Just before midnight on the 5th June 1944, three gliders were released above the coast of France and drifted silently towards Normandy. At 00:16 on 6th June, the gliders crash landed and skidded to a halt. The complement of men poured through the doors and through rips torn in the fuselage and headed out on their mission. Theirs was among the first of D-Day, to capture a couple of key bridges, to stop the Germans bringing through reinforcements.
It was a great success and the bridge became named after the symbol of the British 6th Airborne,; Pegasus the winged horse.
65 years later following 3 years of planning an Ultra run took place to commemorate this with a run from the airfield in Dorset which launched the gliders down to finish on the Pegasus Bridge itself. Around 200 runners took part in the 65 mile run - all respresenting a specific individual soldier on the original mission.
I joined the run at the halfway point as the runners arrived for refreshments at The New Forest Hotel in Ashurst, Hampshire. Theres some interesting stories so join me with the runners to Pegasus.
Thanks to Danny Greeno, organiser of The Run to Pegasus and all the folks you will hear from in this episode.
Music from the podsafe music network at music.podshow.com The Essentials - Bells of Freedom
