He was fighting in that area. he arrived two days after D-day somewhere in Caen area. and he fought through France, Holland, and Germany of course. he wasn't actually part of th Arnhem thing, but he said that the fighting was very fierce and units were getting cut off and trapped behind enemy lines like that all the time.

A Bridge Too Far was about the only war film he ever went to see. But he said although it captured some of the recklessness, it missed the relentlessness of people you knew being killed all around you every day. And of course the smell of dead people which was apparently everywhere.