大象传媒

The Battalion was in a rest area near Rome, enjoying a well earned period of relaxation, but it鈥檚 a known fact, that wherever the army camps, guards have to be posted, so each day to provide a 9 man guard, 10 men were detailed, and in order to gee-up the lads, the smartest man on parade would be dismissed and issued with a day pass to Rome. One particular day one of our platoon, Penson, having been issued with a pass, was detailed for guard duty which had precedence, then, out of the blue, Fred, who had not been issued with a day pass to Rome and was a strict adherent to the old maxim of 鈥榲olunteering for nothing鈥�, offered to do Penson鈥檚 guard duty. It turned out that he was taking a gamble, he hadn鈥檛 a pass, but he was determined to be the smartest man on parade. When we realised what Fred was up to, we all rallied round, polishing this, pressing that, and lending whatever. It was no surprise that he achieved his aim, as a result we all had a very pleasant day together in Rome. Later the news came through that the Brigade was to be part of what was otherwise an all American operation, the purpose of which was to harass the already retreating German troops in France. It was then that I met Cpl Denzil (Nobby) Clarke, who had joined the Paras when the Desert light Ack. Ack. was disbanded at the end of operations in North Africa. I was to inform him that if he wished to come on the operation with us he would have to revert to L/Cpl, this he decided to do, as having just come to a new unit didn鈥檛 want to drop out to the wilderness again, he opted to revert, and was allocated to 14 Platoon.
At the briefing we learned that we were to jump from somewhere between 1400 and 1500 ft because the landing zone. The area surrounding the village of Le-Muy, about 15mls inland from Frejus, where the sea-borne landing was to take place, was situated between two mountain ranges. The pilots would just have time to descend to allow us to drop after crossing the first, before having to climb to fly over the second and then turning to return to base. This was about three times our usual height which meant being vulnerable for longer in the air. On arrival at the airport it was discovered that the aircraft had flat metal floors, which combined with our metal shod boots posed a bit of a problem, (we did not enjoy the luxury of rubber soled boots as did our American comrades), however our allies came to our help, the ground crew members criss-crossed the immediate area next to the exit with strips of adhesive repair tape to give us a foothold. D. Day was 15th Aug 1944, we took off from an airfield near Rome which was quite a sight with all its lights blazing, nearer to France we could see the lights of the sea-borne forces marshalling for their part in the Op. During 鈥渄ebussing鈥�, someone in the middle of my stick slid to the floor causing quite a delay to the exit for the rest of us, by the time we got reorganised I realised that the pilot had banked for his return run, and that the rest of us would be south of the landing zone. The jump in itself was an experience, because of the height, exit was in daylight but on the ground it was just before dawn, combined with this was the length of time it took me to finally touch down to the softest landing I had ever experienced. It was just like stepping off the bottom step of a flight of stairs, the chute just dropping round me. Looking around, I soon realised I was in a very large field by myself, slight panic, I could see the hills that I believed I was the wrong side of and there was still no sign of my mates. By this time dawn was breaking and I observed some signs of life, people going to work I assumed but not seeing me, at the foot of the hill I decided not to travel on the road but to proceed through the gardens, in one garden was a tree full of luscious looking apples I couldn鈥檛 resist, on stepping forward, the door of the house opened and a woman came out, took one look at me and seeing the Union Jack emblazoned on my arm rushed forward saying 鈥淭hank goodness you鈥榲e come鈥�, (she was an English woman who had married a Frenchman after W.W.1). I was ushered into the house, which in a very short time seemed full of people, there was a hush ,I guess they realised here was one British soldier, then 鈥淲here are the others ?鈥� 鈥淲e knew you were coming because of the leaflets鈥�, questions were coming fast. I managed to reassure them that there were in fact thousands of us, the fact then emerged that I was the only one that had been seen, panic once more, after much talking and the emergence of a bus timetable with a local map attached, it came apparent that I was not south of where I wished to be, but in fact some 12 to 15 miles further north. I also noticed a line on the map indicating a line of overhead electricity cables leading straight to where I needed to be, taking my farewells, I set off resolving to avoid roads wherever possible, but having to dive for cover in a culvert in a drainage ditch to avoid a German M/C patrol. Continuing on I eventually caught up with a couple of squaddies who had no idea where they were, by this time butterflies were beginning to settle, and being the holder of the elevated rank of L/Cpl I took charge. We set off over the hills, shortly to encounter an elderly Frenchman who indicated that he wished us to follow him, which we did, with me close behind him, rifle cocked, as it had been the whole time, but now with the safety-catch off. It seems that he had been collecting wandering soldiers, because we found ourselves in a dried up river bed or storm ditch with about a dozen others, including a Sergeant and a medical Corporal. The Sergeant was pretty certain of his position and I was able to confirm it. We set off making for our D.Z., on the way we managed to knock out a retreating German supply column, capturing some of their vehicles and shoving the others off the road. By this time daylight was fading and the sergeant, now sure of our position, decided not to carry on because this road entered the area we were supposed to be, over a bridge, which was supposed to be covered by some of our anti-tank platoons, so rolling up in a German vehicle in the dark was not an option. We continued back up the road just a short way to a village where the inhabitants soon found out that the truck that we were riding on was a ration truck, it was emptied in record time and we were made very welcome. Next morning we set off and on nearing our destination made as much noise as possible and waved Red berets on the ends of rifles to avoid being shot at by the gunners holding the bridge. The action in the area was all over by now, but we were warmly welcomed by the Officer Commanding who by this time had almost a full Battalion at his disposal, plus some 鈥榯ransport鈥�. In a very short time, we, the 2nd Brigade were despatched back to our camp near Rome and shortly travelled south to a camp near Bari, where we learned what was in store for us, but that鈥檚 another episode.

I later found out that the signal for the 5th Battalion to drop, should have been given by our leading aircraft, but due to an electrical fault in that plane it was unable to pick up the Eureka signal, resulting in the Battalion being spread over a wide area miles from the D.Z., which could have been quite serious, if the German troops had not been retreating.

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