La Belle France: Day Ten - La Belle France

French Language Students Visit Ouistreham and Sword Beach

Caen Celebrates Its Gratitude to the British and the Canadians

Ouistreham is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France. Ouistreham is a small port with fishing boats, leisure craft and a ferry-harbor. It serves as the port of the city of Caen. The town is about the mouth of the Canal de Caen à la Mer. The name Ouistreham is a Viking name that comes from "Ouistre" or oyster and "ham", Viking for farm. Hence, it was the location of Viking farms that raised oysters. While it is today the home of beautiful sand beaches, on June 6, 1944, it was the location of "Sword Beach".

After their landing at Sword Beach on D-Day, the British Paratroopers and Canadian Soldiers, commanded by General Montgomerie, estimated that Caen would be liberated in three days. In reality it took most of a month to reach Caen and flush out the remaining German defenders. There are a multitude of reasons for this slow liberation including faulty intelligence overestimating the number of German soldiers remaining in the city and General Montgomerie's notorious cautious nature. Nevertheless, Caenais continue to credit the British and the Canadians with the liberation of their city and they hold continue to hold British and Canadian soldiers in high esteem.

Locks on the Caen a la Mer canal in Ouistreham.

Transportation for British Soldiers on D Day

One of the many gliders that delivered British soldiers to Sword Beach

on June 6, 1944.

The gliders, built by British furniture companies and the Austin Motor Company in England, were primarily made of plywood and fabric and were used to deliver both soldiers and materiel to the war front at Sword beach. The gliders were of two types: The Airspeed AS.51 "Horsa" was the smaller of the two and was used primarily to deliver soldiers and their gear. Light equipment could also be delivered using the Horsa glider.

The larger General Aircraft "Hamilcar" was used to deliver heavier equipment including artillery, Jeeps, and other light-weight battle vehicles as well as fully equipped soldiers.

Both varieties of gliders were towed by powered aircraft across the English Channel and released over the beach where they glided to bumpy landings sometimes causing major damage to the aircraft and leading to casualties as well. There are only a few intact Horsa or Hamilcar gliders still existing including the well-maintained example below.

The glider on static display at the Sword Beach museum is a Horsa type. The large white stripes visible on the wings and fuselage of this plane were painted on at the last minute before take-off so that it could be identified as an Allied aircraft by other Allied planes in the area.

Inside the Horsa Glider

The cockpit can be observed having very simple dual controls and instrumentation. Seats for soldiers, seen at the bottom of the photo, like the rest of the aircraft, were also made of plywood and were attached to the walls of the fuselage.

The Original Pegasus Bridge

Students at Universite' de Basse Normandie A photographer takes shots on the original

cross the original Pegasus Bridge. bridge on static display at the museum.

The British paratroopers and soldiers had as a major objective once on the ground in Ouistreham, to preserve the bridge connecting the two sides of the Caen Canal. Christened the "Pegasus" bridge after the British 6th paratroop unit known by that name, it had been loaded with explosives by the German troops, but in spite of great Allied losses, it was taken by the Allied troops who disarmed it and operated it. It served to conduct troops from the beach to Caen and beyond. The Original Pegasus bridge (AKA the Benouville Bridge) built in 1924 remained in service until 1994 when it was replaced by a new nearly identical bridge.