10 PARA

10 PARA is the usual name of the 10th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. Its write up in the Wikipedia sounds about right. Of course if you want to add to it, change it or delete bits you can. The Wiki has a List of battalions of the Parachute Regiment. It is also open to changes. See photos from the Second Coming at 10 PARA Photo Gallery or look at Remembrance Sunday. One of ours was Tex Banwell. He made it back to England by way of Arnhem in 1944 then Auschwitz.

More and better is at THE BEST TIME OF THEIR LIVES by Prosper Keating. There is a film out there on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiFeYxlPYy4, called Theirs Is The Glory. It was made in 1946 by real people, not actors. See for yourself.

See what the Regiment has to say for itself at Parachute Regiment The British Army

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10 PARA ex Wiki
QUOTE
The 10th (Sussex) Parachute Battalion was an airborne infantry battalion of the Parachute Regiment, raised by the British Army during the Second World War.

The battalion was raised around volunteers from the Royal Sussex Regiment at Kibrit in the Middle East. Assigned to the 4th Parachute Brigade, they joined the 1st Airborne Division in Tunisia. The battalion fought their first action in Operation Slapstick part of the Allied invasion of Italy. They were then withdrawn to England at the end of 1943. Being held in reserve during the Normandy landings, their second action was in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.

The battalion landed on the second day of the Battle of Arnhem and unable to reach their assigned objective, it was gradually destroyed over two days of fighting. The surviving men managed to withdraw into the divisional position at Oosterbeek. After holding a position in the perimeter, the handful of men left were evacuated south of the River Rhine. The battalion never recovered from the heavy casualties, sustained during the battle and was disbanded. The surviving men being posted to the battalions of the 1st Parachute Brigade.

When the Territorial Army was reformed after the war in 1947 a new 10th Battalion was raised. It was part of the reserve 44th Parachute Brigade in the 16th Airborne Division. However as a result of defence cuts the battalion was eventually amalgamated with the 4th Battalion.

Background

British paratroops wearing 'jump jackets', in Norwich during exercises 23 June 1941

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the Battle of France, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops.[2] The standards set for British airborne troops was extremely high, and from the first group of 3,500 volunteers only 500 men were accepted to go forward to parachute training.[3]

Additionally on 22 June 1940, a British Commando unit, No. 2 Commando was turned over to parachute duties and on 21 November, re-designated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, with a parachute and glider wing.[4][5] It was these men who took part in the first British airborne operation, Operation Colossus, on 10 February 1941.[6] The success of the raid prompted the War Office to expand the existing airborne force, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in Derbyshire in April 1942, and creating the Parachute Regiment as well as converting a number of infantry battalions into airborne battalions in August 1942.

10th Parachute Battalion
The 10th Parachute Battalion was formed in Egypt, mostly from volunteers from the Royal Sussex Regiment.[9] The battalion was then assigned to the 4th Parachute Brigade, joining the 156th Parachute Battalion.

Upon formation, the battalion had an establishment of 556 men in three rifle companies. The companies were divided into a small headquarters and three platoons. The platoons had three Bren machine guns and three 2-inch mortars, one of each per section.[11] The only heavy weapons in the battalion were a 3 inch mortar and a Vickers machine gun platoon.[12] By 1944 a headquarters or support company, was added to the battalion, comprising five platoons: motor transport, signals, mortar, machine-gun and anti-tank. With eight 3 inch mortars, four Vickers machine guns and ten PIAT anti-tank projectors.[11]

All members of the battalion had to undergo a parachute training course carried out at No. 2 Parachute Training School at RAF Kirbrit in Egypt.[9] Initial parachute jumps were from a converted barrage balloon and finished with five parachute jumps from an aircraft.[13][nb 3] Anyone failing to complete a descent was returned to his old unit. Those men who successfully completed the parachute course, were presented with their maroon beret and parachute wings.[13][15]

Airborne soldiers were expected to fight against superior numbers of the enemy, armed with heavy weapons, including artillery and tanks. So training was designed to encourage a spirit of self-discipline, self-reliance and aggressiveness. Emphasis was given to physical fitness, marksmanship and fieldcraft.[16] A large part of the training regime consisted of assault courses and route marching. Military exercises included capturing and holding airborne bridgeheads, road or rail bridges and coastal fortifications.[16] At the end of most exercises, the battalion would march back to their barracks. An ability to cover long distances at speed was expected: airborne platoons were required to cover a distance of 50 miles (80 km) in 24 hours, and battalions 32 miles (51 km).[16][nb 4]

Operations
Italy Further information: Operation Slapstick and Allied invasion of Italy
On 26 May 1943, the battalion and brigade sailed from Palestine for Tripoli, where it joined the 1st Airborne Division.[10] A shortage of transport aircraft kept the battalion out of the Allied invasion of Sicily. Other units of the division however did take part. The 1st Airlanding Brigade took part in Operation Ladbroke and the 1st Parachute Brigade in Operation Fustian. Both brigades suffered heavy casualties, so that by the time Operation Slapstick was proposed, only the 2nd and 4th Parachute Brigades were up to strength.

Slapstick was in part a deception operation to divert German forces from the main Allied landings and also an attempt to seize intact the Italian ports of Taranto, Bari and Brindisi. [19] The lack of air transport meant that the division's two available brigades had to be transported by sea. They would cross the Mediterranean in four Royal Navy cruisers with their escorts.[19] If the landing was successful, the 78th Infantry Division in Sicily and the 8th Indian Infantry Division in the Middle East, under the command of the V Corps would be sent to reinforce the landings.[19][20]

The 4th Parachute Brigade only had the 10th and 156th Parachute Battalions available to take part in the landings. On 9 September 1943, the same day as the Salerno landings by the U.S. 5th Army, the battalion having crossed the Mediterranean in HMS Penelope landed at Taranto unopposed.[21]

Landing at Taranto
Their first objective was the airfield of Gioia del Colle 30 miles (48 km) inland, was secured on 16 September.[22] However on route to the airfield near the town of Castellaneta, the battalion came up against a German roadblock defended by a Fallschirmjaeger unit of the 1st German Parachute Division.[23] During their assault on the roadblock, the divisional commander Major-General George F. Hopkinson observing the action, was hit by a burst of machine gun fire and killed.[24] At the same time, the 156th Parachute Battalion at San Basilio, carried out a successful flank attack on Fallschirmjaeger defending the town.[25] Two days later, having been only involved in minor skirmishes, the battalion reached Bari and Brindisi. Playing no further part in operations in Italy, the battalion were withdrawn by sea to the United Kingdom, arriving in November 1943.[18]

Arnhem

Further information: Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden
The 10th Battalion and the rest of the 4th Parachute Brigade landed to the west of Arnhem on the second day of the battle 18 September 1944. Their objective was to hold a position on the high ground north of Arnhem at Koepel.[26] With the 156th Parachute Battalion leading on the right, the 10th Battalion followed slightly behind on the left. By dawn the following day the battalion was just north of the Rotterdam to Arnhem railway line. When they came under attack from German 88 mm guns.[27] Both battalions were ordered to start an assault on the position at 07:00, but after repeated attacks the battalion had got no further forward. The defenders from the 9th SS Panzer Division had been here for two days and were well dug in.[28] Casualties were heavy and brigade headquarters obtained permission to withdraw south of the rail line into Oosterbeek. The battalion started to pull back but found most of their intended new positions already occupied by the Germans and by 15:00 had lost communications with brigade. To cross back over the rail line the battalion first had to capture the crossing point at Wolfheze.[29] Just before the attack a diversion was provided by the arrival of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigades gliders. Unaware the landing-zones had been captured or were under fire 10 percent of the Poles were killed during the landings.[30] The battalion withdrew remaining in contact with the advancing German tanks and infantry and under mortar fire. Part of the rearguard left behind was commanded by Captain Lionel Queripel who was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions during the withdrawal.[31][32] As the battalion left the woods they moved onto the open ground of landing-zone L, occupied by the Poles who had just landed. In the confusion both sides open fire on each other, at the same time coming under fire from the following Germans.[33] The battalion headed towards Wolfheze and prepared to defend the village assisted by 'B' and 'Support' Companies, 156th Parachute Battalion which had become separated from their battalion.

Casualties had continued to mount and by 20 September the German tactics were to bombard the British positions with tank and mortar fire.[35] The remnants of the battalion were withdrawn into the perimeter formed by the division around Oosterbeek. Only 60 men were able to continue fighting and this small force were given a position on the north eastern side to defend. One of them was the commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Ken Smyth who although wounded remained with the battalion.[36] By the 21 September pressure from the German attacks had squeezed the perimeter to less than 1,000 yards (910 m) across.[37] A German self propelled gun now drove up and down the battalions position, shooting high explosive shells into any buildings they believed to be defended. The battalion having expended all its anti-tank ammunition were unable to do anything to stop the gun.[38] The gun was followed up by infantry who fighting at close quarters forced the battalion out of their defensive positions. All the battalions surviving officers were killed or wounded during this attack and the battalion was in danger of being overrun. However small isolated units managed to hold out until reinforced by the Pathfinders of the 21st Independent Parachute Company.[39] On the 22 September the bulk of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade were dropped south of the river. This drew off some of the Germans from around the divisional perimeter to confront the new threat. The defenders now had to cope with over 100 German artillery guns firing onto their positions.[40]

By the 23 September the battalions position was subjected to constant mortar and artillery fire and incursions by tanks and infantry were becoming more and more frequent. Casualties forced a contraction of the perimeter but first the Germans had to be evicted from the houses behind them which they were to occupy.[41]

On 24 September the decision was made by Lieutenant-General Horrocks commander XXX Corps to withdraw what was left of the division south of the Rhine.[42] The remnants of the battalion were evacuated over the night of 25/26 September.[43] The casualties sustained were never replaced and the battalion was disbanded after the battle.[44]

Of the 582 men of the battalion who landed on the 18 September, 92 were killed, 404 became prisoners of War and 96 were evacuated.[45]

Territorial Army
The 10th Battalion was disbanded in November 1945, but when the Territorial Army was reformed in 1947, a new battalion now called the 10th (City of London) Parachute Battalion (Territorial Army) was raised. Re-designated 10 PARA (Volunteer) in 1967, the battalion existed until it was disbanded in 1999.[46] The battalion is represented by 10 (London) Company, 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment.
UNQUOTE
This  is on the right lines.

 

10 PARA Requiem
By Lieutenant Colonel Barry, our last CO.

 

THE BEST TIME OF THEIR LIVES - The Parachute Regimental Association by Prosper Keating

THE BEST TIME OF THEIR LIVES       

The 10th Parachute Battalion in Somerby 1943-1944
As members of 10 (V) Para in the closing stages of the Cold War in the 1980s, we were very proud to attend the commemorations of the wartime 10 Para in the Leicestershire village of Somerby. The men of The Tenth regaled us with stories from the nine months they spent in the area before Operation Market Garden in September 1944, where the battalion was effectively destroyed. Many of them recalled their time in Rutland, as it then was, as the best time of their lives.

When wartime 10 Para veteran Vic Gregg appeared on Good Morning Britain in February 2019 to discuss his book about the Dresden fire-bombing in 1945, which he witnessed as a prisoner of war, he was wearing the new 10 Para tie.  Vic is one of three known survivors of The Tenth and hopes to be back in Somerby in September 2019 for the 75th anniversary of Market Garden and for the unveiling of the memorial to The Tenth, as reported in Alec Wilson’s article in the Winter 2018 issue of Pegasus.

The memorial, which owes much to the dedication of the men and women of Friends of The Tenth (FoTT), will be across the road from the entrance to the Burrough Court Estate, which overlooks the valley that served as a drop zone for 10 Para––and also for 156 Para, stationed up the road in Melton Mowbray. Major General Ranald Munro CBD TD VR, a former ‘Tom’ and officer of 10 (V) Para and a Patron of FoTT, described Burrough Court as “a place of significance to the Battalion.”.

However, we shall come to that in due course. The new battalion tie, speedily approved in 2018 by our Colonel Commandant Lieutenant General Sir John Lorimer KCB DSO MBE, can also be worn by former members of 10 (V) Para, disbanded in 1999, and by members of FoTT in recognition of their support not just of the idea of a 10 Para memorial but of our Regiment in general. As we know all too well, the Parachute Regiment always needs friends and FoTT are very good friends. 

The old 10 (V) Para tie, which was worn by some wartime 10 Para men, was black with parachute wings and the red Roman X of the Battalion DZ flash. It was said that the black DZ flash honoured the fallen of the wartime Tenth and the red the blood they shed for the people of Europe enslaved by the Hitler regime. The new tie comprises the regimental badge on a maroon background with stripes recalling the wartime battalion colours worn on Battle Dress shoulder straps and a weathercock motif.

The weathercock has two holes in it but as with Burrough Court, we shall come to that later on. The aforementioned wartime battalion slip-ons consisted of the sky blue of the Army Air Corps, under whose administrative command the Parachute Regiment was placed in 1942 with the Glider Pilot Regiment, and the dark blue and yellow gold of The Royal Sussex Regiment, reflecting the Battalion’s origins. The 10th (Sussex) Battalion, The Parachute Regiment was formed in Egypt in December 1942 with around 200 men from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment.

Most of these men were survivors of the Second Battle of El-Alamein. The rest of the 582-strong Battalion was recruited from the Infantry Base Depot at Geneifa, some 120 kilometres east of Cairo by the shores of the Great Bitter Lake, through which the Suez Canal runs.  These recruits came from various regiments and corps and were for the most part combat veterans recovering from light wounds. However, The Tenth remained proud of its Sussex links and was initially known as ‘S’ Battalion.

S Battalion duly underwent parachute training at RAF Kabrit at the southern end of the Great Bitter Lake. They made their first jumps into the shimmering void from a converted barrage balloon eight-hundred feet above the hard, rocky ground, landing like sacks of potatoes, sustaining all manner of bruises, cuts and broken bones. Those who did not refuse the balloon progressed to aircraft and after carrying out the requisite descents, were awarded their parachute wings.

Parachute training completed, The Tenth was posted to Palestine for field-training. Some of the lads had their parachute wings tattooed onto their upper arms by Arabs with nails and coloured dyes in the local souks. In May 1943, the Battalion moved to Libya, ready for the coming invasion of Sicily that July. Much to the disgust of everyone from the CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Smyth, downwards, the shortage of transport aircraft saw The Tenth left behind, cooling its heels in Tripoli.

However, The Tenth did take part in Operation Slapstick, the invasion of mainland Italy on September 9th 1943, albeit by sea rather than air because of the continuing lack of aircraft. 10 Para landed at Taranto with other elements of 1st Airborne Division, including 156th Parachute Battalion, which would also have a close association with Rutland, when it was stationed near The Tenth in Melton Mowbray after its withdrawal from Italy.

Fortunately, the landings were unopposed, the German and Italian defenders having retreated from Taranto. The Tenth was tasked with capturing an airfield at Gioia del Colle, some fifty kilometres up the national highway to the Adriatic port of Bari. Approaching the small town of Castellaneta about halfway to the objective, The Tenth ran into a rear-guard defensive line set up by German paratroopers of I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1.

The ensuing fight was ferocious and Major General Hopkinson, commanding 1st Airborne Division, was killed, but The Tenth cleared the Green Devils out of Castellaneta. Proceeding to Gioia del Colle, the Battalion fought off attacks by skirmishers from II./FJR 4 and I./FJR 1 but managed to beat them off and capture and secure the airfield. The Tenth then proceeded to the ports of Bari and Brindisi. The regimental battle honour for Taranto covers these operations.

Withdrawn from Italy in November, The Tenth arrived in Somerby on December 10th 1943. Surrounding villages including Twyford, Burrough-on-the-Hill and Thorpe Satchville would also host the men and boys of the Battalion for the next nine months. Veterans of The Tenth often said they had the best time of their lives in Rutland before they boarded the lorries taking them to RAF Spanhoe on September 17th 1944 and the American planes that would fly them to Holland the next day with the Second Wave.

Stood to and stood down for no less than sixteen cancelled airborne operations during this time, the men of The Tenth sometimes got a bit nervy, to say the least. That they played hard and sometimes got a bit out of hand was only to be expected but veterans of The Tenth never forgot the kindness and generosity of the local people, who even forgave them for burning down Burrough Court during a raid on the wine cellar that went wrong.

The demolition charges used to blow open the cellar door set the mansion alight. The guilty parties redeemed themselves to some extent by bravely entering the blazing building and saving as much of the furniture and contents as they could. They even managed to evacuate the grand piano from the ballroom, which was played with gusto on the lawn as the well-oiled young paratroopers entertained the Fire Brigade with songs, toasting them with the contents of the wine cellar.

The people of Somerby also forgave The Tenth for shooting the weathercock on the tower of All Saints’ Church. There again, perhaps they were grateful: if the metallic screeching and groaning of this Victorian relic whenever the wind caught it grated on the nerves of hardened young paratroopers trying to get a decent night’s sleep, it is probably safe to presume that the villagers did not think too charitably of their weathercock either. They gave it away after renovation work to the tower in 1989.

The beneficiary of their generosity was 10 (V) Para, which had always been proud of its links to The Tenth. In honour of the shooting skills of Lieutenant Pat Glover, who had managed to put two holes in the infernal bird at a distance of sixty meters as it pirouetted and screeched in the wind, the Somerby weathercock became 10 (V) Para’s shooting trophy and resided behind the bar of the Sergeants Mess at the Battalion’s White City location in West London until 10 (V) Para was disbanded in 1999.

The weathercock was returned to Somerby in 2013 but, we note, has not been replaced on the church tower. Memories die hard in the countryside. It must be said, mind you, that Lt Glover had nothing personal against poultry as such. The Lieutenant had a pet chicken called Myrtle. Her arrival in Lt Glover’s life was the consequence of a booze-fuelled argument about whether or not anything with wings and feathers could fly.

Determined to prove his point, Lt Glover took Myrtle with him on an airborne exercise, tucked into his Dennison smock. Some distance from the ground in the valley in front of Burrough Court, Lt Glover released Myrtle, who managed to flap her wings frantically enough to avoid piling into the DZ. For a few seconds, the chicken flew and Lt Glover proved his claim. As he would also point out in later years, the RAF classes parachuting as flying although this is a stretch as Myrtle was not using a parachute.

Nonetheless, when Myrtle was killed in action at Arnhem, Lt Glover and his batman interred her with parachute wings. During their time in Rutland, the men of The Tenth trained hard to maintain their combat readiness, participating in exercises on the Yorkshire Moors and bombed-out areas of London, where they honed the urban combat skills––FIBUA––they would need in Holland when covering the advance to and the retreat from Arnhem Bridge.

The story of Arnhem needs no retelling here but we should note that of the nearly 600 paratroopers of The Tenth seen off by the people of Somerby and the surrounding villages on that Sunday morning seventy-five years ago, just thirty of them returned to Somerby after the battle. As well as the VC awarded to Captain Lionel Queripel, one of the original Sussex regimental officers, the Battalion won numerous bravery awards during the savage fighting around Oosterbeek and Wolfheze.

Sergeant Reid of A Company, would say of Captain Queripel after the war: “He was one of the finest men I was privileged to serve under, always the last officer to return to his mess.  His first thought was for his men. One hears of VCs being given for impulsive bravery, but not Captain Queripel.  Anyone who knew him would have expected him to do just what he did.”. Captain Queripel VC’s citation is easily found on the Internet.

People say that The Tenth was annihilated at Arnhem but that is a simple way of putting it. Ninety-two men were killed in action. The first causalities were sustained during the parachute descent onto Ginkel Heath, as the Germans had by then had ample time to rally and were staking out the heather-covered drop zone, much of which was ablaze. German cameramen even filmed what one veteran bitterly recalled as the “grouse shoot”.

Ninety-six men of The Tenth managed to escape back across the river Rhine on the night of September 25th and 26th. That two-thirds of them did not return to Somerby bears silent witness today to their post-battle state and to the state of many of the 404 men who had to be left behind. Some 10 Para prisoners or war are known to have been murdered but it now seems certain that their killers were local Dutch SS men. The Tenth’s CO Lt-Col Smyth died of his wounds on October 26th

In fairness to the Germans, they did the best they could for the British wounded but medical supplies were as scarce as other resources by that stage of the war and many wounded prisoners died as a consequence. Those who survived captivity and came home afterwards faced the same challenges as veterans of current conflicts in places like Iraq and Afghanistan but there was not the same understanding in those days of what we now describe as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Never reformed, The Tenth was disbanded in November 1945. However, the battalion number was bestowed upon a new London-based Territorial Army unit in 1947: the 10th (City of London) Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. This became the 10th (V) Bn in 1967, known simply as 10 Para. 10 Para was, as we know, disbanded in 1999 but lived on briefly as 10 Company, 4 Para. The White City location, once home to HQ Coy and 1 Coy, 10 Para, is now occupied by B Coy, 4 Para.

The boys of B Coy, 4 Para are very aware of their 10 Para lineage. PSIs posted to White City have asked about 10 Para history on the battalion’s social media webpages. There are photographs of the old Red X DZ flash unofficially worn in Afghanistan and Iraq. I speak for many old 10 Para hands when I say that we were very touched by the speed with which General Lorimer acted to approve the new tie. As the images of the 99-year old Vic Gregg on television show, we are all very proud of it.

This memorial honours those men who served in Egypt, Palestine, Libya, Italy and Holland and, by extension, the men of the post-war battalion who served in various conflicts after the Cold War years. It is our memorial and we shall treasure it.

Prosper Keating

4 Coy & Sigs Pl

10 Para 1982 – 1992