Hero war medic who refused to leave wounded dies at 96
ALL INCLUSIVE 7 NIGHTS PP
A HERO medic captured at the disastrous Battle of Arnhem after he refused to leave his wounded comrades has died aged 96.
Staff Sergeant Peter Clarke set up an ad hoc aid post on the outskirts of the Dutch town during the doomed Second World War mission.
Mr Clarke had switched from being a medic to train as a glider pilot and was among those charged with ferrying a shock force of British troops behind the lines, close to the German border, to capture and hold Arnhem’s vital bridge over the Rhine.
Overran
But what was meant to be an audacious masterstroke to end the war in September 1944 went wrong, with reinforcements failing to arrive.
After holding out for eight days and taking hundreds of casualties, the remaining British troops evacuated across the Rhine river before the Germans overran their positions.
Selfless Mr Clarke passed up the chance to escape with them, remaining at the aid station to treat and comfort wounded and dying comrades. In doing so he knew full well he would be taken prisoner.
The moment the Germans captured the stricken and bloodied men was depicted in an emotionally-charged scene at the end of the 1977 epic war film A Bridge Too Far, with the men singing the hymn Abide With Me.
Of the 9,000 British paratroopers at Arnhem, only 1,900 men made it out, with 6,000 captured and 1,174 killed.
Mr Clarke spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Poland, before being forced to march 330 miles in the last weeks of the war prior to his liberation by the American 2nd Army.
He became a solicitor later in life and remained a member of the Glider Pilot Regimental Association – regularly returning to Arnhem to commemorate his fallen colleagues.
Mr Clarke received an OBE for charity work later in life.
Jane Barkway-Harney, of the Glider Pilot Regiment Society, said: “Peter Clarke was the absolute definition of a gentleman and a hero.
“His incredible story will forever be remembered and respected and he will always be an inspiration.”
Mr Clarke died on Tuesday at his home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, following a short illness.
His wife Jean died in 2016 and he leaves two daughters. Nazis enter Arnhem in 1944. Right, Mr Clarke and as a pilot, inset