Mitchell, Gordon Ross (Oral history)

British private served with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Tunisia and Sicily, Italy, 1943; trooper served with C Sqdn, 1st Special Air Service, Special Air Service Bde in GB and North West Europe, 1944-1945; NCO served with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1948

REEL 1 Background in Buckie, GB, 1923-1941: family; employment; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as private with 70th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in GB, 1941-1942: volunteering for military service, 1941; airfield defence duties; targeting of his unit by special forces. Aspects of training as private with Parachute Regiment in GB, 1942: parachute training; trainee who dreamt of flying coffins and was Returned To Unit (RTU); esprit de corps in Parachute Regiment. Aspects of operations as private with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde in Tunisia, 1943: voyage aboard HMT Samaria from GB to North Africa; joining unit at Tamera; quality of leadership of unit; infantry role of paratroopers; quality of German opposition and tactics in Tunisia; German opinion of Parachute Regiment; advancing against Germans and question of accepting surrender; readiness of Italians to surrender; incidents of troops falling into trenches with fatigue; withdrawal to French Morocco. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 1st Airborne Div in Sicily, Italy, 7/1943: preparations and training for invasion in French Morocco; effect of American rations on fitness. REEL 2 Continues: move to staging area in Tunisia; his platoon's objective during Operation Fustian; Lieutenant-Colonel Alastair Pearson's claim of overwhelming air support; flight to Sicily; over reaction of American air crew to accidental firing on aircraft by Royal Navy ships; parachute jump; arrival at Primasole Bridge; problems trying to hold Primasole Bridge; withdrawal from bridge; how unit marksmen missed running Italian at Primasole Bridge; reaction to arrival of 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Div; loss of glider in river at Primasole Bridge; inquest by Major-General George Hopkinson into why Operation Fustian went wrong; kindness shown by American liaison officer at Syracuse; German Air Force bombing of ship in Syracuse Harbour; story of captured German officer aboard ship during voyage from Syracuse to Tripoli, Libya; reasons why he started thinking about transferring to Special Air Service, 7/1943. REEL 3 Continues: contracting malaria; his anxiety not to miss unit's invasion of Italy; unopposed landing at Taranto, Italy and advance northwards. Aspects of period as trooper with Special Air Service in GB, 1943-1944: transfer to unit; nature of discipline in unit; exercise crossing central Scotland and how Chaplain Fraser McLuskey got his group into target area; memories of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert 'Paddy' Mayne. Recollections of operations as trooper with C Sqdn, 1st Special Air Service, Special Air Service Bde in France, 7/1944- 9/1944: parachuting into Dijon area; role of team to train and equip French Resistance unit; use of armoured jeeps; effectiveness of Communist elements of French Resistance; effectiveness of his group; German reprisals against village; messages received via British Broadcasting Corporation; air supply drops; execution of Special Air Service personnel by Germans; how Chaplain Fraser McLuskey went through German lines to post letters. Aspects of operations as trooper with 1st Special Air Service, Special Air Service Bde in North West Europe, 10/1944-5/1945: refitting in Brussels, Belgium; aiding Field Security Police to apprehend Allied deserters. REEL 4 Continues: attitude to role of hunting deserters; attempts to round up German paratroopers dropped during offensive in Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944-1/1945; handling of German prisoners of war at Bergen, Norway, 5/1945; contrast in discipline between German and British troops; observational work prior to crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; sight of German V2 Rocket launching near Sittard, Netherlands, 12/1944. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Parachute Regt, 1st Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1948: return to unit; internal security duties; question of how his attitude changed towards Jews; occasion when he was ordered to stop Major Roy Farran escaping from Palestine. Story of patrolling border during Operation Monkey in Harz Mountains, Germany, 1948-1949.