6th Airborne Division
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 4 episodes found for "6th Airborne Division".
Oct 15, 2026
Michael WeyersHOST
The evening of June 6th, Operation Mallard follows.
Michael WeyersHOST
It is the second lift of the 6th Airborne Division.
Michael WeyersHOST
256 gliders take off.
Michael WeyersHOST
226 are horses, each flown by two men of the glider pilot regiment.
5 MINS LATER
Michael WeyersHOST
It is the largest single lift of airborne forces ever undertaken.
Michael WeyersHOST
About 1,300 British and American gliders fly.
Michael WeyersHOST
Horses carry the soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division.
Michael WeyersHOST
By the end of the day, the airborne units have accomplished all their tasks.
Stuart LyleGUEST
Uh, the fourth reason is infrastructure, again, linked to the topography.
Stuart LyleGUEST
The 6th Airborne went to Arnhem because there was a bridge there.
Stuart LyleGUEST
They didn't go there because of the café culture, um, or any other sort of Yelp reviews.
Stuart LyleGUEST
Um, it was for the infrastructure.
Max HastingsGUEST
So it was very hard for their officers, as well as the men, to realize they had to keep moving, keep moving, and also to take the losses.
Max HastingsGUEST
Now, I've described how the 6th Airborne Division, most of their units, even after taking heavy losses, stormed the German positions they were supposed to take during the night.
Max HastingsGUEST
Now, some of the German defenses beyond the Salt Beach, in the mile or two beyond Salt Beach, surrendered very easily.
Max HastingsGUEST
They didn't take much hitting.
5 MINS LATER
Max HastingsGUEST
He said, behind those seven or eight, he said, you're going to get another 30 or 40 who will come along behind and And then you'll get another 20 or 30 who maybe turn up afterwards when it's all over.
Max HastingsGUEST
And that's the way it is in all armies that you can't expect everybody to be a hero.
Max HastingsGUEST
Well, in fact, one reason that some officers in both the British and American armies were very unhappy with the creation of large forces of paratroops was because so many of the best and the bravest went into the paratroops that many people argued that instead of being with the 6th Airborne Division, the British case, or the 101st, the Screaming Eagles, that if you'd had those men distributed through the US Army or through the British Army, that it would have strengthened Eisenhower's forces much more than the airborne armies.
Max HastingsGUEST
And I don't know, that's one of those questions you never answer.
Max HastingsGUEST
But in some ways, the capture of that bridge across the Orne was one of the most astounding beats of arms of the war.
Max HastingsGUEST
Now, the Orne was a vital link the bridge between the British 6th Airborne Division, which were landing on the left plank, and the seaborne landers of the British 3rd Division.
Max HastingsGUEST
But if you didn't have that link, if you couldn't get supplies and tanks across that bridge intact, then the airborne, under attack by German panzers, as they were bound to be in the course of D-Day, were going to be under enormous pressure.
Max HastingsGUEST
So it was recognized that this was an absolutely vital D-Day objective.
12 MINS LATER
Max HastingsGUEST
And this is what a mass airborne drop is like 20 years almost after D-Day.
Max HastingsGUEST
Well, of course, it was far worse on D-Day.
Max HastingsGUEST
But the brilliance of both the British and the American performance that night, the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions on the American side, 6th Airborne, which I'm writing about in Sword, they were landed all over the place.
Max HastingsGUEST
It was absolute chaos.