Baines, Douglas (Oral history)

British private served with Headquarters Coy, 12th Bn Parachute Regt, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB and Normandy, France, 1943-1944; POW and escapee in France, 6/1944-9/1944; served with Headquarters Coy, 12th Bn Parachute Regt, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 12/1944-3/1945

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, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in GB, 9/1943-6/1944: enlistment in West Yorkshire Regt, 4/2/1943; transfer to Parachute Regt, 8/1943; attitude to parachute training. Recollections of operations as private with Headquarters Coy, 12th Bn Parachute Regt, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944: equipment taken on D-Day, 6/6/1944; his parachute landing in River Dives, D-Day, 6/6/1944; 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 and escapee in France, 6/1944-9/1944: 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, 7/1944; aid recieved from French farmer; joining Marquis group; arrival of US Army and encounter with General George S Patton, 9/1944; return to GB via Paris and Arromanches. Aspects of operations as private with Headquarters Coy, 12th Bn Parachute Regt, 5th Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 12/1944-3/1945: rapid move to Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; role as commanding officer's driver; shooting down of his glider during crossing of the River Rhine, Germany, 24/3/1945; wounding and subsequent amputation of left leg, 1947.