FOOTBALL'S WAR HEROES

Book reveals tragic deaths of 80 courageous stars

- ADAM ASPINALL

THE tragic stories of 80 footballers who were killed during the Second World War have been revealed.

The heroes include an England star, a D-Day veteran and a soldier who was fatally injured at the Battle of Arnhem.

There was also a victim of the feared German battleship Bismarck.

Their acts of gallantry are told in Season in Hell, a book by historian and New Tricks screenwriter Nigel McCrery.

More than 600 players swapped their kit for military uniforms during the war.

One of the most moving tales was of Sapper Sidney Gueran, 27, who played for Southampton in the late 1930s.

The Royal Engineer later became a Paratrooper and dropped behind enemy lines into Holland for Operation Market Garden on September 17, 1944.

But he was shot defending "A Bridge Too Far" in Arnhem the following day.