STRATEGIC TARGETS

The first stage of Operation Overlord was the landing of airborne troops in France early on the morning of June 6, 1944. The most interesting feature of this photo is Pegasus Bridge, visible in the lower right corner. D-Day planners had considered the early capture of the bridge crucial to their plan of holding and defending the high ground on the left flank of the invasion. To accomplish this task, “D” Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, under Major John Howard, was tasked with capturing the bridge. The troops were expected to land their gliders as close to the bridge as possible, and they did. In what Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory of the Royal Air Force called the finest feat of precision flying in the Second World War, the three gliders of Howard’s force landed within metres of their target and quickly captured the bridge. The impressiveness of this achievement is shown in this air photo, taken a month after D-Day, which reveals just how close the gliders landed.