THE tragedy of Arnhem, immortalised in the film A Bridge Too Far, is recalled by 89-year-old Ray Corneby.

The glider trooper was one of only 53 out of his battalion of 2,000 to return to England after the war.

And that was after enduring the infamous Death March across Germany after his capture at Arnhem.

Field Marshall Montgomery's ambitious plan to bring the European war to a swift end resulted in Operation Market Garden in which three airborne divisions were to capture the key bridges of Holland in September 1944.

The American landings at Eindhoven and Nijmegen secured positions but at Arnhem, on the Lower Rhine, disaster awaited.

Mr Corneby's First Airborne Division were dropped too far from the bridge with a German panzer division nearby.

He said: "It was not too bad until after the second day. They dropped the parachute battalion that was the biggest mistake. A lot of them were being killed before they even came down."

Mr Corneby had the chance to swim the Rhine but it was at flood height and he felt he did not have the strength to succeed.

He was captured and marched to a PoW camp near Luft Three and Luft Four.

It was meant to be for NCOs only and Ray was the only corporal in his 24-strong section.

He said: "The Germans said 'you're in charge of this section, you have to look after them and draw their rations.' I was not keen but when they told you to do something, you did it.

"Quite a lot of people died on that march because there wasn't enough food. Some got shot if they tried to escape but there was nothing you could do about that."

Mr Corneby kept a diary of the march, which was against the rules, and years later at an Arnhem reunion he met a fellow survivor of the tragic trek who had kept one too.

He said: "We sent each other copies and you only had to put them together to know they were about the same thing."

Then as the Russians advanced from the East in 1945 Ray was ordered on the gruesome "Death March" across Germany.

He knew the war was nearing an end because the Germans were short of food themselves.

Mr Corneby, of Kidderminster, said: "They fed us with what they had, which was not a lot."

The march ended near Frankfurt and the day after Ray arrived he was relieved by American troops.

He added: "It wasn't the best time of my life but there were a lot of things happening. I was glad I was there at the time when they happened."