Normandy Bound

We left Honfluer this morning and started down the coast headed for the Normandy Beaches. We stopped in Ranville and visited a Commonwealth cemetery that had many of the Paratroopers who were first ashore in the north. Our next stop was Pegasus Bridge that was captured by the British during the first hours of the D-Day landing. It has a very nice diorama and video on the Para landings. The British Para’s use the symbol of the Pegasus as an overall symbol, thus we get Pegasus Bridge. On display is the original bridge (used until the late 1950’s) and a full size Horsa glider that was used in bringing the troops in to take the bridge.

After that we visited Quistreham (the port for Caen). There I became reacquainted with Commander Kieffer, the commander of the French Commando’s that came ashore and were successful in capturing Quistreham then joining up with the British at Pegasus.

It was on to Arromanches where our hotel is and operating base for the rest of the Beaches over the next two days.