Corporal Walter Collings

Walter Collings was born in Liverpool on 15 July 1922. His grandfather owned a poultry and dairy farm, and from the age of 10, Walter was assigned his own flock of poultry which he continued to maintain until joining the Army, having previously been a member of the Home Guard since turning 17.

He volunteered to serve aboard one of the Royal Navy's understaffed Minesweepers for a single week, while he was waiting for his enlistment into The Border Regiment to be processed. Collings was charged with manning a Hoskiss machine gun. German air attacks upon shipping were a frequent occurrence, and though his maritime service was very brief it was considerably action-packed. It was therefore with some relief that he was set ashore at the end of that week. 
  
Collings was assigned to A Company's No 10 Platoon, 1st Battalion The Border Regiment after completing his training and later took part in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Like so many others involved in the 1st Airlanding Brigade's assault, his Waco glider was released from its tug far too early and the craft ditched into the sea. The impact of the landing forced Collings through the roof of the glider, and it was from here that he helped to haul a number of his men out into the open before the lower half of the glider flooded and partially sank. Other men forced their way through different exits, and as they were too far out to swim for shore, which was just as well because Collings could not swim, they clung to the wreckage for the next 10 hours until they were picked up by a British gunboat at 8:00 the next morning.
 
Sicily was not his only experience of a crash landing. Whilst training in Hampshire with Hotspur gliders, the tow rope broke away moments after take off, at the height of only 100 feet, and a heavy landing was made on the airfield which resulted in a few bruises for the passengers. Without being given much chance to gather themselves, they were quickly re-emplaned and towed into the air once more, this time successfully. On another Hotspur flight the tow rope came into contact with a wing, forcing the pilots to immediately cast off. The men believed they were going to die, but in the event a safe landing was made without injury to any personnel, though two hedges were ruined as the glider came to a halt.
 
At Arnhem, Collings had obtained the rank of Corporal and commanded No 1 Section of A Company's 10th Platoon. Of the 16 men under the command of Collings during the battle, 4 were killed (L/Cpl Halliday, Privates Sykes, Stephenson, and Pilling); and 7 were wounded, not including Collings himself: L/Cpl Brett, Privates Andy Hannah, Pool, Looker, J Jones, R Jones, and Seale. The remainder - Privates Jack Crawford, Morfee, Blyton, Clarke, and O'Gorman - were the only ones who were unscathed.

In 1947 Collings married and later had three children. He began a career in horticulture which took him to posts in Lancashire, Cumbria, Surrey, Essex, and to Poole in Dorset where he was head gardener for 25 years at the famous Compton Acres Gardens. Collings retired in 1987, however for many years he still remained employed as a gardener in Poole.

He twice appeared on television in 'All Our Yesterdays', with his escape partner Arthur Green, and later on an edition of 'Surprise Surprise' where he was reunited with Mile (a Yugoslav soldier who had befriended him and helped him return to England), whom he had not seen since they said their goodbyes in Calais.

Walter Collings died on 19 September 2012.