by Simon Tulett

Traces of war are fixed firmly in most veterans’ minds.

But one sprightly Second World War soldier keeps his lodged in his skull.

Sidney Blackmore has been living with a constant reminder of his heroics for 65 years - a piece of shrapnel from a German tank blast is still stuck in his head.

The 87-year-old, of Cadogen Avenue, Stone, says the 3mm piece of metal is now part of him, and he refuses to let doctors remove it.

The tiny fragment, which poses no health risk, was picked up by audiologists at Darent Valley Hospital during a recent scan, but it found its way there in 1944 during one of the most famous campaigns in military history.

Mr Blackmore believes he picked up the memento during the Battle of Arnhem, which saw fledgling British paratroopers struggle, and ultimately fail, to take a key bridge across the Lower Rhine in the Netherlands.

The fighting was part of Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation in history and one designed to help the Allies push through Europe towards Berlin.

Mr Blackmore’s unit - A Company, Second Battalion, The Parachute Regiment - found itself overwhelmed by unexpected German resistance and unable to secure the bridge.

He said: "We parachuted into north Holland with the whole parachute division on what was supposed to be the breakthrough to Germany. Our job was to get to the bridge and hold it, but we were so split up after the drop.

"We held it for five days. All we had were anti-tank guns and our job was to hold up any tanks that came along. But after a little while this dirty great German Panzer came along and blew us up, and that was it."

Mr Blackmore, who was captured and made of a prisoner of war after the battle, says the explosion from the tank shell blasted the shrapnel fragment into his skull.

"It must have gone right through my helmet.

"I know it’s there because I can still feel the dents in my skull. I used to get the odd head-ache when I came home, but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to lose it now."