Interview with Ronald Martin Phelps

British NCO served with 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe and Palestine, 1944-1946

REEL 1 Background in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire, GB, 1922-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training with British Army in GB, 1940-1943: volunteering for British Army, 10/6/1940; basic training with Wiltshire Regiment at Bulford Camp; transfer to 70th Bn Gloucestershire Regt; German Air Force raids on Bristol; clerk's training at Beverley; reasons for return to Gloucestershire Regiment, 2/1943. Aspects of training with Parachute Regiment in GB, 1943-1944: reasons for volunteering for Parachute Regiment, 3/1943; selection, 5/1943; period at Airborne Forces Regimental Depot at Hardwick Hall, 5/1943-6/1943; parachute training at No 1 Parachute Training School, RAF at RAF Ringway, 6/1943-7/1943; posting to A Coy, 9th Parachute Regt at Bulford, 7/1943; exercises in Scotland; comradeship in unit; role as company clerk; preparations for invasion of Normandy, France; morale in transit camp at Broadwell. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with A Coy, 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Normandy, France, 6/1944-8/1944: flight from GB to Normandy, night 5/6/1944-6/6/1944; landing on drop zone, 6/6/1944; move to Merville Battery; entry into captured battery; move to Le Plein; move to Château Le Cone; use of hunting hide as company headquarters; Jewish paratrooper shot by sniper; German counter-attack; fire-support from HMS Arethusa; question of armour and air support; withdrawal to Bois de Bavent near Le Mesnil; conditions in trenches. REEL 3 Continues: under German multi-barrelled mortar attack at Le Mesnil and accidental Allied air attack; crossing River Dives, 8/1944; wounding by airburst during German counter-attack. Aspects of medical evacuation from France to GB, 8/1944: evacuation to RAF Down Ampney; recuperation in GB; reading of quote from Napier Crookenden's book 'Drop Zone Normandy'; rejoining of unit at Bulford Camp. Recollections of operations as NCO with A Coy, 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in North West Europe, 1944-1945: return to Ardennes, Belgium, 12/1944; conditions as company headquarters; discovery of German atrocity against civilians at Bande, Belgium; parachute jump during Operation Varsity, crossing the River Rhine, 3/1945; feast of wine and boiled eggs; wounding by air-burst in shoulder, 3/1945; nature of parachute drop over River Rhine, 3/1945; recovery from second wound at North Cerney, 1945. Aspects of operations with 9th Bn Parachute Regt, 3rd Parachute Bde, 6th Airborne Div in Palestine, 1945-1946: anti-immigration patrols at Haifa. REEL 4 Continues: reaction to role of unit; theft of belongings on leave in Beirut, Lebanon; return to GB for demobilisation; attitude towards having served with 9th Bn Parachute Regt in Second World War.