The following photographs are from the collection of 14359382 John Dinwoodie Carter, who served in the Signals Section of Headquarters, 3rd Parachute Brigade. Born in Hove on the 23rd July 1922 to Raymond and Gertrude (nee Dinwoodie), he attended Dover College and was a member of the Haslemere Home Guard during the early years of the Second World War. Having joined the Royal Corps of Signals, he dropped with the 3rd Parachute Brigade in Normandy on the 6th June 1944, and was the only qualified Instrument Mechanic to accompany them. He landed on the eastern side of the Bois de Bavent and is said to have become involved with the destruction of one of the River Dives bridges before making his way to Brigade Headquarters. Later in the campaign, he had been playing chess with a friend in a dug-out when he was ordered to take a motorbike to the Pegasus Bridge area to carry out a repair; on his return he found that a shell had landed in the trench and killed his friend. He took part in the Ardennes campaign and the Rhine Crossing, where a close friend was killed during the drop when a bullet hit one of his grenades, and finally served in Palestine before being demobbed.

General

Germany

Wismar

Palestine