I am here tonight, because as a war correspondent, I was part of the allied airborne operation that for a brief moment in history, more than fifty years ago, focused the world's attention on this crossing of the Rhine and this Dutch City of Arnhem. I speak tonight from hallowed ground, for here more than 1500 brave British parachutists died in a futile attempt to gain the bridge. 6000 were captured, many of them wounded. They represent for us tonight, the millions of others, soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians, claimed in history’s worst calamity. In a war whose long delayed ending, this concert commemorates and celebrates. In May 1944 the European continent had been a major battleground for almost four years. The country's provinces, cities and more importantly the people of Europe were devastated by the toll of mankind’s Second World War. Beginning just 50 kilometers upstream from this City of Arnhem, stretched the heartland of the aggressor's war industry. While the sounds of the factories were of course too far off to be heard from here, life was dominated by the ominous sound of a not so distant thunder.