At the ceremony to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem

All the veterans were among the 16,500 paratropos and 3,500 troops in gliders who were dropped into Arnhem in the Netherlands for the Operation Market Garden on September 17, 1944.

It was the biggest airborne campaign in history and aimed for US, British and Polish airborne troops to seize eight strategic bridges around Arnhem and Nijmegen.

If successful the daring plan could have ended the Second World War by Christmas, 1944.

But unexpected German resistance, bad weather, poor radio communications and lack of ammunition meant the operation failed amidst vast loss of life.

Nearly 6,000 from the 1st Airborne Division were captured after Arnhem and 1,750 were killed.