CSM Robert Edward Grainger
Unit : "D" Company, 10th Parachute Battalion
Army No. : 6395864
Awards : Bronze Star, Mentioned in Despatches
Having been slightly wounded during heavy fighting around DZ-Y, when a bullet struck his ear after passing through his helmet, CSM Grainger found himself in the mental hospital at Wolfheze on Tuesday 19th September. The Germans took over the hospital on the following day, and Grainger and other men being treated here were told by the hospital staff to pretend to be mental patients. Grainger's army boots were quite visible underneath the blanket he wore, but fortunately nobody noticed them. A week later the hospital was evacuated and he and his comrades engaged in bizarre scenes of insanity with the other patients as they were led away. As the column passed through a wood two miles to the north of Wolfheze, the airborne troops amongst the party quickly disappeared into it after thanking those who had risked much to them this far.
Grainger became one of many dozens of airborne troops being hidden by civilians around the Ede area, but his ordeal was not yet over. He was intensely claustrophobic, and so his initial accommodation, which compelled him to spend 18 hours each day lying in a human-sized trench in the ground, covered with a lid topped with earth, did not suit him at all. It was only a chink of daylight and an incredible display of willpower that enabled him to endure it. After four days, however, he was taken away to Berkelaan 16, a cottage next to the German barracks in Ede, which was much more satisfactory.
One day he was walking through the streets of Ede in company with Geraldine Nijhoff, whose mother owned the house, when a group of airborne prisoners were marched by. In frustration, he kicked the wheel of a parked motorbike, which, to the horror of all, promptly fell over. He hastily picked it up while Geraldine apologised to the angry German despatch rider who owned it.
Grainger was approached by Major Tatham-Warter to undertake a reconnaissance mission along the Rhine. In company with Captain Tom Wainwright of the 156th Battalion, he scouted out the route along which the Operation Pegasus evaders, themselves included, would make good their escape on the 22nd October. For this, Grainger was Mentioned in Despatches:
After being wounded in the right ear on 19th September 1944, Grainger was taken to a civilian hospital at Wolfheze. A week later, when this hospital was being evacuated in response to orders issued by the Germans, Grainger and 2 other paratroopers were led out by members of the Dutch Red Cross, who pretended that they were escorting lunatic patients. The three men were taken towards Ede, where they went into the woods. Almost immediately they found shelter and were hidden by various civilians until their journey to Allied lines was arranged.
On 19th and 21st October Grainger accompanied an officer on extensive reconnaissance to find a route for the immediate mass evacuation of Allied service personnel. When this took place on 22nd October Grainger and the officer acted as guides, and it was to a large extent due to their excellent work that sixty men reached safety.
Robert Grainger later retired from the Army at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major.