IT’S easy to forget what a pivotal role the motorcycle played in WW1 and WW2. From carry important messages and supplies to the frontline of battle or acting as mobile machinegun posts with the addition of sidecars and Browning Automatic Rifles.
So it’s a fitting tribute to the servicemen and women of the nation’s forces that hundreds of bikers turned up to commemorate the Normandy landings by riding their military spec classic bikes – in complete military outfits of-course!
The ride-out took place close to the famous Pegasus Bridge, which was a bascule bridge (movable bridge), built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France.
A unit of glider infantry under the command of Major John Howard, was to land, and take the bridge – while waiting for reinforcements. The success of the mission limited the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the Normandy invasion.
In 1944 it was renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem worn by the British airborne forces, which is the flying horse Pegasus.
