Albert Roy Palmer was born on the 18 March 1923 and came from Havant, Portsmouth in Hampshire. He became a member of 'C' Troop 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.

Albert Palmer enlisted into The Hampshire Regiment on the 26 May 1940, and then volunteered for Airborne Forces. He passed the selection process and was posted to the, then, 1^st Airlanding Company, Reconnaissance Corps, which at that time was only envisaged as a glider-borne unit.

As a member of ‘C’ Troop he sailed to North Africa in May 1943 and trained there for the invasion of Sicily. He and the rest of the unit did not take part in this operation, but did take part in ‘Operation Slapstick’, the invasion of Southern Italy via Taranto. They were landed from naval cruisers directly onto the dock-side and then proceeded to ‘fan’ out North of Taranto to seek out the enemy. This task lasted for a several weeks and then they were withdrawn back to Bari on the East coast before being sent back to the United Kingdom in December 1943.

Here they trained for many months, initially for the invasion and then for any follow-up operations.

It is probable that he did a parachute course in North Africa in August 1943 and then refresher jumps in the UK in the Spring and Summer of 1944.

By 1944 Lance Corporal Palmer was in Lance Sergeant Christie’s jeep crew and still in 9 Section, ‘C’ Troop, under the overall command of Lieutenant C.B. ‘Sam’ Bowles. He landed in Holland, near a place called Wolfheze on Sunday, 17 September 1944 as part of ‘Operation Market-Garden’.

He was fortunate and avoided death or serious injury in both the ambush on Sunday afternoon, 17 September and the Tuesday afternoon, 19 September 1944.

He managed to get back across the Lower Rhine on the evening of the 25/26 September and made it back to Nijmegen with the remnants of the Recce Squadron. Like most ‘old soldiers’ he didn’t talk about the war very much, but he did tell his Grandson a little: “I do remember Grandad saying about the terrible weather on the night of getting across the river. I’m sure when wounded he had shrapnel in his back that was never taken out.” ^[1]

Note: He is mentioned on pages 50, 89, 98 and 100 of ‘Remember Arnhem’ by John Fairley.

In May 1945, still with ‘C’ Troop, and by now a Lance Sergeant, he went to Norway with the Recce Squadron to help disarm the German garrison there. Again, from his Grandson: “Also he mentioned about being in one of three houses on stilts in the Norwegian Fjords and him and some others taking down the Altmark sign that was there on two posts. He carried on to tell me that a [Norwegian man],  who looked like a school teacher with a bowler hat and glasses, knew where high ranking German officers went into hiding, becoming farmers, etc, after the war, and Grandad went round with others rounding them up.” ^[1]

He was discharged to the Z (T) Reserve on the 27 November 1946.

From his Grandson: “After the war Grandad’s Mum died and his Dad re-married. He worked for his father as a plumber, and also we think with his Dad’s brothers. Then he trained to be fireman where he did 29years service, and then retired. Then he became a Hospital Pharmacy Porter for a few years. He was married to Hilda Marshall with two sons Mick and Tony. I know that on a call out, when a fireman, he fell three storeys down, but was apparently saved due to his large build and got stuck.” ^[1]

'Roy’ Palmer died in December 2016.

NOTES:

[1] From Alan Palmer. 1 July 2025.

From the Portsmouth Evening News, Monday, October 9^th, 1944 and the Hampshire Telegraph & Post. Friday, October 13th, 1944.

HAVANT TROOPER WHO LANDED WITH THE FIRST PARATROOPS AT ARNHEM.

After having been wounded, captured and freed in earlier paratroop exploits, Trooper Roy Palmer, the 22-year-old son of ex-Sapper A.E. Palmer, R.E. of Elm Lane, Havant, has arrived home after adding the memorable thrills of the Arnhem battle to his already adventurous career.

He joined the Hampshire Regt, in June 1941, but volunteered for and was accepted by the Airborne Division. He took part in the early parachute descent upon Bizerta and later Sicily.

After returning to Africa he was taken in the famous cruiser Penelope (Pepper Pot) towards the Italian coast and took part in the paratroop attack on Taranto and Foggia. After a descent upon Phillipville he returned to England where he went into training for special expeditions.

While engaged in the attack upon Catania, where his job was mainly to silence gun emplacements, he was wounded in the back and taken prisoner. “But it was not for long – just a few days – for the Eighth Army came along and released me”, he said.

ENEMY GOT BUSY

Dealing with the Arnhem attack, he stated that when they dropped to earth on the Sunday (the first day of the landings) things seemed very quiet, but during the night the enemy got busy and made it pretty hot for them.

“We had a hard job defending our ground, and were very thankful when the R.A.F. daringly dropped the containers after flying very low. I could see the men in the hatchway of the planes about to drop the containers. On the Tuesday a party of just over 30 of us were ambushed, but at least six of us got through all right. We were mortared and shelled incessantly, but Dakotas and Lancasters [Stirlings] stuck bravely to their task of dropping supplies. I saw one or two of them on fire. The flak was very heavy”.

FOUR OF 12 GOT THROUGH

“After about eight or nine days we got orders to pull out. Twelve of us started to try and get across the river, but were attacked by a machine-gun post in a wood and lost eight of the party. When we got down to the beach the mortar fire was heavy and several boats were rendered useless, but after four hours we managed to get across. We received a hearty welcome from Canadian Engineers when we reached the other side. General Browning made a little speech in which he complimented us on the stand we had made”. Said Trooper Palmer. He seems little the worse for the trying ordeal he underwent.

His fiancée, Miss Hilda Marshall has travelled from Manchester to greet and congratulate him.

Trooper Palmer was employed by Messrs. G. and R. Carrell, of Havant, before the war and is a former pupil of the Church School, Brockhampton Lane.

Researched by Robert 'Bob' Hilton