Arnhem war hero dies at 90

A war veteran from Stafford who was part of the tragic 1944 Arnhem operation has died aged 90.

Members of the South Staffordshire Veterans' Association will pay tribute to Jim Hopley at his funeral tomorrow. Former South Staffordshire Regiment soldier Mr Hopley landed by glider in Holland as part of Operation Market Garden.

Mr Hopley, of Rugeley Road in Chase Terrace, survived the battle unscathed and was one of the British troops who managed to swim across the River Rhine to escape going into German captivity.

Association member Bob Herbert said that members would act as pall bearers at the funeral, which is due to take place at Streetly Crematorium at 10.45am.

"The standards of the regiment and the airborne forces will be displayed and we are also providing a bugler to play the Last Post," he added.

Mr Hopley, who leaves wife Hilda, died in Walsall Manor Hospital on April 19 after a short illness. The couple had no children.

Mrs Hopley said that her husband had worked in a local foundry after the war until his retirement.

Operation Market Garden took place on September 17, 1944 and saw paratroopers descend from the sky 150km behind enemy lines.

They aimed to secure bridges across the rivers in Holland so the Allied army could advance northwards and turn right into the lowlands of Germany, hereby skirting around the Siegfried line, the German defence line.

If everything had all gone as planned it should have ended the war by Christmas 1944.

But the bridge at Arnhem proved to be 'a bridge too far'.

After 10 days of bitter fighting the operation ended with the evacuation of the remainder of the 1st British Airborne Division from the Arnhem area.

The attempt was immortalised in the 1977 war epic A Bridge too Far.