Baines, Douglas (Oral history)

British private served with 12th Bn Parachute Regt in GB and Normandy, 1943-1944; POW in France, 1944; escaped from captivity, 1944; served with 12th Bn Parachute Regt in North West Europe, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Goole and Bingley, GB, 1924-1942: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as private with Headquarters Coy, 12th Bn Parachute Regt in GB, 1943: enlistment in West Yorkshire Regt, 1942; transfer to Parachute Regt; attitude to training. Recollections of operations as private with 12th Bn Parachute Regt in Normandy, 1944: equipment taken on D-Day, 6/6/1944; his parachute landing in River Dives; struggle through thick river mud; flooded nature of countryside; aid from French civilians; in hiding near Ouisterham; foraging for rations dropped by RAF; sheltering of paratroopers by French civilians; fate of French civilians who aided paratroopers; capture by Germans. Aspects of period as POW in France, 1944: initial treatment on capture; removal to POW cage in Paris then Chalons sur Marne; strafing of train taking POWs to Germany. REEL 2 Continues: escape from train near Bar le Duc; aid from French farmer; joining Marquis group; arrival of US Army and encounter with General Patton; return to GB via Paris and Arromanches. Aspects of operations as private with 12th Bn Parachute Regt in North West Europe, 1944-1945: rapid move to Ardennes, 12/1944; role as commanding officer's driver; shooting down of his glider during Rhine Crossing, 3/1945; wounding and subsequent amputation of left leg, 1947.