Lance-Corporal Roy Brown
Unit : 1st Parachute Battalion
Army No. : 6344421
Lance-Corporal Brown was taken prisoner on Tuesday 19th September, and having been sheltered by the underground was evacuated across the Rhine on the 22nd October 1944 with Operation Pegasus. The following is his MI9 report:
Name: 6344421 L/Cpl. Brown, Roy.
Unit: 1st Parachute Battalion, 1st Parachute Brigade.
Captured: Arnhem, 20th September 1944.
Escaped: Arnhem, 26th September 1944.
Left: Eindhoven, 24th October 1944.
Arrived: Barkston Heath, 24th October 1944.
Date of Birth: 18th April 1920.
Army Service: Since 2nd September 1939.
Peacetime Profession: Carpenter.
Private Address: 9 The Crescent, Station Road, Sevenoaks, Kent.
1. CAPTURE.
I was dropped with my battalion on 17 Sep at WOLFHEZE (N.W. EUROPE, 1:250,000, Sheet 2A & 3A, E 67), West of ARNHEM.
On 19 Sep I was badly burned and had to lie up for a night just South of ARNHEM. On the following morning I was captured by a German patrol and taken to the Princess Elizabeth Hospital in ARNHEM.
2. ESCAPE.
On about 25 Sep we heard that we were to be moved into GERMANY.
I wanted to escape. After I had asked several people, who were, however, not willing to make the attempt, Sgt. HALL of the 1st Para Bn. agreed to come with me. In the hospital we had met a Dutch Red Cross worker who promised to supply us with civilian clothes. He did so and we walked out of the hospital past the German guards as if we were Red Cross workers.
We were led to a house and from there helped by Dutch civilians and the underground to join a large party of Airborne escapers and evaders which was being assembled.