day coast, not for the food but for what the building represents.

🏛️ Mémorial Pégasus — The Pegasus Bridge Museum

Often searched as either “Pegasus Bridge museum” or “museum Pegasus Bridge,” this short walk from the bridge in Ranville leads to an excellent small museum telling the story of the 6th Airborne Division through original artefacts, film and a detailed model, and — most memorably — houses the actual original 1934 bridge, retired in 1994 and preserved whole in the museum grounds, alongside a full-scale Horsa glider replica. Free smartphone-based multilingual guides are available via QR code. Address: 1 Avenue du Major Howard, 14860 Ranville. Hours: normally 9:30am–6pm (later in peak summer), closed mid-December to early March in a typical year. 2026 closure: the museum is closed for renovation from 31 August 2026 until May 2027 — check musee.memorial-pegasus.com before travelling if visiting in that window. Dogs on leads are welcome in the grounds. The site also has a gift shop, toilets, baby-changing facilities and wheelchair-accessible pathways connecting the museum, bridge and memorial gardens.

🌉 Horsa Bridge

A few hundred metres east, the second bridge captured that night — over the River Orne — was renamed Horsa Bridge after the gliders that delivered the other half of Howard’s force. Less visited than Pegasus Bridge itself, it completes the story of the same operation and is an easy stop on the way to or from Ranville War Cemetery.

🕊️ Ranville War Cemetery

A short drive or 20-minute walk away, Ranville holds many of the men who fell securing these bridges and the wider drop zones around them, including some of D-Day’s very earliest casualties. Lieutenant Den Brotheridge himself is buried not in the main CWGC cemetery but in the adjoining churchyard, his grave marked with a memorial plaque placed by the Gondrée family. Free, open daily — full detail on our Normandy Cemeteries guide.

Getting to Pegasus Bridge from Caen

Pegasus Bridge is one of the most accessible D-Day sites from both Caen and the ferry port — close enough for a quick stop rather than a full expedition.

🚗 From Caen or the Ferry Port — 9–14km, 15–20 Minutes

By car from Caen: Follow the D515 north toward Ouistreham, then the D514 to Bénouville — approximately 9km, around 15 minutes, toll-free.

From the ferry port at Ouistreham: Follow the D514 south along the canal — approximately 14km, around 20 minutes. This makes Pegasus Bridge one of the very first D-Day sites you could visit straight off an overnight ferry. Free parking is available beside the bridge.

🚌 By Public Transport

A Nomad bus service connects Caen with Bénouville and Ranville, though frequency is limited — check nomad-normandie.fr for current timetables. Given the short distance involved, a taxi from Caen is also a realistic option if you don’t have a car for the day.

Combine with Sword Beach: Pegasus Bridge sits almost exactly between Caen and Sword Beach at Ouistreham, making it one of the easiest possible additions to a Sword Beach half-day.

Sample Day: Pegasus Bridge from Caen

Pegasus Bridge is quick enough to see properly in an hour or two, which makes it easy to combine with other nearby sites.

The Quick Visit — Bridge, Café & Museum

Perfect for: A short, self-contained stop on the way to or from the ferry, or combined with Sword Beach.

  • 10:00: Arrive at Pegasus Bridge (9km, 15 min from Caen)
  • 10:10: The bridge, glider plinths and memorials (free, 20–30 minutes)
  • 10:40: Coffee at Café Gondrée
  • 11:15: Mémorial Pégasus museum, Ranville (1–1.5 hours, when open)
  • 12:45: Return to Caen (15 min), or continue to Sword Beach (15 min)

Full Eastern D-Day Morning — Pegasus Bridge, Ranville & Sword Beach

Perfect for: A half-day covering the eastern sector’s airborne story alongside the beach it protected.

  • 09:00: Depart Caen, arrive Pegasus Bridge (15 min)
  • 09:15: Bridge, glider plinths, memorials and Café Gondrée (45 minutes)
  • 10:00: Mémorial Pégasus museum (1–1.5 hours, when open)
  • 11:30: Ranville War Cemetery (20 minutes, free)
  • 12:00: Drive to Sword Beach, Ouistreham (15 min)
  • 12:15: Le Grand Bunker and Sword Beach itself (1.5–2 hours)
  • 14:15: Lunch in Ouistreham before returning to Caen (15 min)

Top Tips for Visiting Pegasus Bridge

  • Check the museum’s 2026–27 closure before travelling: The indoor Mémorial Pégasus exhibition is closed for renovation from 31 August 2026 to May 2027. The bridge, glider plinths, memorials and Café Gondrée all remain open and free throughout — you won’t miss out on the outdoor story, just the indoor exhibition.
  • Bring cash for Café Gondrée: Reviews consistently note that card payment isn’t always accepted and prices run a little high for what’s on the menu — you’re paying for the history and the atmosphere as much as the coffee.
  • Look for the glider plinths, not just the bridge: Many visitors photograph the bridge and move on without realising the three unassuming stone markers nearby show exactly where the gliders landed — genuinely one of the most precise pieces of navigation in military history, and worth the extra five minutes.
  • Combine with Horsa Bridge and Ranville: Both are a few minutes away and complete the same story — Horsa Bridge shows the other half of the same operation, and Ranville War Cemetery holds many of the men who defended what Howard’s company captured.
  • Have more time? The Merville Battery, a short drive north-east, tells the story of another daring British airborne raid the same night — paratroopers assaulting a German gun battery threatening the beaches — and pairs naturally with Pegasus Bridge as a fuller picture of the 6th Airborne Division’s D-Day.
  • Dogs are welcome on leads in the museum grounds and around the bridge itself, making this an easy stop if you’re travelling with a pet.
  • Visit early if arriving on the overnight ferry: Pegasus Bridge is close enough to Ouistreham to be a genuinely practical first stop straight off the morning disembarkation, well before the rest of Normandy wakes up.

Pegasus Bridge: Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Pegasus Bridge in France?

If you’re asking where is the Pegasus Bridge exactly: it’s in Normandy, France, in the Calvados department, crossing the Caen Canal at Bénouville, on the border with the neighbouring commune of Ranville. It sits approximately 9km north of Caen and around 14km from the Portsmouth to Caen ferry terminal at Ouistreham — a 15 to 20 minute drive from either. Its position, directly on the main road between the ferry port and Caen, makes the Pegasus Bridge location one of the most convenient D-Day sites to reach in the whole of Normandy.

What is Pegasus Bridge?

Pegasus Bridge is a lifting road bridge over the Caen Canal at Bénouville, Normandy, originally called Bénouville Bridge before being renamed after D-Day. It became famous as the objective of the first Allied action of the Normandy invasion: a British glider assault that captured it intact in the early hours of 6 June 1944, hours before the main seaborne landings began. The bridge itself has been rebuilt since the war, but the original 1934 structure is preserved at the nearby Mémorial Pégasus museum.

What happened at Pegasus Bridge?

In the early hours of 6 June 1944, 181 British glider-borne troops of D Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, led by Major John Howard, landed by glider within yards of the bridge and captured it intact from its German defenders within about ten minutes, in a mission designed to secure the eastern flank of the Normandy invasion. The bridge and a neighbouring one over the River Orne (later Horsa Bridge) were then held against German counterattacks for around 21 hours until relieved by British paratroopers and, later, commandos advancing from Sword Beach.

When was Pegasus Bridge taken?

Pegasus Bridge was captured at approximately 00:16 on 6 June 1944 — D-Day itself — and was fully in British hands within about ten minutes of the first glider landing. This makes it, by common agreement among historians, the first Allied objective taken during the entire Normandy invasion, more than six hours before troops began landing on the beaches at 06:30.

How many gliders landed at Pegasus Bridge?

Three Horsa gliders landed at the Caen Canal bridge itself (Pegasus Bridge), with a further three assigned to the parallel River Orne bridge a few hundred metres away (later renamed Horsa Bridge) — six gliders in total for the whole operation. All three gliders bound for Pegasus Bridge landed successfully, the closest just 47 yards (43 metres) from the bridge. Of the three headed for the Orne bridge, only two arrived at the correct target; the third came down some 7 miles away, though most of its men eventually rejoined the main force on foot.

Why is it called Pegasus Bridge?

The bridge was originally known as Bénouville Bridge, after the village on its western bank — some visitors searching for “bridge Pegasus” or “Pegasus bridge” find both word orders used interchangeably online. It was renamed Pegasus Bridge after the war in honour of the British 6th Airborne Division, whose shoulder emblem featured Bellerophon riding the winged horse Pegasus from Greek mythology. The neighbouring River Orne bridge was similarly renamed Horsa Bridge, after the Horsa gliders that carried the assault troops there.

Is Café Gondrée still open?

Yes. Café Gondrée, also known today as the Pegasus Bridge Café, is still open and still run by the same family — Arlette Gondrée, who was a young child living in the house when it was liberated in 1944. It’s typically open daily from around 9am to 6:30pm between mid-March and mid-November, closed over the winter months. It functions as a genuine working café as well as an informal shrine to the men who liberated it, with photographs and memorabilia from decades of veteran visits covering the walls.

Is the Pegasus Bridge Museum open in 2026?

Partially. The Mémorial Pégasus museum in Ranville is open as normal for most of 2026, but is closed for renovation work from 31 August 2026 until May 2027. The bridge itself, the glider landing plinths, the outdoor memorials and Café Gondrée are unaffected and remain open and free throughout. Check musee.memorial-pegasus.com for the latest status before planning a visit around that period.

Continue Planning Your Normandy D-Day Visit

🏖️

Sword Beach

The British beach 15km away, where the ferry itself arrives — pairs naturally with a Pegasus Bridge visit

Sword Beach →

🕊️

Normandy Cemeteries

Ranville War Cemetery, a few minutes from the bridge, holds many of the men who fought here — part of our complete cemeteries guide

Normandy Cemeteries →

🏖️

All D-Day Beaches

Complete hub covering all five D-Day landing beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — with distances from Caen and our interactive map

D-Day Beaches Hub →

🏛️

Mémorial de Caen

The world’s finest D-Day museum — visit before or after Pegasus Bridge for essential context on the wider invasion

Mémorial de Caen →

Visit Pegasus Bridge — Travel via Portsmouth to Caen

Brittany Ferries sails year-round from Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham). From the ferry terminal, Pegasus Bridge is approximately 20 minutes by car — one of the very first D-Day sites you could visit after stepping off the ship.

Check Prices & Book Portsmouth to Caen →