Tributes have been paid to hero medic, Alec Hall, who tended the wounded defending 'A Bridge Too Far' and has died aged 101.
During Operation Market Garden in 1944, the Allies launched a daring airborne operation to secure the River Rhine crossings and advance into northern Germany. But only a small force reached the bridge at Arnhem, in the Netherlands, before they were overwhelmed.
The failed plan was made into the classic 1977 film, A Bridge Too Far.
Alec worked in a makeshift medical station at a hotel in Arnhem under relentless bombardment, before being captured and incarcerated in Stalag V11-B until February 1945, when the camp was abandoned.
The bridge was later destroyed by American bombers.
Post-war, Alec managed a number of stores and married Margaret.
The couple, of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, had two daughters, and four grandchildren. Margaret died in 2019. Annie Bennett, their eldest, said: "Alec was loyal, courageous, stoic, hard-working and determined... We will not see his kind again."