Major John Timothy

Major John Timothy, who has died aged 97, won three Military Crosses with the   Parachute Regiment in the Second World War.

John Timothy (right) with a US Paratrooper, September 1942 Photo: PARADATA

5:42PM GMT 01 Nov 2011

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In February 1943, 2 Para was deployed south of Bou Arada, Tunisia, under the   command of the 1st Parachute Brigade. One night, Timothy led a patrol and   brought back seven prisoners, including an officer. This yielded valuable   information about the enemy’s intentions.

Fighting as infantry, his battalion subsequently took over a hill feature in   the Tamera Valley. Rain filled their trenches; mud and slush hampered   attempts to move up and down the steep slopes; and dense cork trees enabled   the enemy to get within yards of the front line without detection. 

On March 8 a large force attacked the Paras’ defensive positions. Timothy’s   platoon was completely surrounded, but it stood fast and inflicted heavy   casualties on the enemy. Later that day, in the words of the citation for   the award of Timothy’s first MC, “he went forward alone under intense fire   and captured an enemy machine-gun post single-handed.” He killed six gunners   and brought back two machine guns.

Timothy missed the Sicily campaign because of ill health, but by October 1943   he had recovered and was dropped into Italy in Operation Simcol, a   search-and-rescue mission for escaped Allied PoWs in the Pescara/Ancona area   following the Italian Armistice. It was a hazardous undertaking: British   paratroopers on similar missions had been executed by the Germans and there   was the added risk of being shot as a spy by the Italians.

In one operation, Timothy found two escaped PoWs with a band of partisans. The   Italians, armed with rifles and revolvers, were upset that he was trying to   remove their best recruits. Later that day they were joined by about 50 more   partisans who arrived, Timothy said later, with the apparent intention of   shooting him. They mounted guard over him during the night, but he employed   the time making free use of General Montgomery’s name, and the next morning   he was released.

 

After three weeks behind enemy lines, he and a large group of rescued Allied   servicemen were taken off by the Royal Navy. He was awarded a Bar to his MC.

In September 1944 Timothy, in command of “R” Company 1 Para, took part in   Operation Market Garden. On September 17 he was ordered to attack infantry   positions at Wolfheze. The Germans were supported by four tanks but, under   cover of smoke from his mortars, he launched a skilful attack that drove   back a greatly superior force and secured an important crossroads. He then   beat off a determined counter-attack by infantry and armour and held his   ground until ordered to withdraw. His casualties amounted to half his   company.

Two days later, at Arnhem, he led a bayonet charge with the six remaining men   of his company. His dash resulted in the capture of entrenched positions,   and his tiny force got within 1,000 yards of the road bridge before having   to seek shelter in a house. Eventually they were overrun by the Germans and   taken prisoner. Timothy was awarded his third Military Cross.

John Timothy was born in Tunbridge Wells on July 5 1914 and educated at the   Skinners’ School. He was an assistant store manager at Marks & Spencer when   he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in 1940. After being commissioned into   the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, he joined the newly-formed Paras   the following year.

On February 27 1942 he took part in a night attack by a company of the 2nd   Battalion (2 Para) on Bruneval, the site of a German radar station 12 miles   north of Le Havre, with the objective of dismantling the unit so that the   technology could be examined. Timothy was in Rodney section, a force of   about 40 men.

After landing in several inches of snow, the main party attacked the radar   station with complete success, and Timothy’s section was involved in several   heavy skirmishes as it mopped up pockets of German resistance. Problems with   their radio communications meant that they had to employ runners and were   out of contact with the Navy. After waiting for an hour in the biting cold,   firing Very lights to attract attention, they were taken off by assault   landing craft and transferred to fast gunboats. They came under fire from   the Germans but got back safely to Portsmouth.

That summer he was posted to Ringway aerodrome, Manchester, to practise   experimental jumping. This involved dropping not in single numbers but in   “sticks” of eight from a Wellington. Timothy was the last of the stick to   jump and was caught around the ankle by the static line of the man before   him. By the time he managed to grab the line he was hanging suspended   alongside the tail of the aircraft.

He was able to take the pressure off his ankle and to let go — but because of   the momentary delay, he found himself heading for a lake. The parachute   caught the top of a tree on the edge of the water; the air from the canopy   was spilt, and he came down hard on his back — very relieved to have   suffered nothing worse than an injured hand.

A PoW from September 1944, Timothy was moved to various camps before arriving   at Oflag VIIB at Eichstätt, Bavaria, in January 1945. As the Russians closed   in, they were marched westwards. On the way Timothy made his escape with a   fellow Parachute officer, Major Ronnie Stark. With help from foreign farm   workers, they lived off the land and eventually joined up with the American   forces.

At the end of the war Timothy returned to civilian life. He acted as military   adviser for a film called School for Secrets, produced and directed by Peter   Ustinov. He then went back to Marks & Spencer, with which he remained for   the rest of his working career.

As a younger man John Timothy was a keen cricketer and rugby player. Settled   in south Devon, he enjoyed touring and hiking in the British Isles. He   published privately, for the regimental archives, Tim’s Tale, an account of   his wartime experiences.

He was unmarried.

Major John Timothy, born July 5 1914, died October 24 2011

It is with regret to announce the death of Ex- President of the South Devon PRA Capt Alan Jefferson, a true Airborne Warrior. He jumped into Normandy at 0050hrs on D day, to attack the Merville Gun Battery, was involved in the Battle of the Bulge, he also bounced the Rhine in "OP Varsity", before he finished up in Palestine. He then went to the TA with 10 Para, seen it all, did it all, well worth a mention. On top of all that, he was a "Mortar Man" through and through.

This came from the AAC web site, and sent to me by Anglo, so I hope they dont mind me putting it on our site. The purpose being purely to pay respect to an Airborne Hero

Author Tim C,
I was lucky enough to meet Peter many years ago at Pegasus Bridge and had a few beers and a few stories from him, a great bloke and a true legend. He will be sorely missed. RIP.

Peter Boyle: glider pilot who helped capture Pegasus bridge on D-Day
When it was suggested in December 1940 that army NCOs should be trained to fly gliders, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff declared: “The idea that semi-skilled personnel be entrusted with piloting these troop carriers is fantastic. Their operation is equivalent to force-landing the largest-sized aircraft without engine aid. There is no higher test of piloting skill.”

Troop and equipment carrying gliders were urgently required to deliver infantry and supporting arms in a more concentrated manner than could be achieved by parachute. The first large-scale glider-borne operation was undertaken during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Mistakes were made and many lives lost. Better preparations were essential for the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Peter Boyle was one of the 12 glider pilots selected to fly the six Horsa gliders, towed towards their landing point by four-engined Halifax bombers, for the coup-de-main capture of the “Pegasus” bridge over the Caen canal and the Ranville bridge over the River Orne in the first hour of D-Day, June 6, 1944. The difficulties of this operation and intensive training of the pilots led the Commander of Allied Air Forces for the invasion of Normandy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, to describe it as “the airmanship feat of the war”.

Only eight of the 12 pilots and co-pilots involved in this hazardous operation received a British or French decoration. In Boyle’s case, this omission was corrected over half a century later when the French Government awarded him the Légion d’Honneur.

Two bridges spanned the Caen canal and River Orne on the eastern flank of the Allied Normandy beachhead. It was judged essential for them to be captured before the beach landings began, to prevent German armoured units, known to be based east of the waterways, crossing and attacking the sea-landing formations in the flank. Subsequently, the bridges would be needed for the resupply of the 6th Airborne Division, dropped or air-landed beyond them.

It seemed virtually certain that the German troops responsible for holding the bridges would have prepared them for demolition. To avoid them being blown before the glider-borne troops could take them, it was decided the gliders must make rapid descents from high altitude (6,000 feet) to achieve surprise. This required the three gliders assigned to the Caen canal bridge to make two tight, right-angled turns in the space of three minutes from cast-off from their towing Halifaxes in order to slip quietly down by the bridge.

Boyle was co-pilot and navigator to his friend Geoff Barkway (obituary June 20, 2006) with whom he had trained intensively for this operation for six weeks, including ten night landings under equally exacting conditions. Just as their Number 3 glider for the canal bridge struck light cloud two minutes and 15 seconds after cast off, Boyle identified the bridge below and to the right. The right-angled turns made, the glider approached the bridge at between 90 and 100 mph, instead of the usual 65mph for landing, due to the extra weight of a folding boat for crossing the canal if the bridge was found to be blown. Possibly due to a sideslip, the glider landed at an angle, ripped across the ground and came to a shuddering halt in the gap between the first two gliders and at the edge of a pond, into which Barkway was thrown through the smashed cockpit.

 Boyle was slightly concussed by the final shock but Barkway, having crawled out of the pond, freed him from his harness and pulled him clear of the cockpit. Then, as Major John Howard’s company of 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry streamed out of the gliders to take the bridge, the two pilots adopted their “total soldier” role for which they were trained, preparing to fight as infantrymen. Barkway was shot in the right arm and evacuated shortly afterwards.

 Boyle returned to the glider to collect some equipment and took part in the operation to clear the enemy from the far bank. He spent that night with the small force garrisoning the bridge and, in accordance with the policy of returning glider pilots to England at the first opportunity, sailed from the beach in a tank landing craft on D+1. This was his first active service of the war.

The next three months were spent in practice flying from Brize Norton before moving to Manston airfield in preparation for Operation “Market Garden”, the airborne assault to take the bridges culminating with the rail and road bridges over the Rhine at Arnhem, in September. The aim was to open a route for Montgomery’s 21st Army Group round the north of the German Ruhr and end the war by Christmas 1944. Strategically, this was not a “bridge too far”, as the whole operation would have been pointless without inclusion of the Arnhem bridges, but the enemy was there in greater strength than expected and neither bridge was captured.

Boyle flew as first pilot of a Horsa glider for Market Garden but, in company with other glider pilots who fought at Arnhem as infantry after landing, he was taken prisoner when the remnants of the 1st Airborne Division were forced to withdraw across the Rhine. He spent seven months in Stalag IVB at Mühlberg on the upper Elbe, from where he was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.

On demobilisation, he joined ICI Pharmaceuticals as a publicity assistant but left to join the RAF in 1951. He served as a pilot until 1954 when he joined Glaxo’s New Zealand company. He remained in New Zealand after transfer to WD & HO Wills as advertising manager, returning to England to join the board of Lindsey & Kesteven Fertilisers in 1965.

He married Aileen Mitchell in 1945. She survives him with a daughter.

Peter Boyle, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, wartime glider pilot, was born on September 9,1923. He died on February 5, 2010, aged 86

R.I.P.

Many may have heard about the Cyprus emergency and the Eoka trouble but do we all know the toll in lives. Not all died in combat and not all were service personell but never the less they died in the service of our country. Not long ago a number of Ex Para's visted Waynes Keep where a new monument to the dead was unveiled in their homour and if you ever take a trip there it is worth a visit. Below is an article sent in by Jim Pidgeon and hopefully will be of interest to us all.

This research was carried out by Jim Pidgeon ex 1 Para and a Reunion Club memberwho served in Cyprus during the emergency. All military casualties are buried in the Military Cemetery, Wayne's Keep Nicosia. Civilian casualties are buried in the British Cemetery Kyriacos Matsis St Nicosia. 3 servicemen's bodies were repatriated to UK.  2 MMs & 1 MinD were awarded. In the "Causes not known" section I was unable to trace records. It is believed most casualties were from road mines.
On 17 June 1956 a forrest fire on the Troodos mountains trapped troops engaged in terrorist search and anti ambush patrols, over 20 casualties are recorded.

Fatal Casualties The death toll during the emergency was 461 British soldiers and civilians. The civilian casualties included, service wives, civilian employees, school teachers and service children from Road Mines, gun shot, Grenade attacks, Friendly Fire, and of course the Troodos Fire Accident 17 June 1956, Cause  Not Known

Totals. Approximate Numbers

  Copyright of Jim Pidgeon 10.12.2009

Thanks for the input Jim and I hope this will inspire others to share their input whatever it is to be included on the site. Click on the link to send it to the webmaster.

In February 1945 Fletcher, then a lieutenant, was in action in the Arakan with the 82nd West African Division Recce Regiment (82 WARR). On February 27, it was detailed to capture a village at the junction of two tidal creeks.

During the engagement the soldiers came under heavy rifle and machinegun fire from a Japanese bunker position on a hilltop overlooking the village. One Bren gunner was killed and an officer and several other men were wounded.

Fletcher, who was acting second-in-command, ran forward through the enemy fire without regard for his own safety and carried back one of the wounded African men. He then brought in a second casualty but when he tried to rescue a third, the fire was so intense that he had to be ordered to take cover. The citation for his MC stated that his courage and leadership had been beyond praise.

Donald Murray Fletcher was born at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on August 18 1922 and was brought up above his father's high street fruit and vegetable shop. He was educated at Newport Grammar School where he became head boy.

Donald once found himself in front of the headmaster for an escapade in which he climbed out of the school train while it was passing through a tunnel. He moved along the running-board and entered the next carriage. This was occupied by the school caretaker, who promptly fainted.

Fletcher went up to King's College London to read Geography and Geology, returning there after the war to take his degree. In 1943, he was commissioned into the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and posted to West Africa to train Nigerian troops.

After serving with 82 WARR in Burma, he volunteered for service with Airborne Forces and finished the war with the Parachute Regiment in the Indian Airborne Division.

Fletcher returned in 1948 to the Isle of Wight where he farmed in partnership with his two elder brothers. On one occasion, he came across a group of men in one of his cornfields and asked them to leave.

The ringleader challenged him to a fight, and lost. It seems likely the men then discovered that Fletcher commanded a company of the 14th (Royal Hants) Battalion The Parachute Regiment for, the next week, the whole group turned up at the TA drill hall asking to sign on as paratroops.

After the compulsory purchase of a large acreage for development, the farm was no longer viable and, in 1953, Fletcher rejoined the regular Army and took a commission in the Manchester Regiment. He was posted to Malaya during the insurgency and, after transferring to the Parachute Regiment, commanded a company of 1 PARA in Cyprus during the EOKA campaign.

He went ashore by landing craft during the Suez crisis, then moved to 13th Yorks and Lancs Bn The Parachute Regiment as training major. Command of 16 Independent Company The Parachute Regiment (Pathfinders) was followed by promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1963.

Fletcher then took take command of the Brunei Malay Regiment in the aftermath of the 1963 Brunei Revolt. This was a difficult period which involved rebuilding the regiment throughout the British "confrontation" with Indonesia.

During his command, he saw its transformation to an All Arms Force, with its own helicopters, fast patrol boats and hovercraft. On completion of this tour he was appointed OBE. After a short spell in the MoD, he was promoted colonel and posted to Bahrain as Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of British Forces in the Persian Gulf.

In 1970, Fletcher attended the Nato Defence College in Rome and then took up a staff post in Shape. Promoted to brigadier in 1974, he was posted to South Korea where he served as defence attaché. His geological expertise proved highly useful following the discovery of booby-trapped tunnels under the Demilitarised Zone between South and North.

Fletcher retired from the Army in 1977 and returned to the Isle of Wight where he worked as an estate agent and a consultant to a mainland engineering firm. As a young man, he was the Southern Counties sprint champion. He had a football trial for Portsmouth, played county rugby and turned out regularly for the Trojans in Southampton.

On finally retiring, he devoted his time to boating, fishing, shooting, painting and travelling.

Donald Fletcher died on January 9. He married, in 1946, Heather Sinclair. She pre-deceased him and he is survived by their two sons.

Talking of Villians as we all know there are lots of wannabe's and they are becoming more and more prevelant during our current international commitments. Those who buy, steal or otherwise abuse the uniforms and medals of our Armed Forces some for their own gains, financial or prestigeous.

 The link to try and put a stop to this flagrant misuse of  our Heroes Valourhas now been withdrawn by the International Bodyguards Association for misuse of copyright?

 Please click on the link below and to put an and this heneous crime by bringing in the change needed.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Stolen-honour/