Northumbrian Gunner

Saturday, 4 April 2026

Red Bulls 2025/26 v Stade Rochelais

EPCR CHALLENGE CUP

Newcastle Red Bulls v Stade Rochelais

Red Bulls v Stade Rochelais IJ

Red Bulls v Stade Rochelais

Thursday, 12 March 2026

Magpie Progress 26 - Pegasus Bridge

Operation Deadstick was the capture of two vital bridges ahead of the main Normandy landings to prevent German reinforcements reaching British troops landing on Sword Beach. The bridges would need to be captured intact in order to provide an exit route for the the British Sixth airborne Division to link up with the the British 3rd Division which landed on Sword Beach.

D-Day 6th June 1944 Plan

The Bénouville Bridge over the Caen canal and the Ranville Bridge over the nearby River Orne were to be captured in the early hours of the 6th June 1944.

Major John Howard leading 181 men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and a detachment of Royal Engineers landed in six Horsa gliders at 00:16. They completely surprised the German defenders and secured the bridges within ten minutes.

Horsa Gliders landing on Bénouville Bridge

Capture of Bénouville Bridge

The two bridges were held until 13:00 when the men of the Ox and Bucks were relieved by Lovats Scouts Commando unit advancing from Sword Beach led by Piper Billy Malin.

Lovats Scouts Piper Billy Malin relieve the Ox and Bucks

The Bénouville bridge was officially renamed Pegasus Bridge on June 26, 1944, by the French government to honour the British airborne forces. Pegasus being the winged horse of Greek mythology which was represented on the patch worn by the British parachute and glider-borne troops.

Pegasus Bridge 1944

In 1994 original 1944 bridge was moved become the centerpiece of the Pegasus Memorial Museum. A new bridge was built over the Caen Canal which and designed to look like the original though it was larger to to accommodate modern traffic.

Pegasus Bridge - Modern Bridge

Pegasus Bridge 2026

Original Pegasus Bridge

Horsa Glider

A set of marker stones mark the position of each of the three gliders that landed near Pegasus Bridge on the morning of 6th June 1944.

Pegasus Bridge Glider Marker Stones

Major John Frost Memorial

The Café Gondrée located next to the bridge was the very first house in mainland France to be liberated on D-Day.

Pegasus Bridge Café Gondrée

Magpie Progress 26 - Grand Bunker

Grand Bunker Ouistreham

Le Grand Bunker is a 17-meter-tall concrete tower which was the command centre for the artillery batteries that defended the Orne River estuary.

Orne River Artillery Batteries

Grand Bunker Soldier

Grand Bunker Armourer

Grand Bunker Organisation Todt

Grand Bunker Happy Radio Operator

Grand Bunker Radio Operator

Grand Bunker

Grand Bunker Teleprinter Operator

Grand Bunker Officer

Grand Bunker Firing Data comotation

Grand Bunker Range Finder

Grand Bunker

Magpie Progress 26 - Normandy Memorial

The British Normandy Memorial is situated on high ground overlooking Gold Beach, one of the two beaches allocated to British forces that landed on D-Day, 6th June 1941. The assaulting formation on Gold Beach was the 50th Northumbrian Division.

Gold Beach IJ

The memorial was inaugurated on June 6th 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day

Normandy Memorial

Normandy Memorial IJ

The memorial consists of 160 stone columns on which are engraved the 22,442 personnel who lost their lives under British command during the D-Day landings.

Normandy Memorial

The D-Day Sculpture features three British infantrymen charging ashore.

Normandy Memorial Sculpture

Normandy Memorial Sculpture IJ

The layout of the memorial is in the shape of an Union Jack.

Normandy Memorial ariel view

Normandy Memorial

Ex Magpie Progress 26 - Arromanches D-Day 75 Garden

Located on the clifftops at Arromanches overlooking Gold Beach is the D-Day 75 Garden, opened in 2019 on the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.

Arromanches D-Day 75 Garden IJ

Arromanches D-Day 75 Garden

Ex Magpie Progress 26 - Arromanches Mulberry Harbour

Arromanches Mulberry Harbour IJ

The D-Day landings on 6th June 1944 would secure the beachhead required for the the subsequent liberation of Europe. The strategic problem for the allies was the breakout into occupied Europe would require hundreds of thousands of men and vehicles, together with millions of tons of materiel to be landed in France for ongoing operations. They would require a deep water port to sustain the logistics chain. In 1942 a raid on Dieppe ended in failure which proved that an attack on well defended ports was not a viable option.

The solution was to build two ports in the Normandy Beachhead. The ports would be constructed from pre-fabricated components which were constructed in Great Britain and towed across the channel where they were assembled into the two harbours; Mulberry A at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer off Omaha Beach to supply the United States forces and Mulberry B (Port Winston) at Arromanches off Gold Beach to supply the British and Canadian forces.

Mulberry Harbour
The first supplies started coming ashore on 14th June 1944.
Mulberry Harbour Arromanches Supplies being landed
Source: IWM A24361
Five days later the worst storm in 20 years hit the Normandy coast destroying the American Mulberry.
Normandy storms batter Mulberry Harbour
Mulberry B at Arromanches suffered damage, but survived the storm. It was repaired using parts from the American harbour and operated for 10 months, outlasting the 3 months it was expected to operate.

During the period in operation 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of materiel were landed at Port Winston, the Arromonches Mulberry harbour.