Veteran from Royal Signals corps who survived ill-fated Arnhem mission
Ken 'Jimmy' Little, who died on 5 November, 2009, aged 86, was a veteran from Bristol who survived one of World War II's biggest tactical blunders.
He was one of about 9,000 soldiers who parachuted into the battlefields of Arnhem under German fire in September 1944.
The battle of Arnhem was famously depicted in the film A Bridge Too Far.
British and Polish paratroopers were deployed to Holland on September 17, 1944, to take Arnhem's strategic bridge – but, due to poor intelligence, they landed to find they were cut off and outnumbered.
After nine days of fighting, 1,130 Allied troops were dead, 2,398 had retreated and 6,000 were captured.
Mr Little, who was in the Royal Signals, escaped.
The end of the mission for him involved retreating through woods, swimming across the river, and a ride with a small flotilla of boats to safety.
Such was the impact of the experience that every September between 1974 and his death, Mr Little attended Arnhem for the anniversary of the ill-fated airborne operation, codenamed Market Garden. ...
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