Letters to the pegasus journal by Bill Collard

Letters from ‘Bill’ Collard, B-Company, 3rd Parachute Battalion to the PEGASUS Journal.

Letter in ‘PEGASUS’. January 1971. Page 2.

I would be interested to hear from any member of 3 Para who took part in a small operation on 2nd October 1943 while the Battalion was in Italy.

The group consisted of ten of us under the command of Lt ‘Jimmy’ James. One Albermarle aircraft was used, taking off from an airfield at Bari and dropping us near the town of Ascoli which was about 150 miles behind the German lines at that time.

Because of the security surrounding the operation at the time it was not discussed openly upon our return, some three weeks later.

I last saw “Jimmy” James on the railway station at Apeldoorn after being picked up by the Germans at Arnhem in 1944. Apart from “Nobby” Clark the other names escape me so any news would be very welcome.

Letter in ‘PEGASUS’. April 1974. Page 33.

Reading,

BERKS.

9th January 1974.

A letter of mine published in the January 1971 issue of Pegasus regarding a small operation in Italy in 1943, resulted in a happy meeting with Howard Impey, ex-“I” Section 3 Para Bn, who was also on the operation.

Howard, known as Bill in his Army days, is now living near Melbourne, Australia, and although he wrote in response to my letter in Pegasus it wasn’t until last month that I was able to get to Australia to actually meet him.

Our last meeting was at Stalag XIB in 1944!

We were able to spend a whole evening talking about the Italian operation and although I have heard nothing from anyone else in the group (there were ten of us) we were able to come up with some names.

It was perhaps coincidental that when the group decided to split up to make our way back to British lines after receiving instructions to return, “Bill” Impey and I paired up to cover the 150 miles back. This didn’t work out however, as a fishing boat was hired and the whole ten of us travelled back together.

I hope to be able to visit again in the not too distant future, and he has asked me if there is any way of obtaining information about any of his war-time colleagues in the 3 Para “I” Section. I am forwarding the enclosed photograph [Intelligence Section, 3rd Parachute Battalion. Spalding. 1944] and the names we know are;

Back Row, L-R: Simmonds, Hooper, ‘Bill’ Chitty, unknown, unknown, Smith, Fenson.

Front Row, L-R: Tony Fall, Education Sgt (name not known), Sgt Smith, Lt “V”, ‘Bill’ Impey, Joe Dixon.

Some are known to have survived Arnhem, but if there are any around who remember ‘Bill’ Impey?