Sergeant Maurice Kalikoff

6021874, Sergeant Maurice Kalikoff, Mortar Platoon, Support Company, 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment. As a child during the 1920's, Kalikoff had fled the Ukraine with his parents and sister and came to Britain. The above photo was taken in early 1940, when he was a member of either the Middlesex of Suffolk Regiments. He applied to join the Parachute Regiment and served with them in North Africa (with the 3rd Battalion), Sicily and Italy. He was a strict disciplinarian yet remained very popular with his men. James Sims wrote of him "Just before Arnhem, Maurice had a bee in his bonnet about us achieving a quick exit and a tight stick, so he had us hobbling through a nissen hut with a kit bag on our leg and with full equipment. As this was early September, it was very hot and uncomfortable and we moaned a bit, but Maurice was determined we would get it right. Came the 17th Sept. 1944 and I had just landed by parachute and was gathering myself together to make for 2 Para yellow flare rallying point, when I met Maurice obviously searching for something. It turned out that his kit bag had broken free and he could not find it. I found this very amusing but he didn't. That was the last I saw of him although we were never more than about 50 yards from each other [at the Bridge]." Kalikoff commanded the Battalion's mortars sited on "grassy" island at Eusebius Square. On Wednesday 20th September, when they ran out of ammunition, Kalikoff and two of his men ran for the safety of a house but Kalikoff was hit and wounded. He was taken prisoner but died of his wounds on the 27th October 1944, aged 28. He is buried at the Rheinberg Cemetery in Germany.