BRAVE 77-year-old Gus Woods of Monmouth parachuted into Arnhem at the weekend, just as he did 55 years ago to join the bitter battle commemorated in the film A Bridge Too Far.
Gus joined 14 other surviving comrades for the jump, which first time round was part of Montgomery's plan to cut off the German army by taking Arnhem bridge and bringing an early end to the war.
It turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. After the drop into Holland on September 17, 1944, Gus, from the First Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, found himself and his companions heavily outnumbered.
The paratroopers, mainly British and Polish, dug in to wait for a relief force. It never came.
They held out for ten days after which 1,130 allied troops were dead, some 600 captured – among them Gus – and 2,398 managed to escape across the Rhine.
Gus, who also served in North Africa and Italy, later managed to escape from a PoW camp.
The weekend sponsored jump was organised to raise money for the Sargent Cancer Care for Children charity. A similar jump last year raised £234,000 and the organisers hoped for even better this year.
The charity offers financial and psychological support to young people with cancer and their families, provides hardship grants and holidays, and funds specialist social workers in the field.
Gus and fellow-members of the Arnhem Veterans Parachute Team carried out the first commemorative jump in 1994. Because of their increasing age, it could be their last jump – although they have said that before!