Description
Object description
British officer commanded Medium Machine Gun Platoon, Support Coy, 156th Bn Parachute Regt, 4th Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Italy, 9/1943-11/1943 and during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and training with Parachute Regt in GB, 1943: background to enlistment in army; volunteering for Parachute Regt; commissioning as parachute officer. Aspects of period as officer commanding Medium Machine Gun Platoon, Support Coy, 156th Bn Parachute Regt, 4th Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in North Africa, 1943: joining unit on draft in North Africa; origins of unit; pride in Parachute Regt; character of paratroopers; character of machine gun platoon; role as battalion machine gun officer; orders for platoon to move to Italy. Aspects of operations as officer commanding Machine Gun Platoon, Support Coy, 156th Bn Parachute Regt, 4th Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Italy, 9/1943-11/1943: sight of Italian Fleet moving to Malta to surrender, 9/1943; arrival at Taranto, 9/1943; in action near Taranto; unit's use of antique Italian field gun; capture of German Air Force staff officers. Recollections of operations as officer commanding Machine Gun Platoon, Support Coy, 156th Bn Parachute Regt, 4th Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div during Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 9/1944: frustrations due to cancelled operations; question of effectiveness of battalion; briefing for operation; unit officers; opinion of Brigadier John Hackett; taking off from RAF Saltby; loss of half of his platoon in aircraft crash on route to Netherlands.
REEL 2 Continues: problems getting rid of rogue container from under aircraft; forced landing on airfield in GB; taking off for second time; attracting German anti-aircraft fire; casualties on burning drop zone; advance towards Arnhem; opinion of German counter-attack; response of Dutch civilians; orders to withdraw to railway embankment; organising scratch force; surrender of company of 7th Bn King's Own Scottish Borderers; his capture in woods; opinion of performance of his troops at Arnhem; fellow feeling between front line troops; behaviour of line of communications troops; story of Royal Air Force dispatcher shot down over Arnhem, 9/1944; separation of officers from other ranks; German shooting of Parachute Regt officers.
REEL 3 Continues: John Potter's escape and recapture; reflections on Operation Market Garden; lessons learnt from Operation Market Garden and prisoner of war experiences.