Description
Object description
British officer served with C Coy, 4th Bn Parachute Regt, 2nd Independent Parachute Bde in Italy and Southern France, 9/1943-8/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Darlington, GB, 1914-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of training with Parachute Regiment in GB, 3/1942-5/1943: volunteering for Parachute Regiment, 12/1941; German language course; wounding during live firing exercise, 11/1942. Aspects of period as officer with 4th Bn Parachute Regt, 2nd Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in North Africa, 6/1943-9/1943: voyage from GB to North Africa, 6/1943; amusing contact with US Army Air Force personnel. Recollections of operations as officer with 4th Bn Parachute Regt, 2nd Independent Parachute Bde in Italy, 9/1943-8/1944: landing at Taranto and acquiring anti-British postcards, 9/9/1943; description of patrol in which group of Germans captured near Orsogna, 26/12/1943.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of Germans; rejoining unit at Monte Cassino after promotion to captain, 4/1944; atmosphere at Monte Cassino; laying of pink smoke on his unit by German aircraft; attitude to Allied bombing of Monte Cassino Monastery, 15/2/1944; contact with Italian troops of Italian Co-Belligerent Army; attitude of Italian civilians towards British troops. Recollections of operations as officer with 4th Bn Parachute Regt, 2nd Independent Parachute Bde in Southern France, 8/1944: aircraft used in landings; question of degree of navigational ability of United States Army Air Force pilots; his parachute drop into pine tree near Le Muy, 15/8/1944; rendezvous with battalion at house called Le Gautier; attack on German occupied villa.
REEL 3 Continue: dealing with civilian about damage to his property; his attempt to induce German surrender at Le Muy; attempt of German garrison commander to insist on proper protocol for surrender; arrangement he made with German Army troops for them to surrender despite attitude of their officers; sight of German prisoner of war column and conversation with German garrison commander; French girl who found dead German boyfriend. Aspects of period as officer with 4th Bn Parachute Regt in Italy, 1944-1945: reasons for missing operations in Greece, 11/1944-12/1944; plan to drop battalion onto north bank of River Po, Italy, 4/1945; reaction to dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, 8/1945.