Allan Esler Smith

David Truesdale

'Theirs is the Glory' - the story of the Battle of Arnhem - was the biggest-grossing UK war film for a decade. Made by veterans of the battle in the late summer of 1945, it tells their story day by day: the pre-operation briefing, the drop, the race to the bridge, the daring, death and banter that only soldiers could have scripted - but the veterans had outstanding assistance. Men like Terence Young of XXX Corps - and later the early 'James Bond' director - helped craft the words we hear. Directing the veterans was a First World War veteran - who had survived a bayonet charge at Gallipoli - and prolific film director: Brian Desmond Hurst. Born and bred in Belfast, Hurst went on to learn the craft of film making in Hollywood with his mentor, John Ford. Conflict is shown, heard and interpreted in many of his 30 films made from the 1920s to the 1960s. This book is the 'director's cut' - looking in-depth at his work on conflict - and takes, as its centerpiece, 'Theirs is the Glory'. Decade-by-decade conflict is chronicled from the 1920s and Hurst's 'Ourselves Alone' (and the War of Independence in Ireland, where his film was banned in Northern Ireland) to the 1960s and 'Simba' and the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. This is a book you will refer to again and again, and shows why 'Theirs is the Glory' is the definitive film on Arnhem; it will remain the veterans' lasting tribute to their comrades that did not return. This book also shows why Hurst was an enigma, but a master of the genre, and at his very best when focusing on the subject of conflict on the vast canvas of film.

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