Lance Corporal Charles Rimes

Lance Corporal Charles Rimes enlisted into the Royal Army Service Corps and was attached to the Royal Engineers as a Driver serving with the 9th Field Company.

Conversion to Airborne

Early in 1942 the Company was selected to train as an airborne unit and during the period of transition was stationed at Bulford. By May 1942 they were re-designated as the 9th Field Company R.E. (Airborne) and, on 19 June 1942, became part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade, 1st Airborne Division.

All personnel in the Company were trained as glider-borne troops. Some of the Company’s strength also trained as parachutists at Ringway, Manchester; their drop zone being at Tatton Park, near Knutsford.

Course 14, which ran from 25 May 1942 to 4 June 1942, contained a total intake of 200 men comprising men from both the Parachute and Airlanding Brigades. Forty men from 9 Field Coy attended, 38 qualified as parachutists including Driver Rimes who completed 2 balloon jumps and 5 aircraft descents.

Colleagues from 9 Field Coy on this course included Sappers Fernyhough and Watt who became the first casualties of Arnhem as a result of the Double Hills disaster. Weather conditions on the course were very variable leading to a lot of waiting about for suitable jump conditions; there were numerous injuries and also a fatality on the course.

Twenty volunteers from the Company were amongst the forty-one who died during the ill-fated, glider-borne Operation Freshman on 19 November 1942 to destroy a heavy water plant in Norway.

Sicily and Italy

On 16 April 1943 the Company sailed from Gourock, on the River Clyde, in the liner Boissevain bound for North Africa.

On 9/10 July 1943, the Company, as part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade, was engaged in Operation Ladbroke, the first of two hazardous glider landings in Sicily. Some men from the 9th assisted in the capture of the Ponte Grande bridge near Syracuse and others in the Company dealt with coastal defences which could be an impediment to the main invasion force.

After being relieved by the advance spearhead of the invasion force, on 16 July, they were taken back to Tunisia in Infantry Landing Craft.

On 8 September 1943, the whole Company sailed from Bizerta in the American cruiser U.S.S. Boise for Operation Slapstick, as part of the invasion of mainland Italy, and during the voyage they learned that the Italian forces had capitulated. They landed at the port of Taranto and for the next month they carried out various tasks including repairs to the dock and mine clearance.

The 9th later moved forward with the advancing forces and on occasions small parties operated behind enemy lines cutting railway lines thereby denying the Germans reinforcements and supplies.

A detachment of eight Sappers under Corporal Roy Allen sailed in an Infantry Landing Craft to Salerno where they cleared about 700 mines from the beaches.

Operation Market Garden

The 9th returned to the UK in SS Duchess of Bedford, landing at Liverpool on 12 December 1943 and moved to Lincolnshire. Company H.Q. was in the village of Tattershall and their billets were in the nearby village of Coningsby.

The 9th soon became involved in a series of exercises in preparation for the invasion of Western Europe. In May 1944 the Company moved south to Hurn in Hampshire to prepare the airfield for Operation Overlord (D Day). They extended the runway and carried out other construction work before moving back to Lincolnshire in early June.

A number of planned airborne operations were abandoned before the Company was finally redeployed in Operation Market (the Airborne element of Operation Market Garden) as part of the Divisional assault to seize the Rhine crossings at Arnhem.

Just after 10.00 hours on Sunday 17 September 1944 sixteen glider and tug combinations took off from RAF Keevil for Arnhem including Driver Rimes who served in No 2 Platoon. The Gliders carrying 9 Field Coy personnel landed on Renkum Heath Landing Zone Z just before 14:00 hours.

The Company took heavy casualties during the ensuing 9 days of fighting at Arnhem bridge and the surrounding area. Driver Rimes was one of only 57 men from the Company's establishment of 215 personnel to be evacuated across the Rhine to safety. The remainder were killed or captured.

Further Reading:

Pronk, P, Airborne Engineers: The Shiny 9th (2001), R.N. Sigmond Publishing.