John Waddy (British Army officer)

Officers of the 151st Parachute Battalion in India, 1942. Captain Waddy is stood in the second row, sixth from the left.

On 3 July 1939, Waddy was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry as a second lieutenant[3] and sent to India two months later with the 1st Battalion, then commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Harding. After travelling from Taunton to Scotland he sailed from Britain on the same day that Britain declared war on Germany.[4] He was promoted to acting, then temporary, captain from September 1940,[1] and substantive lieutenant on 3 January 1941.[5] His time in India, however, was mostly spent on exercises with little chance of action. Desperate to leave, Waddy successfully volunteered for a new British parachute battalion when the chance came in August 1941, and in October joined the 151st Parachute Battalion as their intelligence officer.[6] Parachuting was rudimentary in India and training jumps were made from Vickers Valentia biplanes.[7] He qualified for his jump wings on the same day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,[2] although only two months later he was nearly killed in a training jump and spent three days in a coma.[8]

In October 1942 the battalion was sent to North Africa and re-designated 156th Parachute Battalion, where it became the central unit of the new 4th Parachute Brigade, formed in December. Waddy was briefly made adjutant of the battalion,[1] but quickly moved up to the post of the 4th Brigade's intelligence officer. The brigade moved from Egypt to Palestine in February 1943, and to Tunisia in June where it joined the 1st Airborne Division, then commanded by Major General George Hopkinson. Waddy recalled that the introduction of the now-famous maroon beret was particularly unpopular with the 156th Battalion, who had previously worn bush hats.[9] The 4th Brigade did not take part in the Allied invasion of Sicily but on 5 September the whole Division sailed to Taranto in Italy (Operation Slapstick), successfully capturing the port with 156th Battalion and brigade HQ in the vanguard.[2]

The division advanced northwards over the coming weeks, slowly pursuing the 1st German Parachute Division. In one action Waddy found an Italian 179mm Howitzer which he used to disperse Germans gathering to counterattack the 156th Battalion's positions, firing through open sights at a building in the centre of their front.[8] Waddy was promoted to acting major in October and took charge of the 156th Battalion's B Company,[1][2] a month before the 1st Airborne Division was withdrawn and sailed back to the United Kingdom, arriving there in December. On 24 January 1944, he was made a war substantive captain and temporary major.[1]

1st Airborne Division's next deployment was in September 1944 during Operation Market Garden. The Allies planned to use airborne forces to secure key bridges over a number of rivers and canals in the Netherlands, opening a route around the Siegfried Line and into the heart of Germany.[10] 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and 4th Parachute Brigade was detailed to occupy the northern approaches of the city in the event of a counterattack by German forces.[11] The brigade was scheduled to arrive on the second day of the operation, 18 September, using drop zones protected by elements of 1st Airlanding Brigade.[12] In the event, ground mist in England meant that the second lift was delayed by four hours,[13] which spared the Dakota transport aircraft from meeting Luftwaffe fighters over the drop zone.[14] Nevertheless, the aircraft encountered considerable anti-aircraft fire as they approached the drop zone. Waddy later recalled that his aircraft was so near to the ground that he could see the upturned faces of the German gun crews. He observed numerous flak bursts and watched the escorting Hawker Typhoon fighters attacking flak batteries as they approached the DZ.[15] His own aircraft was hit in the tail but the pilot continued to the drop zone where, despite bad yawing, Waddy and his men were able to jump.[15] The paratroopers came under small-arms fire directed at the aircraft's doors as they left the aircraft[16] and parachuted under heavy fire onto Ginkel Heath.[17] Waddy's signaller lost his radio as he jumped behind him; the bulky equipment was hit by a round the moment he jumped out of the Dakota.[18][19]

On the ground, an irate captain, who had expected the men four hours earlier, explained to a shocked Waddy the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground.[17] With 11th Parachute Battalion despatched to Arnhem and 10th Parachute Battalion defending the wounded on the drop zone, only 156th Battalion was free to move.[20] At about 5 pm they moved off along the Utrecht–Arnhem railway and met their glider-borne elements at Wolfheze just before being strafed by a German fighter.[21] Approaching Oosterbeek they encountered German Panzer troops and stopped for the night.[21]

In the morning, fresh orders were issued to lead the 4th Brigade to the left flank of 1st Parachute Brigade. B Company were ordered to provide supporting fire from the flanks of A Company's advance, which they successfully did before returning to battalion HQ and following up the advance.[22] Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard des Voeux ordered Waddy to take B Company through A Company's positions and continue the advance to the high ground, believing that there was not much opposition.[23] In fact A Company had been nearly destroyed,[24] and Waddy passed numerous bodies on his way forward.[21] As the company advanced, they were held up by what Waddy believed was a twin barrelled 20mm flak gun. He led a small group to attack it, but was spotted by a German sniper as they moved forward. A companion was killed instantly and Waddy, without his machine gun, could only fire ineffectively with his pistol. The sniper shot him in the groin and tried to hit him again as he started to crawl away, forcing Waddy to lie doggo for a moment before one of his men, a 6 foot 4 inches (1.93 m) tall Rhodesian soldier, carried him back to Company HQ.[21][25] Faced with a heavy concentration of enemy armour, the attack stalled and was then called off; the battalion had taken such heavy casualties that it was reduced essentially to the size of a single company.[26]

At the Regimental Aid Post, Waddy found that the doctors did not rate his chances particularly highly;[21] the 156 Battalion's war diary even recorded that "B Company commander was fatally wounded".[27] He was taken next to a Field Ambulance post and from there to the Tafelburg hotel in Oosterbeek, now being used as a main dressing station.[21] Here he was operated on in the hotel's billiard room where Major Guy Rigby Jones used the billiard table to perform surgery.[28][29] A day later he was moved to a house opposite as the number of casualties increased. Because the aid stations were in the front lines of the Oosterbeek perimeter, they came under constant fire and he was wounded twice more. A mortar round shell fragment lodged in his left foot, and a later hit caused splinter injuries to his face and shoulder.[28] On another occasion, as the battle seesawed around the aid post, Germans occupied his building. A British sniper shot a German rifleman, prompting a German sergeant to lecture the British about shooting at a Red Cross house.[29] When the house caught fire he was taken outside and driven to a collection point from where German medics took him to Apeldoorn.[21]

Waddy spent the next six weeks in a German hospital in Apeldoorn. Once again the British patients were lectured about firing at the Red Cross after a Spitfire strafed the operating theatre,[21] but overall Waddy was impressed by the kindness of the German staff and guards.[30] He narrowly avoided having his foot amputated when a nurse removed the splinter embedded in it with a pair of forceps,[31] and once he had sufficiently recovered from his wounds he was taken to Stalag VII-A where he remained until the camp was liberated at the end of April 1945.[21]