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Captain Basil Anthony Bethune Taylor
Unit : No.2 Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment
Army No. : 74523
Awards : Silver Star
Captain Taylor was the Battery Captain of No.2 Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment. On the 21st September, casualties resulting from a heavy tank attack led to Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Leitch taking command of "B" Troop. On the 22nd September, Major Norman-Walker, the commander of No.1 Battery, who, after casualties in men and guns, had been merged with the other batteries, was killed, and on the following day Captain Taylor replaced him as commander of No.3 Battery.
Captain Taylor arrived at Headquarters 1 Air Landing Brigade in the Arnhem perimeter on September 21st to relieve his Battery Commander who had been killed. The area where Headquarters was situated was continually subjected to intense mortar and artillery fire. Captain Taylor was responsible for directing the fire of all guns in support of the Brigade and throughout the period carried out his duties with conspicuous success. It was due to his steadfast adherence to duty that the fire of the guns was so accurately and quickly laid on. With units so reduced in numbers and continual attacks on all sides of the front it was largely due to the guns that penetrations in the perimeter were not made, and enemy forming up for attack were dispersed. Throughout the period under review Captain Taylor displayed the greatest courage and determination in directing the fire of his guns, work carried out in the greatest danger and discomfort and fraught with difficulties from a communications point of view.