Veterans return to remember Arnhem
Arnhem veterans are returning to battlefields that saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the Second World War for 65th anniversary commemorations.
Operation Market Garden claimed the lives of more than 1,500 British soldiers and saw nearly 6,500 men captured.
More than 500 British soldiers, along with comrades from the United States, Holland, France and Belgium, are marking the milestone with a parachute drop over the southern Dutch city of Arnhem.
A memorial service will then take place in the "drop zone" were troops landed in September 1944. There will also be a display by the Red Devils' Parachute Regiment Freefall Team.
On Sunday, the Duke of Edinburgh will join dignitaries including Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth at a memorial service at nearby Oosterbeek Cemetery, where schoolchildren will lay flowers on the graves of fallen Allied soldiers.
The battle - later immortalised in the 1977 Hollywood film A Bridge Too Far - saw about 20,000 British and American troops flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight bridges which spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border.
Although the number of surviving veterans of the conflict is dwindling, it is thought about 100 might attend this weekend's events.
George Barton, from Slough, Berkshire, was part of the first wave of troops to go into Holland. The former sergeant, who will turn 90 next month, has made several trips back to Arnhem but predicted this visit would be his last.
Recalling his experiences of the operation, he said: "I was part of the 1st Air Landing Brigade in the 7th Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers. We came over on a glider and were one of the first to land. Our job was to clear the ground before the parachute regiments came in."
The Heroes Return 2 programme, with funds from the National Lottery, is sponsoring many of the veterans, their spouses and widows so they can mark the overseas anniversary.
