His visit came as preparations got under way for an event next month at the airfield to honour the people who fought, lost their lives and survived Operation Market Garden.

The operation was an ambitious plan to take a series of bridges across thje main rivers of Holland and smooth the Allied advance towards Germany.

Mr Aldcroft, 88, of Lincoln Road, Stamford, was a member of 4th Para Brigade, which landed under fire at Ginkel Heath on the second day of the attack.

"On the third day, we were under fire over the railway line, which kept us pinned down, and we found through a reconnaissance patrol that a group of tanks was on the other side of the railway," he said.

"Our small group was among the last to leave the area of the culvert under the railway, but we saw Germans moving across the open fields, then we got pinned down by heavy mortar fire in the woods.

"We could hear the German armour moving about to the north of us, but after many hours pinned down we met up with the Brigade HQ group and, with them, tried to fight our way into our lines."

But after several deaths and woundings from German fire, the group was all taken prisoner.

A few days later, Mr Aldcroft was one of a column of prisoners being marched away from the battle area when a German corporal climbed out of his trench and opened fire on the helpless prisoners with a captured British machine gun.

He said: "Some men were hit as we all hit the deck as fast as we could, but it was all over very quickly and the guards got us back into column and marched us off. I heard later that a German officer shot on the spot the soldier that fired into us."

Mr Aldcroft spent eight months as a prisoner of war until he was with a column marching east towards Germany as the Allies got nearer.

He said: "When we got the banks of the Elbe, our guards were told that if they crossed the river, they would be prisoners of the Russians, so the sentries left us to it.

"We went into a barn and lit a fire to keep warm, then we heard some armour approaching and thought the Germans had returned to pick us up.

"But when we looked it was the Americans who took us back to their base where we relaxed for three weeks until a plane was found to take us home."

Mr Aldcroft had married Peggy in Stamford only weeks before taking part in Operation Market Garden, and after the war he returned to live in the town where he worked for engineering firm Blackstones on Ryhall Road.

Then he became an electrician before moving into TV repair and then to Newalls in South Luffenham.

Operation Market Garden 2008 will be held at Spanhoe Airfield on September 13 and 14, and will include a flying display, a re-enactment of the battle at Arnhem between British and German re-enactors, military vehicles, living history displays, tank rides and trade stalls.

Among the visitors will be veterans of the 315th Troop Carrier Group, the American unit based at Spanhoe which was invo lved in D-Day, Operation Market Garden and the Rhine crossing.

For more information visit www.operationmarket garden2008.co.uk or call 01780 755514.