SEVENTY years ago last week thousands of Paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division of the British Army dropped onto Ginkel Heath, north-west of Arnhem in Holland, with the intention of capturing bridges on the key routes through Holland and preventing the German Army from advancing.

Just south of the River Rhine at nearby Oosterbeek, ground forces of the Dorset Regiment were waiting to cross the river with similar objectives.

But due to a combination of factors the groups never reached their destinations and many were killed during Operation Market Garden, which turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War.

Seventy years on, only a handful of soldiers who survived those horrific days returned to a very different scene, one of a town enjoying the freedoms for which the British and allied forces fought and sacrificed so many lives.

Operation Market Garden was one of the most controversial operations of the war.

Diary Dates:

Today (Wednesday), The Russian Convoy Club meets at 11.30hrs at Eastborough Working Men's Club, Dewsbury, The Royal British Legion, Low Moor and Wyke Branch, meets at 20.00hrs at The Harold Club, Wyke.

Tomorrow (Thursday), The Submariners Association meets at 20.00hrs at Tong Conservative Club.

Monday, The Royal British Legion, Thornton Branch, meets at 19.45hrs at Thornton Conservative Club.

Tuesday, The Yorkshire Volunteers Association meets at 19.30hrs at Keighley Drill Hall.

Remembrance:

THE following are being specially remembered at Bradford Cathedral this week: Eric Anderson, V.C. Edgar Downs Ackroyd, Harry Ackroyd, James Alder, Eric William Aldridge, George Stephen Ambrose, Norman Amys, John Brian Anderton, Herbert Reginald Anthony, Joseph Leslie Appleton, James William Argent, Fred Armstrong, Norman Bateson Ashworth, Derek F. Astley, Charles Atack, Harold Atack, John Atkinson, Harry Adams, Edgar Allott, Jack de-la-war Anstruther, Albert Aspden, Kenneth Antcliffe, Gordon Hubert Ashworth.