"Pegasus bridge pillbox." Topic

Hello. I'm trying to find a photo or a reference of the pillbox that was located at the side of the Pegasus bridge. I have several books but no photo of it appears on any of them. Seems it was located besides a house called Niepceron house which seems also very close to the bridge.

Do you know any photo or if it was a standard model of pillbox?, and BTW, is there any photo showing its exact location?.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Maybe you could watch the movie "The Longest Day." The assault on the bridge is portrayed in the film, but I don't remember if the pillbox is in it. If it is in the film, it may not be an exact replica, but everybody who wasn't there will think it is.

I've never found a photo with it in, other than a couple of aerial recce photos and a couple of paintings, in which it looks very square, with slits apparently pointing in four directions for all-round coverage. It also sits on top of a larger, mostly-buried accommodation bunker. It was positioned just off the nort-east corner of the bridge (on the opposite side of the road from the 50mm KwK, but slightly further away from the bridge). The house isn't visible in the aerial recce photos, but does appear in one of the paintings, being a small, single-storey cottage, just west of the bunker, with its gable end facing on to the road. German bunkers were built to standard plans, but I've never seen this type elsewhere (maybe it was an adaptation of an earlier French bunker?).

In Call of Duty for PC, the Pegasus Bridge section is excellent and I assume pretty accurate terrain wise, as they seem to put a lot of effort into it.
Link

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"Pegasus Bridge" – Ambrose has a transcription of a pre-assault report titled "Topographical Report On Bridges At Benouville 098748 And Ranville 104746", dated 17 May 1944. It includes a thumbnail description of all the then known defenses in and around the two bridges. Part 4 Defs Of Canal – Section (C) states: "60 yds NORTH of the rd close to the canal are 3 open MG emplacements, 12 yds apart, inline facing NE. Approx 16 yds NE of these emplacements is a concrete shelter or pillbox, measuring approx 17' x 14'."
The book does picture the AT Gun and bridge but does not show a photo of the pillbox. The description above does not clarify very much but will give you a gauge of location and size. Hope it helps some.

Just an afterthought… Dave Schmid of Armaments in Miniature has some of the Pegasus Bridge defenses and accessories for sale in 15mm. Some are available now with more in the pipeline. I wonder if he has any info he can share to enlighten you.
Armaments In Miniature LLC: armamentsinminiature.com

The timing of your question is very interesting. As recently as yesterday I was looking for a pic of it myself. Zone's post from Ambrose's book is likely the best source, but even that seems wonky. That puts the thing some 75 yards away from the bridge.

The descriptions seem vague too. One account has Howard using a pillbox as his HQ. Another describes his HQ as being in a trench. On another occasion I saw it described as a fortified house. Aerial recon pics that I have seen have not been helpful.

Thanks a lot for your comments. I've been looking a little more into it and I've clarified some misconceptions I had.

One of the best aerial photos I've seen is on Neil Barber book "the pegasus and orne bridges" that shows this Niepceron two floors house I was talking about, the photo is from March 1944. The house it's was confused me as there was no trace of the bunker in it and it was were the bunker was supposed to be.

Reading further into the book (excuse me for not having reading it before, the book has been released a couple of months ago and just bought it three weeks ago) I've seen that house was demolished in April by the germans and the cellar was used to build the pillbox reinforcing it with concrete.

As it seems there's no direct photo of the bunker so I'll have to follow the good advices given here. I was thinking on using a bunker I had spare but seems this one will not work.

Thank you all for the great help.

This photo shows what appears to be a hexagonal pillbox set back from the bank to the right of the 'long' building to the north of the road.

picture

This is the house on the same spot:

picture

This makes sense as it can cover the bridge, road and far bank far better, plus in the aeial photos, there a very short spur trench from the main trenchline that appears to lead into it.

Cheers
Mark

I was just going to say that I've found another aerial recce photo that clearly shows the house approx 20 yards north of the bunker, on the canal-bank… but Mark's linked photo above clearly shows that. You can also see the bunker (under construction) between the house and the road in Mark's photo.

I would imagine that the bunker built in the cellar of the house was the accommodation bunker mentioned by some of the participants as containing several sleeping Germans that were discovered some time after the assault!

Ubique – While it's a fun scenario to play, the Pegasus Bridge scenario in CoD is not remotely accurate in any respect.

Yep, in the photo I have the house stays exactly in the same place where that bunker is seen under construction.

Also the line of trenches is perfectly seen in the photos and I see that there was another house (looks like a stable or warehouse) that looks it was also destroyed to build the line of trenches.

I think the stable/outbuilding is what is visible in the painting described above and is presumably incorrect (the same painting also shows lots of trees that aren't visible in the air recce photos).

If you are interested in a 15mm card model of Pegasus Bridge and the related structures, I have just put one up on my website:

toshachminiatures.com

At the moment the "add to Cart" and "View Cart" buttons for this model are a little twitchy, so if you are interested, send me an email from the Contact link at the website.

Thanks.

Probably it's just artistic license. :^) I think I have more or less an idea of what the thing looked like, something like Toshach has.

Thank you Toshach, the pity is I'm making it on 28mm and already has the bridge and Gondree buildings. You have very interesting stuff.

link

cheers,

Claudio

Palafox,

There is a photo in the "Red Devils in Normandy" by Georges Bernage pg. 149. It shows the front of the pillbox. It looks as if it was the basement of the house they took down.
Also I am getting photos from the Airboure Museum of the model that D company used before D-Day. When I get them I can send them to you. Also if you look up Parr's sons posting on line they built a model for an elementary school in England that showed a squre bunker in front of the bridge.

You're too right Brush, I never noticed that photo. The bunker is very low profile and light colour that is very difficult to notice but it gives you a great idea of the shape of the thing. Is there any photo on line of the model?, I'll have to dig a little into it.

Thank you very much for your much better than me observation skills and for posting it. That's very helpful indeed. :^)

Yes please, My address is fernando dot darlington at hotmail dot com

Thank you very much Eric.

Must be a problem with the bug. The thread has stayed locked with the latest message from 5 November. Weird bug.