Fly by Night! Glider assault at Pegasus Bridge (1944)

Below are some pictures of Rob’s Pegasus Bridge game played at the community centre on Friday 30 August 2024, using Battlegroup rules and Rob’s 20mm figures.

The historical battle on 6 June 1944 involved a night attack by six gliders carrying D Company of 2nd Airborne Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry commanded by Major John Howard, tasked with seizing control of a bridge over the Caen canal (Benouville bridge – later called Pegasus) and another over the Orne River (Ranville bridge). The purpose was to hold them until relieved and prevent German armour from reinforcing the nearby Normandy beaches.

We had a large turnout with 12 attendees (8 players), with Rob and Richard umpiring. Fatefully, I rolled a 1 and landed 7 miles from the action off table, which at least freed me up for blog duties!

Richard, Ciaran, Simon, Greg, and Patrick were on the British side, which included five gliders with a platoon of men and some sappers in each.

Philip, Kamall and Alex were the Germans, ensconced in defences close to the two bridges, with Philip’s reserves in half-tracks initially off table.

The British players all landed accurately near their designated zones.

Patrick and Greg set out to capture the Ranville bridge.

Simon, Ciaran and Richard were attacking Pegasus bridge.

The British approached cautiously, using suppressing fire as well as shorter-range blasts.

By the end of the game, Ciaran had cleared the German positions opposite him and occupied them. The Germans facing him, under Kamall, fled to the bridge.

Simon also cleared a position or two, but could not budge the stronger German position near the bridge but across the river.

Richard cleared the Germans out of the trenches near Pegasus, and contributed to the Germans losing one bunker near Ranville bridge.

Alex had lost 12 Germans stationed in various nearby woods to Greg’s fire by 10:15pm.

However there were still three bunkers manned by Germans near Ranville bridge at end of play.

Overall, the British had cleared three-quarters of the German positions near Pegasus bridge. The bridge had not fallen but was surrounded and isolated.

While Philip deployed his half-tracks in the vicinity of Ranville near end of play, Greg and Patrick’s troops arguably landed too far from the bridge there to take the bunkers.

A visually spectacular game with gliders, vehicles, figures and terrain up to Rob’s usual high standards. The figures were painted recently by Rob to complement his D-Day set-up for Sword Beach, originally refought at the War Room in 2022. As ever, his scenario preparations were historically meticulous – down to the officers involved. On the night, with just over two hours of play and players unfamiliar with the rules, we still had a fun game even though the bridges were not captured.