Max Hastings

By D-Day - 6 June 1944 - the Second World War had already lasted the best part of five years, yet many of the British and American troops who invaded Normandy were virgin soldiers, never before committed to battle. They quit England to face within hours a storm of machine-gun and mortar fire, witnessing scenes of sudden death, such as no exercise could have prepared them for.

In Sword, the veteran chronicler of war Max Hastings, explores with extraordinary vividness the actions of the invading forces on and around a single beach. His is the story of D-Day you may never have heard before, with the blend of narrative, analysis and human insight that regularly make Hastings a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller.