Lance Corporal J Ronald Worthington

Ron Worthington enlisted into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and subsequently volunteered for the Parachute Regiment.

He commenced his parachute training on New Year’s Day 1945 in an intake comprising of 17 officers and 374 other ranks - most of these, including Ron, were reinforcements for the battalions.

Eight descents were made in the following sequence after five days of ground training  :

2 descents from a balloon at 700 feet 2 descents from a Dakota in sticks of 4 at 800 feet. 1 descent from a Dakota in sticks of 10 at 700 feet. 1 descent from a Dakota in sticks of 4 with kitbags at 800 feet. 1 descent from a balloon at night at 700 feet. 1 descent from a Dakota in sticks of eight with kitbags at 800 feet.

This was the first basic training course conducted at Ringway where all the aircraft descents were conducted from Dakotas.

Twenty men failed the course including 6 refusals. There were 10 parachuting injuries: 9 foot and ankle injuries including 2 fractured ankles. Five of these were sustained while jumping with kitbags in variable and gusty wind conditions. The ground was mostly frozen hard when they jumped although Ron came through uninjured and the course notes record him as “above average, cheerful and confident”.

On qualifying Ron was posted to the 2nd Battalion. Later in the year he was promoted to Lance Corporal and transferred to the 7th Battalion (LI) serving in 9 Platoon C Company.

In July 1945 Ron moved by troopship to India in preparation for operations against the Japanese in Malaya. The battalion landed at Bombay on 7th August and moved to Kalyan. While resting here he sent a letter, which ended up being heavily censored, to his former officer (Major Ross) in the Warwicks. He then took part in landings in September, as part of Operation Zipper, on Morib beaches to take Port Swettenham on the West Malayan coast. By now the Japanese had surrendered and the men were returned to their ship to assist in the reoccupation and policing of Singapore, where they stayed for nearly 3 months.

Although the Japanese had surrendered the allied forces were severely stretched by the reoccupation of South East Asia. The British & Commonwealth forces occupation of Indonesia was initially seen as a peacetime exercise but they soon found themselves embroiled in an undeclared guerilla war. (There were around 2,300 British and Indian military casualties from this occupation.)  Since September relations with militant Indonesians intent on securing independence had deteriorated and relations with the indigenous Dutch population were mixed. Kidnapping, murder and civil strife had become endemic in West Java and the 5th Parachute Brigade was deployed as part of Operation Pounce to secure civil order in Batavia (Djarkata) in December. The hostilities with the Indonesians were described by Ron in a letter to Major Holt dated Christmas Eve 1945:

“I am in Java and have been here for some time. All that we do are guards and fatigues although recently this Bn went on strike against such things as a white belt and gaitor guard at night with the enemy a few hundred yards away. This morning after we had arrived here we had a bullshit kit layout and a one hours drill parade under the RSM while plainly in view to everyone and only 200 yards away the Indonesians were digging in, in preparation for an attack which developed  two nights later. Altogether the camp has been attacked 3 times with light casualties to us & an estimated number of enemy casualties 3 times greater than ours although it’s impossible to tell because they take their killed and wounded away. Yesterday we cleared a village about 300 yards from camp of the Indonesians. They had been giving us a spot of trouble - we only had 3 casualties, 1 rather badly wounded and 2 just scratched. The camp is about 2 miles outside Batavia, the camp is dull, no entertainment or canteens of any description. But the town makes up for it: there is a pictures, cafes and a YMCA. We take our arms with us wherever we go, even to the latrines.”

Ron left Batavia on the 27 December 1945 and arrived in Semarang on 2 January 1946 as part of No 5 Parachute Brigade Group with an establishment of around 4,000 troops. The Brigade Group included a Japanese Battalion (Kido Butai) which had been co-opted owing to the shortage of allied troops, to the concern of some of the British soldiers. For the first few weeks in Semarang the Battalion formed part of the Brigade’s Reserve strength. Ron was then detailed to go out on a fighting patrol of Company strength which lasted for 5 weeks, returning back to Semarang towards the end of March:

“After we had settled down this patrol was organised to go to Surabaya, well after a bit of a scrap there we pushed onto Buitenzorg & then to Bandoeng where we had a real good duffy, we had a few killed, including 3 B’ham chaps – one my best pal; I think we came off best however, because we got 29 Japs and about 130 Indonesians & bags of loot. The Dutch were glad to see us but treated us with the ‘the cold shoulder’ so I think they did not actually like us.”

In April the Brigade handed over control to the Dutch Army and Ron sailed back to Singapore to a rest camp. It is believed that he went on to serve in Palestine and was then discharged back to civilian life.