156th Parachute Battalion (United Kingdom)
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The 156th Parachute Battalion was a
battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...
of the Parachute Regiment raised by the
British Army during the Second World War At the start of 1939, the British Army was, as it traditionally always had been, a small volunteer professional army. At the beginning of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, the British Army was small in comparison with those of its ene ...
. The battalion was formed in 1941 from volunteers serving in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
initially numbered the 151st Parachute Battalion and assigned to the
50th Indian Parachute Brigade The 50th Parachute Brigade is a brigade-sized formation of the Indian Army. Its main force is formed of battalions of the Parachute Regiment. It consists of 2 Airborne battalions, supported by units of the Regiment of Artillery, the Corps of En ...
. It was then decided they were no longer required in India, so the battalion was renumbered the 156th Parachute Battalion and moved to the Middle East to join the 4th Parachute Brigade, 1st Airborne Division. The battalion fought briefly in the
Allied invasion of Italy The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign of World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army ...
in September 1943 and a year later in the
Battle of Arnhem The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch city of Arnhem, the town of Oosterbeek, the villages Wolfheze and Driel and the vicinity f ...
, part of
Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, ...
, where heavy casualties resulted in the disbanding of the battalion, the few surviving men being distributed amongst the battalions of the
1st Parachute Brigade The 1st Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade formed by the British Army during the Second World War. As its name indicates, the unit was the first parachute infantry brigade formation in the British Army. Formed from three parachute ...
.


Formation

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the
Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wor ...
, the
British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...
,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, directed the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
to investigate the possibility of creating a
corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...
of 5,000 parachute troops. On 22 June 1940,
No. 2 Commando No. 2 Commando was a battalion-sized British Commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The first No.2 Commando was formed on 22 June 1940 for a parachuting role at Cambrai Barracks, Perham Down, near Tidworth, Hants. The unit ...
was turned over to parachute duties and on 21 November, re-designated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, with a parachute and glider wing. The battalion was raised in October 1941 from volunteers from all of the 27 British infantry battalions in
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and originally numbered the 151st Parachute Battalion, part of the
50th Indian Parachute Brigade The 50th Parachute Brigade is a brigade-sized formation of the Indian Army. Its main force is formed of battalions of the Parachute Regiment. It consists of 2 Airborne battalions, supported by units of the Regiment of Artillery, the Corps of En ...
. However it was decided in October 1942, that the brigade would only have Indian or Gurkha battalions and the 151st was released and sent to the Middle East. The battalion was redesignated 156th Parachute Battalion for no other reason than to confuse German intelligence. Arriving in the Middle East, the battalion together with the
10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The re ...
and the
11th 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first atteste ...
parachute battalions formed the 4th Parachute Brigade, 1st Airborne Division. In 1942 a parachute battalion had an establishment of 556 men in three
companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
(three
platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...
s each) supported by a 3 inch mortar and a
Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and o ...
platoon. By 1944 a support company to command the battalions heavy weapons was added. It comprised three platoons: Mortar Platoon with eight mortars, Machine Gun Platoon with four Vickers machine guns and an Anti-tank Platoon with ten PIAT anti-tank projectors.Guard, p.37


Operations

The 156th Parachute Battalion's first combat experience was during Operation Slapstick in Italy. The operation was carried out by the 1st Airborne Divisions,
2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit, ...
and 4th Parachute Brigades. The battalion sailed from
Bizerta Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...
on 8 September 1943. The landings at Taranto were unopposed, the Italians surrendering the night before. The 156th Battalion and the 10th Parachute Battalion together captured the town and airfield of Gioia, and in November 1943 the battalion was withdrawn to England.


Arnhem

The 156th Parachute Battalion and the rest of the 4th Parachute Brigade landed to the west of Arnhem on the second day of the battle 18 September 1944. Their objective was to hold a position on the high ground north of Arnhem at Koepel. With the 156th Parachute Battalion leading on the right followed by the 10th Battalion on the left. By dawn the following day the battalion was just north of the Utrecht to Arnhem railway line. When they came under attack from German 88 mm guns. Both battalions were ordered to start an assault on the position at 07:00. After repeated attacks the battalion got no further forward. The defenders from the
9th SS Panzer Division The 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" (german: 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen") was a Waffen-SS armoured division of Nazi Germany during World War II. It participated in battles on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The division was ...
had been here for two days and were well dug in.Peters, p.173 The German position included infantry, self propelled guns and armoured cars. The battalion fought all day in the woods but its losses were very heavy, with 'A' Company losing all of its officers. Finally brigade headquarters obtained permission to withdraw south of the rail line into
Oosterbeek Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about west of Arnhem. The oldest part of Oosterbeek is the Benedendorp (Lower Village), on the northern bank ...
. The battalion started to pull back over the rail line but in the confusion of the withdrawal no orders had been given about where they were to go once south of the rail line. Most of 'B' and 'Support' Companies headed towards
Wolfheze Wolfheze is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality of Renkum, 10 km northwest of the city of Arnhem.''ANWB Topografische Atlas Nederland'', Topografische Dienst and ANWB, 2005. History Stone Age-Midd ...
while the rest of the battalion headed towards Oosterbeek, the two parts of the battalion were never reunited. The units in Wolfheze and the remnants of the 10th Parachute Battalion now prepared to defend the village. Casualties had continued to mount including the
commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...
Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
Richard des Voeux and the second in command who were both killed on 20 September. The battalion was now under command of Major Geoffrey Powell The German tactics were to bombard the British positions with tank and mortar fire.Peters, pp.204–206 The remnants of the battalion were withdrawn into the perimeter formed by the division around Oosterbeek.Peters, p.207 By 21 September pressure from the German attacks had squeezed the perimeter to less than across. On 22 September the bulk of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade were dropped south of the river. This drew off some of the Germans from around the divisional perimeter to confront the new threat. The defenders now had to cope with over 100 German artillery guns firing onto their positions. By 23 September the battalions position was subjected to constant mortar and artillery fire and incursions by tanks and infantry were becoming more and more frequent. Casualties forced a contraction of the perimeter but first the Germans had to be evicted from the houses behind them which they were to occupy. On 24 September the decision was made by
Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...
Horrocks commander XXX Corps to withdraw what was left of the division south of the Rhine. The remnants of the battalion were evacuated over the night of 25/26 September. During the battle of Arnhem the battalion's casualties were, 98 dead, 68 were evacuated and 313 became
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
. The casualties sustained were never replaced and the battalion was disbanded after the battle.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * {{British parachute units of the Second World War British Parachute Regiment Battalions Airborne units and formations of the United Kingdom 1941 establishments in the United Kingdom 1944 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944