A FATHER and son stepped back in time at the Yorkshire Air Museum to get themselves into the right frame of mind for a series of wartime challenges.

Second World War re-enactors Jack Bramwell and his 16-year-old-son Alex will raise money for two charities when they take on a parachute jump course in Holland later this year.

They will then be able to take part in re-enactment parachute jumps in Normandy and the Low Countries, including one at Arnhem to mark the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

The York father and son stepped inside a Dakota at the Elvington museum so they could feel for themselves what thousands of wartime parachutists experienced as they were carried to their drop zones. Both belong to the 6th Airborne Division group of re-enactors.

Sarah Atkinson, community fundraiser at St Leonard’s Hospice, one of their chosen charities, said: “It’s great that John and Alex want to help the hospice and the Royal British Legion as they train for their role as Second World War parachutists – especially in this, the 70th anniversary year of both the D-Day landings and of the massive air-drops of Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem. We are very grateful to them and wish them safe landings in the future.”

Operation Market Garden saw hundreds of Allied paratroopers land in the Netherlands in September 1944 and was the largest military airborne operation of its time.

The offensive was made famous through the book A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan, and the subsequent film.

Donations can be made through http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/airbornebramwells