大象传媒

This story begins when, then Corporal Hedley Waterbury was badged to his regiment the Scots Guards. He and a few friends were out drinking and he was approached by another soldier (Warrant Officer) to whom he began chatting. As the night went on, the merrier he became, and on Monday morning he was called in to see his Commanding Officer, who was none too pleased! On speaking to his Commanding Officer he was informed that he had agreed to join a newly forming regiment called the Paras! The Commanding Officer then showed him his paperwork, which he had signed, had no choice but to transfer Corporal Waterbury to his onward destination. So you see this is how he became a member of the 'Parachute Regiment'.
From here he was trained and a little later was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. It was soon after this that his story begins.
(prior to joining the military Sgt Waterbury was a professional sign writer to trade).
One operational deployment he was involved with, was when he was parachuted into 'somewhere in France', he was accompanied by a very young Second Lieutenant, and two other Paras. Their mission was to bring back a detailed map of the immediate and surrounding areas for a future operation that would use this very information. He was aware of where he was, but maps were not freely available so he then had to supply it and in this instance his civilian qualities were to be put to the test. Overall he and the others were on covert operations for about seven days in order to get what they wanted. It was on the second last day that they thought it was curtains for them. The location was a castle in France, and whilst they were in the area they were almost compromised by a stray German guard who had decided to go to the toilet. As the guard stood literally feet from them he and the others held their breath. Sgt Waterbury recalled that all he could hear was his own heartbeat thumping, it was a dangerous time. If they had been caught then possibly future operations would be delayed. There was also the possibility that they could overpower the guard, as suggested by the young officer, but this was rejected by Sgt Waterbury as this would surly have alerted the others to their existence in the area. Once finished with their operation they had an area to deploy back to for collection, this they did and produced the detailed maps when returning to their unit.
I found that this in itself, a very worthwhile mention to the archive for Sgt Waterbury and the others, the bravery and dedication to which the story holds is incredible, and the only regret is that he is now deceased, and it is also a pity that you will be unable to hear it from his own mouth as I am sure that how it reads will provide less of an impact compared to how he told me. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did listening and putting it onto this webpage.

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