Lieutenant Den Brotheridge: Pegasus Bridge, 25 Platoon & the First Minutes of D-Day
Lieutenant Herbert Denham “Den” Brotheridge commanded 25 Platoon, D Company, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the assault on the Caen Canal bridge in the first minutes of D-Day. He was mortally wounded during the attack and died aged 29.
From wartime commission to airborne infantry
Brotheridge received an emergency commission in July 1942 and served with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. By the time of Operation Overlord he commanded 25 Platoon in Major John Howard’s D Company.
D Company had been selected for the coup-de-main operation against the Bénouville bridge over the Caen Canal and the nearby bridge over the River Orne. The mission required the crossings to be captured intact before German defenders could destroy them and before a counter-attack could isolate the British airborne flank.
25 Platoon’s place in the plan
Three Horsa gliders were assigned to the canal bridge. Brotheridge’s platoon was in the leading assault group. The intention was brutally simple: land almost on the objective, leave the glider immediately and overwhelm the bridge guard before surprise disappeared.
That placed junior officers and NCOs at the decisive point. Once a glider stopped, there was no room for a long reorganisation. Men had to orient themselves, find the bridge and begin the assault.
The first minutes of 6 June
The first gliders came down at about 00:16 on 6 June. Brotheridge led his men toward the bridge and German positions. ParaData records that he was fatally wounded while assaulting a machine-gun position during the fight for the crossing.
He is often described as the first Allied soldier killed by enemy fire during the invasion of mainland Europe on D-Day. That description depends on exactly how the opening airborne casualties are defined and timed, so it is better treated as a commonly used distinction than as the reason his story matters.
What matters militarily is that the assault continued. The canal bridge was taken intact and the coup-de-main force moved immediately into the holding phase.
A platoon commander inside a larger operation
Brotheridge’s story can disappear inside the famous name “Pegasus Bridge”. The whole coup-de-main force numbered only around 181 airborne troops, divided across two bridge objectives. At the canal crossing, the first minutes were therefore a platoon- and section-level fight.
That is the scale at which rehearsals become real. A company commander can design the sequence, but the men actually crossing the final metres of ground need enough understanding to continue when a leader becomes a casualty.
Burial and remembrance
Brotheridge died aged 29 and is buried in Ranville Churchyard, near many of the places for which his unit fought. He was Mentioned in Despatches.
His grave is an appropriate image for this biography because it resists turning the opening minutes of D-Day into a clean cinematic sequence. The bridge was captured quickly, but “quickly” did not mean without cost.
Continue the Pegasus Bridge series
- Log 034 — Pegasus Bridge Complete Field Guide
- Major John Howard DSO — coup-de-main commander
- Second World War Field Notes archive
