Private. Douglas Robert S. Felton served with 8th (Midlands) Parachute Battalion.

Douglas Felton enlisted in 1944, and after completing his training volunteered for Airborne Forces.

He was posted to Hardwick Hall on the 10 January 1945. [1]

He did Parachute Course B153 at RAF. Ringway, 10 – 26 February 1945. His Parachute Instructors comments: ‘Good performer. Confident, reliable worker’. [2]

Note: On his parachute course he is listed as Pte. Fennell, which is how his friend ‘Danny’ Mason remembers him being called. This is his explanation of the situation when talking to Adrian Davies, many years later: ‘Danny couldn’t remember the name for sure when we first spoke about him. He remembered the gent as Paddy, as he was from Southern Ireland and story goes that he had been in the Irish Army deserted to join The Parachute Regiment. He went back home after passing his course, got arrested in civvies by Military Police, then jumped the train and got back in time to go on ‘Varsity’. It had passed my mind that as he was Irish he could have served under an assumed name’. [3]

Upon completion of his parachute course he was posted to the 8th Parachute Battalion, which was part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. He was allocated to ‘A’ Company.

Douglas took part in Operation ‘Varsity’ on the 24 March 1945. Taking off from RAF. Chipping Ongar aboard a Dakota aircraft of the 61st Troop Carrier Group, USAAF., he jumped onto DZ. ‘A’, near Hamminkeln and the Diersfordter Woods, on the east side of the Rhine River, in Germany.

He then took part in the advance across Germany, which ended for the 8th Parachute Battalion at Wendorf and Hoben on the Baltic.

Later he was posted to the 1st Parachute Battalion.

He was granted an ‘A’ Class Release on the 15 November 1947. [1]

NOTES:

[1] The Parachute Regiment, Transfer and Enlistment Book 24, page 01.

[2] Parachute Course Report, RAF Ringway. February 1945.

[3] From Adrian Davies. 30 March 2026.