The Red Beret: The Story of the Parachute Regiment at War, 1940-1945

 

The preface states the following:

 

“THIS is the story of the Parachute Regiment, of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men, drawn from almost every unit of the British Army, who volunteered to reach the field of battle by a novel and unique method. They were the first to wear the Red Beret, and to earn for themselves the name of the 'Red Devils', bestowed upon them in North Africa by an enemy who had good cause to fear their prowess. They were not, however, the only members of the British Army to wear this distinguished headgear. Those who dropped with them belonging to the Royal Engineers, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Corps of Signals, the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps and those who went to battle in gliders also wore it and added lustre to its fame. Their story will, I hope, one day be told, when the facts have been collected and are available. This story which, as I have said, concerns only the Parachute Regiment, does not pretend to be complete, for it does not record every single deed performed by the units and individual members of the regiment. As one of its officers said to me when I was writing it, 'I hope your record will show what sort of people we were'. I have tried to do so, and in this honourable task I have been greatly aided by Lieutenant-General Sir Richard N. Gale, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., M.C., Major-Generals E. E. Down, C.B., C.B.E., G. W. Lath- bury, C.B., D.S.O., M.B.E., R. E. Urquhart, C.B., D.S.O., Brigadiers S. J. L. Hill, D.S.O., M.C., J. H. N. Poett, D.S.O., E. W. C. Flavell, D.S.O., M.C., C. H. V. Pritchard, D.S.O., Colonels J. W. Hackett, D.S.O., M.B.E., M.C., K. T. Darling, D.S.O., O.B.E., Lieutenant- Colonels P. J. Luard, D.S.O., O.B.E., A. S. Pearson, D.S.O., M.C., N. Crookenden, D.S.O., D. R. Hunter, M.C., T. B. H. Otway, D.S.O., J. D. Frost, D.S.O., M.C., Majors E. J. Warren, D.S.O., B. W. Briggs, M.C., J. R. D. Mayne, C. G. Lea, by Captain R. H. Purvis, R.A., who drew the maps, the late Captain J. A. Young, and the late Major R. A. Keene, M.C., and Corporal F. Newhouse who typed much of the material upon which the narrative is based. My thanks in equal measure are due to Group Captain M. A. Newnham O.B.E., D.F.C., for permission to quote from his book, Prelude to Glory. I must also thank His Majesty's Stationery Office for permission to make use of the official publication By Air to Battle of which I am the author, and Sidgwick and Jackson for giving me permission to quote from the Collected Poems of Richard Spender. Finally, I should like to thank my friend Geoffrey Throckmorton, C.B., for his indefatigable labours. HILARY ST. GEORGE SAUNDERS”

 

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