Airborne Assault MuseumArticle
Arnhem (Operation Market Garden)
1st Allied Airborne Corps, which included the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, was tasked to secure the main canal...
Captain Ronald Douglas Telfer, son of Cecil Claude and Mabel Grace Telfer, of Mannamead, Devon, was originally given an Emergency Commission to the Middlesex Regiment in October 1940 before transferring to Airborne service, via the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, in May 1942 to join the Glider Pilot Regiment.Serving with G Squadron, 24 Flight he took part in the Battle of Arnhem, during Op Market Garden and managed to escape across the river back to the UK. He was amongst a party of Glider Pilots en-route to India in December 1944.
Captain Telfer died on 5 December 1944, aged 25 years old when Dakota FL588 from 24 Squadron RAF Transport Command, based at RAF Hendon, crashed on a snowy ridge in Ariege, near Mijanes in the Pyrenees, Southern France. 23 Airmen were onboard, 20 of which belonged to the GPR. Fifteen other men onboard died as a result of the crash. He is now buried in the Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles.
Profile supplied by Jenny Thornton
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Service History
- 1940 Middlesex Regiment (Second Lieutenant)
- 1941 Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment (Second Lieutenant)
- 1942 War Substantive, Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment (Lieutenant)
- 1942 Glider Pilot Regiment (Lieutenant)
- 1944 Glider Pilot Regiment (Captain)