I'm John Batchler. It is a great pleasure to welcome Sir Max Hasting.

He is the author of a new book,

Sword Beach, D-Day Baptism by Fire. Those of be familiar with the Normandy landings in June of 1944 will remember there are five beaches over a huge front, 50 miles or more. one of those beaches is, 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 the first entry of, however, not on the beach, we'll get there,

but the first entry of the British Army back into France since the disaster of Dunkirk

happened in the middle of the night, a glider plane 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. Sir Max, a very good day to you. This is wonderful, but we're going to ride those

horses, those gliders, into a crash near the Orne Bridge. The Orne Bridge now is a stop-off

for we tourists who come to see the Battle of Normandy. I think they've set it aside and they've built a new

new Orne Bridge. Why did they need to capture that bridge before anything else? Good evening to you.

Good evening to you, John. It's such a pleasure to be with you. There's a danger, I think,

that we sometimes take for granted things that we should still be amazed by.

And there were many things that happened on D-Day, both on the American and Canadian and British beaches, which were amazing.

But in some ways, the capture of that bridge across the Orne was one of the most astounding

piece of arms of the war. Now, the Orne was a vital link most astounding piece of arms of the war.

Now, the Orne was a vital link, the bridge, between the British 6th Airborne Division,

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