MEMBERS of Newport’s Parachute Regiment Association will head to the Netherlands later this week to commemorate the 70th anniversary of a famous World War Two airborne landing.

Five members will leave from outside the city’s train station at 6am on Friday and head to Portsmouth, where they will pick up another, before travelling to Arnhem to mark Operation Market Garden, part of the Battle of Arnhem.

Allied forces – made up of British, Canadian and Polish parachutists – were dropped into Arnhem between September 17 and September 25 1944 in what was the biggest airborne operation ever seen up to that point.

The branch has had special polo shirts made for the occasion and the branch’s chairman, Tony Rising, said: “We’ve all funded it ourselves. We have been saving for a while and anything we have got back will be put back into the branch.”

As part of the trip, the six will present a plaque from the branch to the mayor of Arnhem, Pauline Krikke.

British Army commanders had hoped that the attack would end the war early – but in the German victory, 1,200 British soldiers were killed and another 3,000 were taken prisoner. Another 3,400 German troops were either killed or wounded in the battle.

The battle's fame was heightened by the 1974 book, A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan and a film depicting the battle of the same name was released that year, starring Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine and Sean Connery.

The branch regularly meets at the Clarence Club on Chepstow Road. For more information contact Mr Rising on tony.rising1@gmail.com and on 07804 234559.