The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War



This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.


If you enjoy this site

please consider making a donation.




    Site Home

    WW2 Home

    Add Stories

    WW2 Search

    Library

    Help & FAQs


 WW2 Features

    Airfields

    Allied Army

    Allied Air Forces

    Allied Navy

    Axis Forces

    Home Front

    Battles

    Prisoners of War

    Allied Ships

    Women at War

    Those Who Served

    Day-by-Day

    Library

    The Great War

 Submissions

    Add Stories

    Time Capsule

    TWMP on Facebook



    Childrens Bookshop

 FAQ's

    Help & FAQs

    Glossary

    Volunteering

    Contact us

    News

    Bookshop

    About


Advertisements











World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

208404

CSM. John May

British Army Royal Signals

from:Wishaw.

D-Day Jump - Wishaw Paratrooper's Thrilling Story

The following letter has been received by his sister, Margaret, from Sergt. John May, of an airborne division son of the late C.S.M. Thomas May, D.C.M. and Bar, Wishaw, formerly of 3rd Lk. Bn. Of the Home Guard.

Shortly before 1 am on D Day we jumped, dropped, or fell from our aircraft, over the allotted area, with mingled feelings of fear, hope and determination to do the job in the manner we had been taught. A terrific hail of A.A. and small-arms fire met us as we floated to earth. It was like Blackpool illuminations, whilst overhead roared scores more planes, dropping their troops all over the pre-arranged zones.

I landed rather awkwardly in a small garden set out like a plantation, and badly twisted my ankle. Whilst struggling to get out of my parachute harness, I heard a voice call out “O.K. Tommy,” with a pronounced foreign accent. I immediately challenged him and received no reply. Having had some previous experience of Jerry’s tricks in N. Africa, I immediately threw a grenade in the direction of the voice, and ran after it as best I could. I found my man to be a French civilian wearing an armband of some kind, and he alleged to be a member of the Resistance movement. Not feeling like trusting him very much, I questioned him closely in French (Vive La Wishaw High School), and discovered I was in the back garden of a German H.Q. I then decided that it was time to put a move on, and as he and I climbed over the wall a machine-gun opened fire on us. Fortunately, we got over the wall O.K., but in doing so I finished my other ankle as well and could only hobble along.

En route to my rendez-vous, I collected several members of another infantry battalion (still paratroopers), and we were attacked by German troops. Six of my fellows were wounded, but we shot two Jerries and captured their machine-guns, and continued on our way.

Then the glider borne troops began to come in and we had a ringside seat at the most amazing spectacle I have ever seen. A.A. was filling the sky and the gliders just floated through it. Several were hit, but very few were actually shot down out of the scores and scores that came in. No film ever made could depict such a scene.

My next adventure was the capture of a chateau, in company with two officers and two men. The place was very quiet, but we didn’t take any chances, believe me it, and it was just as well. We finished up with four prisoners, one a Frenchman in German uniform. The days following, and the general performance of all the airborne units have, I believe, been pretty well reported already, so I won’t go into any more detail about it, but all I can say is that the organisation of this party was terrific.

Having been previously in France and North Africa, I can definitely state that as far as I am concerned, with the exception of Dunkirk, itself, they were sideshows compared to this. Nevertheless, everyone here is full of confidence that we cannot fail, and we will not fail to carry out any task allotted to us. I fully expect that German propaganda will be at work at home now, but disregard it entirely and trust the BBC - slow, maybe, but none the less true.

This newspaper article is about my mother's sister's husband Uncle John, who went through Dunkirk, D-Day (with 6th Airbourne), Market Garden, and died peacefully at home some 10 years ago.






Related Content:








Can you help us to add to our records?

The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them


Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?

If so please let us know.

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.




Celebrate your own Family History

Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.

Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.














The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.

The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.

If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.



Hosted by:

The Wartime Memories Project Website

is archived for preservation by the British Library





Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved

We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.