BATTLE SURVIVAL; Memories recalled by family as veteran dies at 87.

Byline: NEIL ATKINSON

IT was the battle which could have shortened the war.

But the Allied offensive at Arnhem in 1944 became, quite literally, the bridge too far.

Now memories of the infamous battle at Arnhem 65 years ago this month have been revived, with the death of a Huddersfield man.

John Edgar, of Bradley, who has died at the age of 87, was one of the British paratroopers involved in the battle - and was thought to be one of the youngest to fight and to survive.

He managed to return home after a three-day blitz by German forces defending the bridge that left 1,500 Allied troops dead and 6,500 taken prisoner, many of those badly wounded.

Mr Edgar was just 22 when he leaped from an aircraft high above the Netherlands border town as a member of the 21st Independent Parachute Company The Parachute Regiment.

Grainy photographs from the time show the sky a mass of tiny figures, dropping into German-occupied territory on a vital mission.

His daughter Elaine said: "He had volunteered for the paratroopers after serving since 1940 with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and was of only four in his group accepted to join the unit.

"He survived Arnhem and later went to fight in Norway and in Palestine, before being demobbed in 1946.

"He never said much about his wartime service, other than when the film A Bridge Too Far came out about Arnhem.

"He would sit and watch it on TV and point out where he * BATTLE survivor John had been and what he had done.

"He saw so much that I think he did not want to be reminded of it all.

"All we do know was that he was the youngest by far in his particular unit, having joined up at 18, and he was one of the lucky ones who survived."

Mr Edgar, born in Manchester and brought up in a Dr Barnardo's home, was nicknamed "Titch" by his paratrooper colleagues as he was the smallest man in the unit.

He had worked for an optician and jeweller in Manchester before the war but when he returned to live in Huddersfield with his wife Edith Annie he began work at Highfield Gears.

He retired in 1987 and then helped out his daughter at her dance studio, first in Crosland Moor and Marsh and then in Lockwood.

Elaine said: "He had a hard life, especially in the early days, but he enjoyed everything and lived life to the full.

"He was the life and soul of every party."

Arnhem Edgar He leaves a widow, to whom he was married for 56 years, a daughter Elaine and son Nigel, a grandson Tristan, two great-grandchildren Connor and Kane and three adopted grandchildren, Daniel, Jessica and James. A funeral service takes place on Friday at 1.30pm at Huddersfield Crematorium.

The Allied plan was codenamed Operation Market Garden. It was drawn up by General Montgomery The bridge at Arnhem straddled the 100-metre wide River Neder Rijn, which fed the RhineEisenhower was the man leading the US forces. The film A Bridge Too Far, directed by Richard Attenborough, starred Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman and Robert Redford

CAPTION(S):

INTO ACTION: Allied troops parachute into Arnhem. Below: The bridge today MEMORIES: Elaine and Edith Annie Edgar with a wartime photograph of John Edgar, said to be one of the youngest British soldiers to survive of the Battle of Arnhem (JH080909Aedgar) BATTLE HERO: Arnhem survivor John Edgar