CAN readers help to give East Lancashire war hero Edwin Ainsworth a place in history?

That's what Dutch writer Haks Walburgh Schmidt hopes as he digs for information on the 23 men of 13 Platoon of the Border Regiment who plunged by glider into the ill-fated airborne landings at Arnhem in Holland in September, 1944 -- among them 21-year-old Private Ainsworth, of Blackburn.

The doomed operation -- recounted in the 1977 film 'A Bridge Too Far' -- became famed for the bravery of the surrounded troops trapped behind enemy lines as the Allies' bid to bring a swift end to the Second World War failed when the ambitious plan to capture six of the bridges connecting Holland and Germany went awry.

And among the fearless was Private Ainsworth, dug in with his comrades on the Westerbouwing, a strategic hill near the suburb of Oosterbeek, west of the crucial but "too far" bridge over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem.

For says Haks, who is researching a book on the fate of 13 Platoon: "Ainsworth was mentioned as having disabled a German tank, captured from the French in 1940, with a PIAT anti-tank weapon, which takes a lot of courage because you have to get rather close to do that successfully -- especially when there are literally hundreds of Germans attacking the place where you are."

Indeed, it took a lot of courage just to fire a PIAT -- which was essentially a large spring-loaded rifle that hurled a grenade-type warhead.

For not only did the infantryman operator have to get within at least 100 yards of a tank in order for it to be effective, the warheads had such a habit of prematurely exploding that immediately after the war all practice firing of the weapon was strictly prohibited.

Private Ainsworth, who lived at 120 Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, was reported missing on September 23, six days after landing at Arnhem with the First Airborne Division. He had been in the Army three and a half years and had already served in North Africa and the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

It took another 16 days for the news to reach our forerunner, the Northern Daily Telegraph, which reported that his father was also in the Army while his youngest brother, Albert, was in the Navy. After what must have been anxious weeks for his family, the NDT reported on November 11 that the missing soldier was in fact a prisoner of war.

The platoon lost seven men in the German attack on the Westerbouwing and several others were wounded. Only three of the glider's original occupants made it back to friendly territory when the remains of the British forces retreated over the Rhine on September 26.

Haks has managed to find information on 12 of the men in the plywood glider that took 13 Platoon to Holland.

He says: "What I would like to know is what happened to Private Ainsworth afterwards, both in Arnhem and the PoW camp and in his civilian life after the war.

"Did he ever meet any of his comrades again? What role has this experience played in his life? Has he ever been back to the place?"

If you can help Haks with answers, let him know at Duivelmolen 21, 5345 ZR Oss, The Netherlands or e-mail him at texstburgh@wxs.nl