The last thing paratrooper Raymond Sheriff saw before being blinded by a German mortar bomb was a field, lit by sunlight but coloured by blood.

It was 1944 and his 24th birthday when Raymond, now 80, was wounded in the Battle of Arnhem.

He had to rely on the kindness of strangers to drag him from the battlefield to nearby safe houses in the Dutch city.

It took a tortuous six-month journey from house to house, during which Raymond was shot in the leg, before he finally reached a hospital.

Once there he was told he would never see again.

When the war was over and Raymond was released from a prisoner-of-war camp to his homeland, his loss of eyesight did not deter him from his daredevil jumps.

And now he is about to descend again on the Dutch city of Arnhem, relying on a pat on the back from an instructor jumping in tandem with him to know when the ground is near.

He is one of 11 Arnhem heroes returning to the Dutch skies in what will probably be the last parachute tribute to the abortive mission, immortalised in the film A Bridge Too Far.

On September 17, 1944, some 9,000 Red Berets parachuted on to Ginkel Heath. Fewer than half made it back to the UK.

Raymond, who lives in Rottingdean with his second wife Betty, admitted he was always apprehensive before parachute jumps but saw it as a challenge.

His jump on September 22 will certainly be that and his incentive is to raise money for children's charity Barnardo's.

Raymond, who was in the Third Parachute Battalion, said: "I was blinded at Arnhem and could not move so I had to wait until someone came to drag me out of the line of fire.

"I stayed in the cellars of local Dutch houses until I could get to the hospital eight miles away. On the way there I got shot in the leg by a machine gun when I was in a Red Cross truck and I thought I'd lose my leg as well as my eyesight.

"After the war, I got back to Britain and I had nobody to live with. I had to put an advert in the paper like I was a lost cat and a couple came forward and said I could live with them. I eventually went to stay at St Dunstan's but I didn't want to go there.

"When I first got there I heard of people who were in terrible states, missing arms and legs, and I thought perhaps I'm the lucky one. I met my first wife, Edith, there because she was a volunteer who used to come and take me out for walks.

"When she died in 1979 I didn't think I could go it alone and I went to St Dunstan's in Brighton. I met my present wife, Betty, there on my first day and we were married within four years. I've been very lucky because both my wives have been perfect."

Raymond had been trying to find somewhere to carry on parachuting since his return from the war. However, everywhere he approached was reluctant to take the risk for insurance reasons.

He said: "I had been trying to jump again since 1945. In 1990 a friend of mine took me to an SAS base and I asked if there was any chance of me jumping. He said I'd have to jump in tandem and so I did.

"I was pretty apprehensive. It took about 30 minutes to get high enough in the plane and then I was pushed out first by the tandem master. I was pretty scared.

"At about 6,000 feet the tandem master pulled the strings for the parachute and then about 12ft from the ground he bashed me on the back to put my feet in landing mode."

Raymond's wife, Betty, will be driving him to The Netherlands for this year's parachute jump and remembrance ceremony.

He will be joined by ten other war veterans to make the jump, who have called themselves the Arnhem Veterans Parachute Team.

To make a donation to Barnardo's in support of Raymond, call 0870 2402668.