description
Content description
Interesting ts memoir (65pp) with few dates recording his career as a Regular Army officer, February 1926 - August 1945, including: his family background; his education at Sandhurst, 1924 - 1926; being commissioned, February 1926; service with the 2nd Battalion The Loyal Regiment at Gravesend, Kent, ?1926, and the 1st Battalion at Secunderabad and Cawnpore, ?1926 - autumn 1935, including a course at the Army School of Physical Training, Ambala; the 2nd Battalion at Tidworth, autumn 1935 - early 1937; the Small Arms School, early 1937 - 1938; the 1st Battalion (2nd Brigade, 1st Division) as Adjutant at Tidworth and the Salamanca Barracks, Aldershot, 1938 - September 1939, and in France and Belgium, September 1939 - December 1939; a shortened war course at the Staff College, Camberley, January 1940 - ?April 1940; as Brigade Major, 128th Brigade (43rd Division) and GSO2, 43rd Division and 12th Corps, UK, ?April 1940 - ?October 1941; with the newly formed Airborne Forces as GSO1, 1st Airborne Division, ?November 1941 - ?May 1943, and BGS, 1st Airborne Corps, ?May 1943 - October 1944, planning airborne operations, notably Bruneval (February 1942), Sicily (September 1943), Normandy (June 1944), and Arnhem (September 1944); Chief of Airborne Operations at HQ, SACSEA, Kandy, Ceylon, October 1944 - August 1945; commenting on army and regimental life; his off-duty entertainment; life and conditions in India; big game hunting; women in the Home Guard; relations with the American paratroops; serving on Admiral Lord Mountbatten's staff; and mentioning Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke; General Sir Frederick Browning (with whom his career was closely linked), Sir Winston Churchill, and Major-General O C Wingate. Also included are two copies of a ts Report (4pp, May 1943) on Browning's visit to North Africa, March 1943 - May 1943; a ts report in 7 Parts (267pp plus maps) on 1st Airborne Division's Operations during the invasion of Sicily (OPERATION HUSKY, July 1943), September 1943; an undated ts Outline Programme for British Airborne Formations on D-Day (1p, Top Secret BIGOT), c. June 1944; an undated (c. September 1944) Report (60pp, plus maps and photographs) on 6th Airborne Division's operations in Normandy, June - August 1944; a report (13pp) by Browning on SAS Operations in France, June 1944 - August 1944; a ts account (15pp) of 1st Special Service Brigade's operations in Normandy, June 1944 - July 1944, by Brigadier D Mills Roberts; ts reports by Colonel G J S Chatterton (Commander Glider Pilots) on Glider Pilot organisation, Training and Operations for OPERATION NEPTUNE (D-Day, 92pp, June 1944, with photographs) and on the Air and Military Training of Glider Pilots (25pp, c. October 1944, plus photographs); reports on Operation "Market Garden" at Arnhem, September 1944, by 30th Corps (109pp, plus maps and photographs), 101st US Airborne Division (17pp plus diagrams), October 1944; the 82nd Airborne Division (7pp plus maps), September 1944; and by Walch ('Allied Airborne Operations in Holland', 121pp), September 1944 - October 1944; ts letters (4pp), September 1947 - October 1947, from Lieutenant Colonel T B H Otway DSO to Walch forwarding drafts (163pp) of six chapters of his "History of the Airborne Forces"; Telephone Directories of the Headquarters of 1st Allied Airborne Army (23pp) and 9th Troop Carrier Command (17pp), January 1945; his ms notes and a ts letter (2pp) answering Conelius Ryan's questionnaire on D-Day, May 1967; a pamphlet (12pp) of the TWO ATAF/NORTHAG Staff visit to the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy (CVA-67), May 1973; a Study (55pp, plus maps) of the Sicily Campaign (July 1943 - August 1943) by the HQs of Northern Army Group and Second Allied Tactical Air Force at which he was a guest speaker, May 1973; and an undated brochure relating to HQ Allied Land Forces Southern Europe in Verona, Italy.
History note
Catalogue date 2000-10-16
History note
Cataloguer SNR
