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Private Arthur Hughes
Unit : 1st Independent Parachute Platoon
Army No. : 10699958
Arthur Hughes enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps on the 30th April 1942. During the following year he volunteered for the Airborne Forces, and attended parachute course No.78 at RAF Ringway from the 14th to 24th August 1943; his instructor simply said of him "Courageous and sound." Hughes was then sent to the Holding Wing before being posted as a reinforcement to the 1st Airborne Division in North Africa, where he joined the pathfinders of No.3 Platoon, 21st Independent Parachute Company. With them he took part in the seaborne landings at Taranto, Italy, in September 1943.
In November 1943, the 1st Airborne Division was recalled to the UK, but the 2nd Parachute Brigade remained behind along with No.3 Platoon, later becoming the 1st Independent Parachute Platoon. At 03:34 on the 15th August 1944, the Platoon dropped near Le Muy in Southern France to set up their lights and beacons on DZ-O for the parachute element of the 2nd Parachute Brigade; Hughes was the 13th man in the stick to jump from aircraft No.3. The Platoon were dropped very accurately and had no difficulty in setting up their equipment in time; the first wave of aircraft dropped their troops on target, but an electrical failure in the lead aircraft of the second wave meant that the beacons could not be detected and so the larger part of the 5th Parachute Battalion and a company of the 4th were scattered 10 miles to the North-East.
Having returned to Italy with the Platoon, Hughes took part in the Brigade's operations in Greece in 1944 and 1945. He was demobbed on the 26th April 1946, and settled in the Liverpool area. Arthur Hughes died on the 27th December 2018, aged 97.
Thanks to Bob Hilton for this account.