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Brigadier Gerald William Lathbury
Unit : Headquarters, 1st Parachute Brigade
Army No. : 34834
Awards : Knight Grand Cross, Member of the British Empire, Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Service Cross
Gerald "Legs" Lathbury, formerly of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, commanded the 1st Parachute Brigade, and was Major-General Urquhart's acknowledged deputy. He had a great deal of airborne experience behind him, having first raised the 3rd Battalion in 1941. He did not have the opportunity to lead them in action, however, as shortly before the Battalion departed for North Africa, Lathbury was transferred to a staff post at the Air Directorate of the War Office, a position that made him privy to the latest theories on the use of Airborne Forces. On the 5th November 1943, he was promoted to Brigadier and given the task of forming the 3rd Parachute Brigade, then part of the 1st Airborne Division and consisting of the 7th, 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions. On the 28th April 1943, Lathbury parted company with them and travelled to North Africa to take command of the 1st Parachute Brigade.
On the 13th July 1943, the Brigade was dropped into Sicily with the task of capturing Primosole Bridge. Lathbury was dropped in the wrong place, and he was lucky to escape serious injury as his aircraft had accidentally descended to a height of just 200 feet; but he had the good fortune to land on soft, ploughed soil, which absorbed most of the impact. Much of the Brigade had been scattered on the drop and, although all their objectives were quickly achieved, less than a third of their infantry strength and very little of their heavy equipment was present. To make matters worse, Lathbury had no wireless communications with either his battalions or the relieving grounds forces. During the day following the drop, Lathbury's birthday, he was wounded in the back and both thighs by a grenade as he was attempting to cross the bridge, though his injuries were not severe enough to force him to relinquish command. Due to their limited numbers and the late arrival of the ground forces, German counterattacks forced the 1st Parachute Brigade to abandon Primosole Bridge and concentrate on the high ground to the south. When the 4th Armoured Brigade arrived, their commander ordered a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry to mount a careless frontal assault on the Bridge, in broad daylight, with the inevitable result. During a conference that evening, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, the commander of the 1st Parachute Battalion and a man who was no respecter of rank, bluntly expressed his feelings when the 4th Armoured Brigade commander proposed an identical attack with another of his battalions. Brigadier Lathbury persuaded him to accept Pearson's advice, who skilfully guided the assault battalion across the river during the night and enabled them to secure the Bridge with few losses. Following their return to North Africa, Lieutenant-Colonel Frost assumed temporary command of the Brigade whilst Lathbury was sent away to recover from his injuries, and six weeks later he returned in time to lead the Brigade in Italy.
For his conduct during the Sicily operation, Brigadier Lathbury was awarded the Distinguished Service Order:
This officer organised and led the attack by the 1st Parachute Brigade on a vital river crossing South of Catania in Sicily on the night 13th/14th July 1943. Although dropped by parachute 1.5 miles away, from a height of only 100 feet Brigadier Lathbury reached the objective, took part in its capture and directed the consolidation, during which he was wounded. Later, during a heavy counterattack by German parachutists, he remained at the bridge where he fought alongside his troops and provided an example and inspiration which contributed in no small degree to the success of the operation.
At Arnhem, the 1st Parachute Brigade was charged with the task of capturing three bridges on the first day, and then holding them until the remainder of the Division arrived twenty-four hours later. All in the Brigade were concerned over the large distance from the Drop Zone to the Bridge because it would take them many hours to reach it on foot, by which time the Germans may well have destroyed it. Because the air forces did not wish to fly close to Arnhem, and so risk heavy losses from enemy flak positions, Lathbury was denied the obvious solution of a coup-de-main raid, mounted by one of his battalions or a small force dropped alongside the Bridge. It was scarcely an adequate substitute, but with no sensible alternative, Lathbury requested that the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron be attached to his Brigade to race to the Bridge in their Jeeps, immediately after landing, and hold it until the 2nd and 3rd Battalions arrived some hours later. The Squadron was not designed for such a purpose, but as intelligence reports indicated that opposition would be minimal, there was no reason to suspect that they would have problems. In the interests of speed and as a direct result of these, in fact, false reports, Lathbury decided to avoid congestion by advancing his battalions to Arnhem along three separate routes. Had he known that opposition was to be much heavier than anticipated, then he would have concentrated the Brigade in a much tighter position, making them less vulnerable to attack and more able to deal with whatever confronted them. Lathbury later blamed himself for not ordering the 1st Battalion to follow on behind the 2nd and 3rd Battalions to act as his reserve force. A strategic reserve is one of the basic principles of warfare, however he could not have foreseen what was to happen as there was no reason to believe that the Brigade would encounter such opposition as to make a reserve worthwhile.
Upon landing in Arnhem and hearing that the Reconnaissance Squadron had failed to reach the Bridge, and also that the radios were not working efficiently, Lathbury left his Headquarters, following in the 2nd Battalion's wake, and set out by Jeep to inform each of his Battalion commanders that the Bridge was not taken and that they should press on with all speed. He, together with Major-General Urquhart who, due to the radio blackout, was searching for the Brigadier to tell him that which he already knew, reached the 3rd Battalion shortly before they encountered heavy opposition from Sturmbannführer Krafft's improvised blocking line. After this clash, it was deemed unsafe for either officer to attempt to return to their Headquarters, and as a result both the advancing 1st Parachute Brigade and the 1st Airborne Division would remain leaderless for some time.
The 3rd Battalion made it to the Hartenstein Hotel in Oosterbeek as it was getting dark, and it was here that Lathbury and Urquhart agreed to halt overnight and resume in the morning. The 3rd Battalion were not happy with this order as they felt they could have made good progress during the night. It was, however, the case that "C" Company had been detached from the Battalion to carry out a flanking manoeuvre along the railway line, and that "A" Company were held up by skirmishes in the rear. Desirable as an advance was at this time, it was sensible to call a temporary halt to allow "A" Company to catch up. Quite why, however, the 3rd Battalion did not resume its advance after they caught up, at about 21:00, but instead delayed their move until 04:00 the next morning, is not clear. This delay certainly cost them dearly, as the 9th S.S. Panzer Division was granted time to harden its defences, against which the 3rd Battalion struggled during Monday.
During the early hours, however, the leading "B" Company, with which Lathbury and Urquhart were travelling, had made excellent progress and entered Arnhem. They had, however, advanced so rapidly that they had lost contact with the remainder of the Battalion in the rear, now being held up by snipers and machine-gunners, whilst "B" Company found themselves alone and locked in an awkward stalemate with enemy troops for the remainder of the day. During the afternoon, Urquhart was so concerned at how desperate the situation was becoming that he decided to break-out and return to his Headquarters. Only three men accompanied him through the enemy-infested streets; Brigadier Lathbury Captain Willie Taylor (the Brigade Intelligence Officer), and Lieutenant Cleminson of the 3rd Battalion. As they made ready to leave their house, Lathbury threw a smoke grenade out into the garden and the four men made a dash for it. As he climbed over the garden fence, Lathbury's Sten gun accidentally fired and a bullet narrowly missed Urquhart's right foot. They had not gone much further before they came under fire from a German MG 42 and Lathbury was hit; shot in the leg and his spine chipped by a bullet. The three men dragged him into a nearby house, No.135 Alexanderstraat, where it appeared that he was paralysed. Lathbury urged the General to leave him and continue towards Divisional HQ, which he reluctantly did, whilst the occupants of the house promised to take Lathbury to the St. Elizabeth Hospital as soon as the fighting in the area died down. This they did and so it was that Brigadier Lathbury became a Prisoner of War.
Fortunately, his wounds were not as severe as they appeared and the temporary state of paralysis soon wore off. To better his chances of escape, Lathbury camouflaged his rank and pretended to be a Lance-Corporal. Various other wounded paratroopers found themselves in the same room as Lathbury and they naturally recognised their commander, but none gave his identity away. On the night of Monday 25th September, Lathbury heard the massive bombardment of the German positions by British artillery guns, and this made him believe that the 2nd British Army was preparing to cross the Rhine, whereas in fact it was to cover the 1st Airborne's withdrawal. Nevertheless, Lathbury was sure that if XXX Corps were about to cross, then the prisoners would soon be evacuated eastwards, and so he decided that he had to leave immediately.
As far as daring escapes go, Lathbury's was one of the more straightforward ones as he simply got up and walked out of the Hospital's front door. From here he made his way to the Johannahoeve Farm, bordering LZ-L, and here he met with fellow escapers being sheltered by civilians. The Dutch Underground was soon informed of his presence and they quickly placed him in touch with Major Tatham-Warter and, later, Lieutenant-Colonel Dobie. The three men, Tatham-Warter in particular, did much to organise the several hundred British evaders in the area, and planned to use themselves as a coup-de-main force in the event of the 2nd British Army mounting another attempt to cross the Rhine. In the event this did not happen and so they made preparations to arrange Operation Pegasus; the mass-escape of 1st Airborne personnel back to the Allied lines. Pegasus was launched on the 22nd October, and Lathbury and Tatham-Warter headed to the embarkation area on bicycles, passing as many as two hundred German soldiers on the way. Despite his fears that they would be caught, they were not challenged and so Lathbury made it across the Rhine to the Allied lines, taking with him one hundred and thirty-seven other men. While he had been in the St. Elizabeth Hospital, Lathbury had met his badly wounded colleague, Brigadier Hackett, who gave him a detailed report on the battle, including recommendations for valour awards, and these Lathbury took with him across the Rhine.
After the war, in 1945, Lathbury returned to the Airborne Forces and resumed command of his old unit, the 3rd Parachute Brigade, now a part of the 6th Airborne Division. He commanded them for a year in Palestine, and was later awarded a knighthood and promoted to General. He was also the Colonel Commandant of the Parachute Regiment from 1961-65.
See also: Operation Pegasus: Evasion Report, Maj-Gen Urquhart, Maj Hibbert, Lt Heaps.