We arrived in Falise in torrents of rain and decided that some of us would run again through the "Alps" whilst Bob and Pete would press on and up to Pegasus bridge
Pete and Bob took the road North towards the area where glider borne troops took and held the Pegasus bridge in the early hours of June 6th 1944. The weather which had been wet in Falaise now became torrential and by the time we hit the Caen ring road visibility was down to a few metres and the traffic was heavy all driving at break neck speed despite the conditions. A few kilometres on we decided to stop dry out and have something to eat,McDonald's appeared and against all our best instincts we stopped . Dry and fed ( there big macs were surprisingly delicious) we went the short distance to the bridge.
Olive and the Great White at the Bridge
The bridge is now a site dedicated to remembering those brave men and the museum has interesting artifacts from that night in 1944. One surprise was the very small area that they landed three gliders laden with troops,there skill and determination to get the job done was outstanding. It does seem that every village has a union jack flying along side the tricolour after nearly 70 year they still remember.
This is a replacement bridge but to a very similar scale, large.The original bridge is a few meters away in the museum.
A replica Horsa glider in which 28 men the pilot, co pilot and officers landed at night in a field the size of a village green .Heroes doesn't do it justice.
An hour or so later we decided to skip the trip to Luc Sur Mer ( see
later blog) and start a very wet ride home. Now we learnt a new lesson
rural petrol stations are few and far between, Pete was down to 1.5
litres when at Flers we finally managed to fill our tanks. On the day my
Beema Olive managed 75 MPG now that's cheap biking. Finally home to our
well earned meal on a table laden with French food....and wine...and
beer...and calvados...well you get the idea. Bob
No comments:
Post a Comment