It is a great pleasure to welcome Sir Max Hastings.
He is the author of a new book, Sword Beach: D-Day Baptism by Fire.
Those of you familiar with the Normandy landings in June of 1944 will remember their five beaches over a huge front of 50 miles or more.
Two of those beaches are designated for the British Army landing, Sword Beach and Gold Beach. In between is Juno Beach for the Canadians. The Americans are off to the west at Omaha and Utah.
We begin with Sword Beach—however, not on the beach, we'll get there, but with the first entry of the British Army back into France since the disaster of Dunkirk.
In the middle of the night, a glider plane is assigned an impossible task: first to land without crashing and then to take a bridge and then to hold it, despite the fact they couldn't expect to be relieved for many hours. And they were surrounded by German regiments.
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