Sergeant C Bennet of the 1st Airlanding Brigade who swam across the river at 05.00 hours on 27 September 1944

Photograph by Sergeant D M Smith, Army Film and Photographic Unit, World War Two, North West Europe, 1944.

On the night of 25 September 1944, around a quarter of the 10,000 paratroops who had landed at Arnhem managed to withdraw across the Rhine as the Germans closed in on the defenders. Although he lost all his clothes, Bennet still carried his Sten gun across. He was one of the last men to escape.

From a collection of 75 British official photographs relating to 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, Operation MARKET GARDEN, September 1944.