Pegasus Bridge飞马桥

聂雅真 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.

為期一周的诺曼底之旅即将圆满完成，我们已参观了1944年6月6日诺曼底登陆战役的几处登陆海滩和多个战场。七日游临近尾声之际，我们终于来到了登滩前几小时诺曼底登陆战役开始的地方。

当美军在西部登陆的时候，英国和加拿大的军队则在东部三个海滩登陆：黄金海滩、朱诺海滩和剑滩。6月5日到6日的一夜之间，两国空降部队在该地区伞降及乘滑翔机登陆，从而形成盟军大规模登陆行动的东翼攻势。

英国第六空降师各部及加拿大第一伞兵营受命占领奥恩河及其运河上的两座桥，炸毁潜水河上的五座桥，并摧毁德军在梅维尔的炮兵阵地。英军的军徽是一匹双翼飞马，这座桥此后就被称为飞马桥。另一座桥现在叫霍萨桥，名字取自空降师抵达所搭乘的霍萨滑翔机。

根据情报，德国人设有重兵防守这些桥梁，并在桥上安装了爆炸装置——如果有失守危险就立即炸毁。如果德军据守桥梁或炸毁它们，英囯第六空降师将被困于两条河流之间，并与盟军主力隔绝。英军决策者认定，使用滑翔机进攻是完好无损占领这些桥梁的唯一方法。

6架霍萨滑翔机从英国南部的皇家空军塔伦拉什顿基地拖出，负责运送由6个陆军排组成的加强连和一个处理爆炸装置的附属皇家工兵排。每架滑翔机搭载一个陆军排和5个皇家工程兵。这次的滑翔机行动一般被描述为“二战最杰出的飞行成就”之一。

德军736格林纳迪埃团的50名士兵和716陆军师守卫该桥。该师8个连的兵力部署在德国34公里长的大西洋防御墙沿线。守桥的那个团兵力固定，已驻守诺曼底两年。该团装备低劣，兵力不足。士兵征召自波兰、俄罗斯和法国，配备多国武器，负责指挥的是一名德国军官和几名高级士官。

6月5日22：56，6架霍萨滑翔机搭载181名士兵组成的进攻部队，在7000英尺高空飞越英吉利海峡;6日00：07，飞机跨过诺曼底海岸着陆。一架滑翔机撞上了堤岸，正副驾驶员撞破挡风玻璃摔了出去，机上士兵震惊不已。所有的着陆都称得上千钧一发，只在着落前很短时间从机尾弹出降落伞减速。其他滑翔机每隔一分钟着陆一架。第二架在最后一刻紧急转向才避免撞上前一架，但却导致本机机身断成两截。第三架则滑进了一个池塘。

奥恩河和卡昂运河之间的狭长地带大部分是沼泽地，滑翔机不是跌进水里就是陷入泥沼。但滑翔机在黑暗中能如此准确着陆还是让人难以置信，德国守军误以为是远处轰炸机坠毁的声音。所以，當英国人摆好阵势发起进攻时，德国人大吃一惊。00：19，第22独立伞兵营的先遣队在运河与奥恩河之间着陆。双方发生交火，但00：21，德军在运河西岸的抵抗便告结束。

01：20，德军第716步兵师指挥员得知盟军已将两座桥完好无损地占领。他命令第21装甲师的坦克进攻登陆区，但所有的德军装甲部队只能由阿道夫·希特勒直接下令调动。当时希特勒正在睡觉，而其手下拒绝叫醒他。

07：00，剑滩登陆开始。乘滑翔机及跳伞抵达并占领桥梁的部队设法据守，坚持到了英国和加拿大的大部队从登陆海滩向内陆挺进。13：30，空降部队听到了越来越近的风笛声，大部队即将抵达。

英军第一特勤旅（当年晚些时候改名为第一突击旅）已从登陆海滩抵达这里，一些坦克紧随其后。他们加固了桥梁周围的盟军阵地，并进驻贝努维尔村及周边地区。6日午夜前后，早先降落并占领桥梁的军队将这些桥梁移交给了大部队。

这就是75年前的1944年6月发生在飞马桥及其附近地区的故事。