HARRY Mosley entered the Gestapo headquarters as the Second World War reached its climax in May 1945.

Instead of fanatical resistance, he found the German defenders in Wismar had committed suicide – their cigarettes still smoking in an ashtray.

So he took a historic memento and stuffed it into his parachutist smock: the Nazi flag from the headquarters, which probably belonged to district leader of the Nazi party, the Gauleiter.

Harry had landed one hour into D-Day on June 6, 1944 to help capture the famous Pegasus Bridge, and now 11 months later, he had survived to reach the end of the campaign.

After the war Harry moved to Ferndown – where he became known for his Red Cross fund-raising work – and kept the flag in a cupboard.

He died aged 85 last year, and his widow Barbara arranged through the Normandy Veterans Association, of which Harry had been a member, for the flag to be passed to the airborne museum at Pegasus Bridge.

She went to France earlier this month to hand over the historic memento.

“It felt as if I had done something for Harry,” she said. “I felt a bit depressed going over to Normandy as we had gone over together every year since the 50th anniversary.

“But he would have been proud to see it there.”

Edward Thurston, of Highcliffe, 83, chairman of the New Forest Veterans of Normandy, went over for the handover and he said: “Pegasus Bridge was the start of the journey for 6th Airborne, and Wismar was the end, so the flag completes the picture.”

He added: “Harry was a quiet man, but obviously had been a very good soldier.”