HIS army was exhausted and suffering from the freezing Russian temperatures in inadequate kit, on the verge of collapse just outside Moscow.

But if a recently discovered Christmas card can be taken at face value, Adolf Hitler still had time to extend festive greetings to bridge engineers in Christchurch.

A card carrying the Nazi leader’s insignia and signature, supposedly dropped on the Experimental Bridging Establishment in Barrack Road in December 1941 by the Luftwaffe, has been found at a museum in France.

It wishes Sir Donald Bailey, who invented the famous military bridge which bears his name, a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” in German.

The card was discovered by Jacques Hale, editor of Christchurch’s University of the Third Age magazine, on display at the Pegasus Bridge Museum near Caen in Normandy. Jacques was researching material for a feature on “What Christchurch did for D-day” to commemorate next month’s anniversary.

The museum’s collection includes a section on the Bailey Bridge and a letter from Field Marshal Montgomery paying tribute to the bridge’s contribution towards the final victory.

But it was the framed Christmas card, beside Monty’s letter that really caught his eye.

The museum’s British director, Mark Worthington, admitted he did not know its origins but suspects it was just to wind up the British.

Leading Christchurch military historian and former mayor of the borough, Michael Hodges agreed.

He said: “Why would he send one when he was outside Moscow battling with the Russian winter?

“It certainly raises a lot of questions. If the card is genuine it could have come from a variety of sources with Hitler being the most unlikely, I would imagine.”