Myrtle the Parachick: The member of 1st Airborne who dropped into Arnhem

Around 10,000 men from 1st Airborne Division and 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed at Arnhem - along with a chicken called Myrtle.

On 18 September 1944, the second day of Operation Market Garden, 35-year-old Lieutenant Joseph Glover of 10th Parachute Battalion leapt out of his Dakota transport aircraft with his pet chicken.

But Myrtle the Parachick's story had actually begun several months prior to the ambitious operation in the Netherlands.

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Lt Glover's desire to train the bird apparently stemmed from a boozy wager with his fellow officers about whether or not chickens could fly.

He proposed to take one of the birds with him on a practice jump, and by letting go of it as he descended he would prove that chickens could indeed fly.

So he "liberated" the chicken from a farm, named her Myrtle and began training her to become a paratrooper.

Myrtle went on to complete six more jumps, being released at higher altitudes each time, becoming an accomplished paratrooper.

She even earned her own set of para wings, having made the qualifying number of drops.

Myrtle the Parachick was now ready to see action.

On 18 September 1944, Lt Glover decided to keep Myrtle in a canvas bag attached to his left shoulder on what was the second airlift to Arnhem.

He was the first man to jump from his C-47 Dakota, and when he landed, he rolled onto his right shoulder to protect the bird.

However, while attempting to cross a railway line near Wolfheze, the paratroopers were ambushed by German machine gunners.

Myrtle remained in the bag, and when Lt Glover returned to her after helping deal with a casualty, he found her dead, the bag having been riddled with bullets.

She was buried beneath a hedge a few yards from where she fell.

Out of respect for her, her parachute wings were left with her rather than being removed, as she had been killed in action.

Lt Glover survived Market Garden and continued to fight until the end of the war. He died in 1996.