Veteran WW2 paratrooper Sandy Cortmann dies at 97

A WW2 veteran, whose parachute jump to mark the 75th anniversary of a major wartime operation went viral last year, has died at the age of 97.

Sandy Cortmann, from Aberdeen, made an emotional return to the Netherlands to commemorate the anniversary of Operation Market Garden last September.

He was just 22 when he parachuted near Arnhem in 1944, before being taken prisoner by the Germans.

The events in 1944 were immortalised in the 1977 epic A Bridge Too Far.

Mr Cortmann's family said he had passed away at his care home in Aberdeen on Saturday.

Mr Cortmann described the jump last year as "thoroughly terrifying but wonderful".

Footage of the jump went viral on social media, and not long after returning to Scotland from his adventure he received hundreds of fan letters from people in the Netherlands.

Dutch people were so moved his his story, a campaign was launched to send well wishes and thank you messages to the Aberdonian.

Operation Market Garden saw 35,000 British, American and Polish troops parachute or glide behind German lines in a bid to open up an attack route for allied forces.

The fighting around Arnhem saw more than 1,500 British soldiers killed and nearly 6,500 captured.

Some 1,500 people took part in a mass parachute drop to commemorate the allied assault.

Recalling 1944, Mr Cortmann said: "When the fighting started we were just in amongst it.

"You can describe it as brave, you thought you were brave, but once you got down there, Jesus Christ, terrified, absolutely terrified.

"You just heard bangs and machine guns. I didn't understand what that was all about."

Allied soldiers had been parachuted in to secure bridges on the Dutch and German border.

Mr Cortmann remembered seeing treatment areas for the wounded "strewn with bodies".

He recalled one young soldier calling out repeatedly for his mother and being told to help quieten him.

"I crawled out, I just touched his hand, grabbed it and he died," he said.

"I thought, 'what a thing to happen'. I was choking, but I was alive."

The veteran paratrooper and his comrades had tried to escape the fighting by crossing a river to safety, but Mr Cortmann was forced to admit he could not swim.

He said that instead of abandoning him his fellow soldiers put their clothes back on and stayed.

Mr Cortmann was eventually captured and endured a seven-hour train ride in a packed wagon to Germany where he was held for a year.

Friend Bob Crocker, a fellow member of the Aberdeen Airborne Alliance, said: "I'm really saddened by the passing of Sandy, the humble kind gentleman Airborne soldier.

"Sandy was a treasure in many ways and especially to us in the Airborne community, we've not only lost an Airborne brother but a friend and a gentleman. It was a privilege knowing and spending time with him, we'll all miss him and his spirit. Rest in peace warrior."