Trained at Bulford, Ringway, Hardwick Hall, encompassing Parachute Regiment, Glider Pilot Regiment & RAF 38 & 46 Group.
Hoping to put up items of interest for researchers or those with family links to the division.
Looking to post collation of World War II photos, articles, books and booklets & any other history related topics.
Captain Albert Richards after completing one term at the Royal College of Art enlisted in the army as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers posted to Suffolk, Northumberland and Wiltshire painting various scenes of the Royal Engineers.
Richards became the youngest official war artist when he was appointed in March 1944 at the age of twenty five. Later in the year he was commissioned to depict the airborne landings on D-Day.
Shortly after midnight on the 6th June he landed by parachute with the 9th Parachute Battalion and took part in the assault on the Merville battery east of Sword beach. He fought with the battalion throughout the day and was later killed in action 5th March 1945 while preparing to paint the crossing of the River Maas in the Netherlands when his jeep drove over an landmine and is buried in Milsbeek War Cemetery
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2961919/albert-richards/
The paintings attached are from 1944.
Charle's Wheeler's D-Day: Turning The Tide (1994)
Part I
Major Howard
Wally Parr
Bill Gray
Sgt. Leonard Daniels,
Lt-Col. Otway
Sgt. Sid Knight
Major-General Gale, the Division's commander, addresses Divisional troops at Harwell aerodrome.
Airborne sappers place detonators into shrapnel mines.
Military Policemen attend to their Matchless and Enfield motorcycles.
An Airborne signals lieutenant and private paint the Liberation star on a cloth panel. A corporal performs a 'native' dance for off-duty signallers.
Signallers check jeep-mounted radio equipment. Engineers pack PIATs and ammunition into a parachute container. Parachute Regiment troops are issued with two 24-hour compo ration boxes, etc.
Men from the 2nd Battalion, the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, support platoon load ammunition and a Vickers machine gun into jeep trailers. A mechanic services a jeep.
Weapons such as a Lee-Enfield rifle, a Colt .45 automatic pistol, a Mark 5 Sten gun, a Bren gun and Nos 36 and 69 grenades are examined before being packed.
Empty Bren and Sten magazines are loaded with bullets and packed into boxes.
Airborne ...
ASSAULT UNITS PREPARE FOR THE INVASION OF EUROPE (PART 7) (Imperial War Museums)
Filmed by Sgt. L. Harris, No. 5 AFPU showing pathfinders from 22nd Independent Parachute Company and men of 2nd Bn (Airborne) OXfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry playing cricket
Loading up of Horsa gliders and parachute containers filmed at Harwell and Tarrant Rushton
Brittany Ferries Historic Talking Tours The Pegasus Trail An Account of the Operations of the 6th Airborne Division in Normandy 6th June – 17th August 1944
Not the best quality recording as this was not a transfer but a basic recording
SIDE 1
Italian airmen who were taken prisoner after their planes had been shot down over England yesterday passed through Londin this afternoon on their way to the Prisoners Camp 12th November 1940.
When a Douglas C47 Dakota aircraft of RAF Transport Command returned from France, one of the passengers was a German war dog which was wounded by men of the 6th Airborne Division when they stormed Ranville North East of Caen. The dog, named Fritz, had apparently been trained to attack anyone with firearms. It was wounded in the leg and taken behind the line where it received first aid treatment from a British Army unit before being flown to England in charge of parachutist Major Philip Wilfred Varvill.
When the Royal Australian Air Force photographer was photographing Fritz, the dog apparently thought the camera was a firearm and attempted to leap at the photographer. Fritz will be sent to do a course at a British War Dogs school when he has recovered from his wound.
This image was shot for the Daily Mail newspaper but was also reported in Australian papers.
Cpl. John Williamson, 12th Parachute Battalion taken prisoner Normandy 18th August 1944 probably captured during a night raid on Putot-En-Auge.
12th Parachute Battalion War Diary
18th August 1944 Place: Mongassard
0450 - Bn advanced through TROARN to MON GASSARD 192690 as reserve Bn to 5 Para Bde and awaits orders to continue advance. Capt J.A.N. Sim, Lieuts J.H. Duthie, Hall, Warren and Flint and 80 ORs joined from U.K. C Coy formed under Capt Sim.
