ON September 17, 1944, Staff Serjeant Peter Hill, 22, from Darlington was tasked with delivering in his Hamilcar glider two Bren Gun Carriers to Landing Zone Z for the 1st Airborne Division to use in the capture of the Rhine crossings at Arnhem.

With his second pilot, Serjeant Tony Openshaw, he landed his cargo successfully near the town of Wolfheze.

The next part of his mission was to join up with his squadron and defend the landing zone. Here, they met with initial success, but as the Germans pushed forward, on the morning of September 20, they were forced to drop back to join their colleagues in the nearby town of Oosterbeck, on the northern bank of the Rhine.

After five days of shelling and sniping, even Oosterbeck proved too hot for the Allies to hold, and so, under cover of the night of September 25-26, they decided to slip southwards across the Rhine into Arnhem.

In the queues for the rescue boats, Peter – whose father Henry had died when he was in his teens but whose mother, Elizabeth, lived in Starmer Crescent – met a fellow Darlingtonian, Sergeant David Hartley.

Sgt Hartley, who had already sustained an injury to his shoulder, later told a researcher: “Peter told me that he could not swim and was very frightened of the water. I told him I would look after him.

“The first thing we did was take off our boots, and next was sit together right on the edge of the boat.

“We had just started when we received a mortar bomb right in the middle of the assault boat. We were in the water before we knew it.

“Peter was a very good pupil. I soon got him into the long tow position and he was using his legs quite well, and most important we were getting away from the boat crossing area.

“The current was very strong and our plan was to let it help us all it could.

“Peter was starting to lag. The other side – what we could see of it – did not seem to be any nearer and I could really feel my shoulder stiffening up.

“I had a job to hold Peter, and after a brief struggle I lost him.

“I cannot remember getting out of the water, changing my clothes, or being taken to a field hospital where a doctor took the rest of the shrapnel out of my shoulder.”

On November 18, Peter’s body was recovered from the River Lek near Ravenswaaij, more than ten miles from where Sgt Hartley lost his grasp of him. His is the only military grave in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Maurik, which is tended with great care by local people.

His second cousin David Oliver lives in Darlington and has visited the grave. But he knows nothing of Sgt Hartley who tried so valiantly to help him. If you have any information about him, please let us know.