Pegasus Bridge飛馬橋

聶雅真 袁兵

We are wrapping up1 a week-long visit to Normandy， having visited the landing beaches and many of the battlefields from the D-Day invasion of June 6， 1944. Now， near the end of our visit to Normandy， we’re finally getting to where the D-Day invasion began， several hours before the landings.

While the U.S. forces were landing well to the west， British and Canadian forces were landing on the three beaches to the east： Gold， Juno， and Sword. Overnight on June 5th/6th， British and Canadian airborne infantry parachuted and landed gliders in this area forming the eastern flank of the Allies’ vast landing operation.

Elements of British 6th Airborne Division2 and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion3 were tasked with capturing that pair of bridges across the Orne and its canal， destroying five bridges across the Dives River， and destroying a German artillery battery at Merville. The British unit’s insignia4 was a winged horse， leading to the bridge being known ever since as Pegasus5 Bridge. The other bridge is now known as Horsa Bridge， named for the Horsa gliders in which the men arrived.

Intelligence had reported that the Germans had heavily defended the bridges， and also installed explosive charges to destroy them if they seemed to be in danger of capture. If the Germans held the bridges， or if the bridges were destroyed， the 6th Airborne Division would be stranded between the two rivers and cut off from the main Allied forces. British planners concluded that a glider-borne assault would be the only means of capturing the bridges intact.

Six Horsa gliders were towed from RAF Tarrant Rushton in southern England to deliver a reinforced company6 of six infantry platoons7 and an attached platoon of Royal Engineers to handle the demolition charges; one infantry platoon plus five Royal Engineers in each glider. This glider operation has commonly been described as one of “the most outstanding flying achievements of the war.”

Fifty men of the German 736th Grenadier Regiment8， 716th Infantry Division defended the bridge. The Division’s eight battalions were deployed along 34 kilometers of Germany’s defensive Atlantic Wall. The regiment at the bridges was a static one， deployed to Normandy for two years at that point. The regiment was poorly equipped and poorly manned. The men were conscripts9 from Poland， Russia and France， armed with a mix of foreign weapons and commanded by a German officer and senior non-commissioned officers.

At 22：56 on the 5th the six Horsa gliders carrying the assault force of 181 men， crossed the Channel at 7，000 feet， crossing the Normandy coast and releasing the gliders at 00：07 on the 6th. One of the gliders struck an earthen bank， throwing the pilot and co-pilot through the windscreen and stunning the passengers. All of the landings were really barely-controlled crashes， with a parachute deployed from the rear of the glider shortly before landing to slow its speed. The other gliders arrived at one-minute intervals. The second swerved at the last moment to avoid hitting the first and broke in two as a result. The third skidded into a pond.

The narrow strip between the river and the canal is largely marshland， the gliders were crashing into water and soft soil. But the implausibility10 of gliders being landed with such precision in darkness led the defenders to assume that the sounds were from a bomber crash in the distance. They were surprised when the British formed up and attacked. Pathfinders11 from the 22nd Independent Parachute Company landed between the canal and the river at 00：19. There was a firefight， but by 00：21 German resistance on the west bank of the canal had ended.

The commander of the German 716th Infantry Division was informed at 01：20 that the Allied had captured both bridges intact. He ordered that tanks of the 21st Panzer Division attack the landing areas， but all German Panzer formations could only be moved on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was sleeping and his staff refused to wake him.

The landings at Sword Beach began at 07：00. The men who had arrived by glider and parachute and seized the bridges managed to hold on until larger units made their way inland from the British and Canadian landings. The airborne troops heard bagpipes12 approaching at 13：30.

The British Army’s 1st Special Service Brigade13， renamed later that year as the 1st Commando Brigade， had arrived from the landing beaches， followed by some tanks. They reinforced the Allied positions around the bridges and moved into Bénouville and surrounding areas. The men who had flown and jumped in to seize the bridges turned them over to larger units around midnight on the 6th.

That’s what happened 75 years ago at Pegasus Bridge and its surrounding area in June 1944.

為期一周的諾曼底之旅即將圓滿完成，我們已參觀了1944年6月6日諾曼底登陸戰役的幾處登陸海灘和多個戰場。七日游臨近尾聲之際，我們終于來到了登灘前幾小時諾曼底登陸戰役開始的地方。

當美軍在西部登陸的時候，英國和加拿大的軍隊則在東部三個海灘登陸：黃金海灘、朱諾海灘和劍灘。6月5日到6日的一夜之間，兩國空降部隊在該地區傘降及乘滑翔機登陸，從而形成盟軍大規模登陸行動的東翼攻勢。

英國第六空降師各部及加拿大第一傘兵營受命占領奧恩河及其運河上的兩座橋，炸毀潛水河上的五座橋，并摧毀德軍在梅維爾的炮兵陣地。英軍的軍徽是一匹雙翼飛馬，這座橋此后就被稱為飛馬橋。另一座橋現在叫霍薩橋，名字取自空降師抵達所搭乘的霍薩滑翔機。

根據情報，德國人設有重兵防守這些橋梁，并在橋上安裝了爆炸裝置——如果有失守危險就立即炸毀。如果德軍據守橋梁或炸毀它們，英囯第六空降師將被困于兩條河流之間，并與盟軍主力隔絕。英軍決策者認定，使用滑翔機進攻是完好無損占領這些橋梁的唯一方法。

6架霍薩滑翔機從英國南部的皇家空軍塔倫拉什頓基地拖出，負責運送由6個陸軍排組成的加強連和一個處理爆炸裝置的附屬皇家工兵排。每架滑翔機搭載一個陸軍排和5個皇家工程兵。這次的滑翔機行動一般被描述為“二戰最杰出的飛行成就”之一。

德軍736格林納迪埃團的50名士兵和716陸軍師守衛該橋。該師8個連的兵力部署在德國34公里長的大西洋防御墻沿線。守橋的那個團兵力固定，已駐守諾曼底兩年。該團裝備低劣，兵力不足。士兵征召自波蘭、俄羅斯和法國，配備多國武器，負責指揮的是一名德國軍官和幾名高級士官。

6月5日22：56，6架霍薩滑翔機搭載181名士兵組成的進攻部隊，在7000英尺高空飛越英吉利海峽;6日00：07，飛機跨過諾曼底海岸著陸。一架滑翔機撞上了堤岸，正副駕駛員撞破擋風玻璃摔了出去，機上士兵震驚不已。所有的著陸都稱得上千鈞一發，只在著落前很短時間從機尾彈出降落傘減速。其他滑翔機每隔一分鐘著陸一架。第二架在最后一刻緊急轉向才避免撞上前一架，但卻導致本機機身斷成兩截。第三架則滑進了一個池塘。

奧恩河和卡昂運河之間的狹長地帶大部分是沼澤地，滑翔機不是跌進水里就是陷入泥沼。但滑翔機在黑暗中能如此準確著陸還是讓人難以置信，德國守軍誤以為是遠處轟炸機墜毀的聲音。所以，當英國人擺好陣勢發起進攻時，德國人大吃一驚。00：19，第22獨立傘兵營的先遣隊在運河與奧恩河之間著陸。雙方發生交火，但00：21，德軍在運河西岸的抵抗便告結束。

01：20，德軍第716步兵師指揮員得知盟軍已將兩座橋完好無損地占領。他命令第21裝甲師的坦克進攻登陸區，但所有的德軍裝甲部隊只能由阿道夫·希特勒直接下令調動。當時希特勒正在睡覺，而其手下拒絕叫醒他。

07：00，劍灘登陸開始。乘滑翔機及跳傘抵達并占領橋梁的部隊設法據守，堅持到了英國和加拿大的大部隊從登陸海灘向內陸挺進。13：30，空降部隊聽到了越來越近的風笛聲，大部隊即將抵達。

英軍第一特勤旅（當年晚些時候改名為第一突擊旅）已從登陸海灘抵達這里，一些坦克緊隨其后。他們加固了橋梁周圍的盟軍陣地，并進駐貝努維爾村及周邊地區。6日午夜前后，早先降落并占領橋梁的軍隊將這些橋梁移交給了大部隊。

這就是75年前的1944年6月發生在飛馬橋及其附近地區的故事。