this be the thinly disguised story of real life hero john frost . portray in this film by leo genn and call maj. snow ( i say the disguise be thin ) . lt col john frost lead the small group of paratrooper who actually get to the bridge in a bridge too far ( 1977 ) ( where he be play by anthony hopkins ) . despite only have a few hundred men instead of the whole brigade that they expect to get there and they still hold out for four day against an s. s. panzer group . john frost get his knee damage by a mortar bomb so spend the rest of the war in a p. o. w. camp . in this film maj. snow get wound in the leg by a grenade but be carry to safety by his men . but arnhem be just the final move in an amazing wartime career . frost be one of the early volunteer in the newly form parachute regiment at the start of the war . a a major and he lead the successful raid on the german radar station at bruneval where radar specialist sgt cox ( sgt box in this film ) dismantle the german unit and bring it back to britain along with some of the operator so that the british could understand the limit of the german radar system . this happen in a very similar way to the raid portray in the first part of the film . the next raid frost lead be on an airfield in tunisia and just like the second raid in the film . in real life and a in the film and the raid on the airfield be a success but they have some problem get back to their own line . frost then lead the parachute drop on sicily and a further raid in italy before his wartime career finish at arnhem . this film be quite well make and adapt the story well to fit alan ladd in without make it too obvious that he only there to attract an american audience . the real hero of this story be john frost and the men of the parachute regiment .