Warrant Officer Class 2 Frederick A Bancroft

Frederick Arthur Bancroft was Regimental Sergeant Major, 11th Parachute Battalion.

Frederick  was born on the 24 January 1916, in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. He enlisted into the Coldstream Guards on the 5 November 1934. [1]

By early 1943 he was a Warrant Officer Class II and he was serving in the Middle East when he volunteered for Airborne Forces .

He was posted to the 11th Parachute Battalion, along with CQMS Hennon, and arrived on the 24 March 1943. [2]

Frederick successfully completed Parachute Course No 32 at Ramat David, along with 59 Officers and Other ranks of the newly forming up battalion, from 8 to 22 April 1943. He completed the five parachute descents from an aircraft to qualify as an Army Parachutist. [3]

Not long after this he was promoted to be the Regimental Sergeant major of the 11th Parachute Battalion.

On the 14 December 1943 the battalion boarded the SS Orion at Port Said to sail back to the United Kingdom. They arrived at the port of Liverpool, after laying over at the port of Augusta, Sicily, for four days, on the 6 January 1944. They immediately boarded a train which went through the night to deliver them to Leicester Railway Station at 2 o’clock in the morning on the 7 January, they were then taken by Company groups to their billets. The Battalion was spread out as follows:

Battalion HQ and HQ-Company - The Lodge Manor House, Great Glen.

‘A’ Company   - Carlton Curlieu Hall.

‘B’ Company   - Kibworth Hall.

‘C’ Company   - Glen Parva Grange

SP-Company  - Wigston Fields.

They were only to remain in these billets for 4 months, as on the 8 May the battalion moved to Welby Lane Camp at Melton Mowbray. This was an old Militia hutted camp, but it would mean the whole battalion being in one place, and they would remain there until the 18 September.

On Monday 18 September 1944, RSM. Bancroft boarded a Dakota aircraft of the 314 Troop Carrier Group, USAAF at Saltby aerodrome and flew to DZ ‘Y’ at Ginkel Heath in Holland as part of the 2nd Lift of Operation ‘Market-Garden’.

Once the battalion had moved to their RV at the south-east corner of the DZ they were informed that the mission had changed from moving to the high ground, on the northern outskirts of Arnhem, and they were to reinforce the 1st parachute Brigade units in their attempts to break through to Arnhem Bridge. The battalion arrived on the western outskirts of Arnhem in the early hours of Tuesday, 19 September, and were tasked to follow-up the attack by the 2nd battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment along the Utrechtseweg and past the railway station to the Bridge area.

This attack failed in the face of very strong German opposition and the survivors of the battalion were driven back towards Oosterbeek. By the 20 September defensive positions had been taken up near the Old Church in Lower Oosterbeek and around the Weverstraat area. The battalion had become split up and small groups were put under command of whoever was available, thus RSM. Bancroft found himself in such a position, with a small group of men, defending a house in this area.

The battalion, along with the remnants of the 1st and 3rd Parachute Battalion’s and the 2nd Battalion, the South Staffs was part of ‘Lonsdale Force’, so name because of the commander major. ‘Dickie’ Lonsdale, the second-in-command of the 11th Parachute Battalion.

The Germans spent from the 20 to the 23 September launching probing attacks, but on the 24 September, they launched a more co-ordinated assault, overrunning many of the defensive out-posts of ‘Lonsdale Force’.

RSM. Bancroft was one of those who was wounded and captured on the 24 September 1944, and  was sent to the Hospital in Apeldoorn:

‘On Tuesday morning 26 September everybody had a drink of tea and CQMS Dave Morris spent most of his time looking for members of 11th Battalion amongst the wounded. He found about half-a-dozen including his Regimental Sergeant Major Fred Bancroft, who was wounded in the shoulder. After a meal of soup at midday they were informed by their guards that they were to get ready to move out.’ [4]

He left Apeldoorn as part of a party of walking wounded on the 3 October 1944, and was transported to Stalag 11B at Fallingbostel in Germany, and given the POW number 118315.

Upon his return to the UK he was given survivors leave and then he was discharged to the Section ‘B’ Reserves on the 8 April 1946, and then to ‘Z’ Class Reserves on the 5 November 1946. [1]

NOTES:

[1] The Parachute Regiment, Transfer & Enlistment Book 10, page 05.

[2] 11th Parachute Battalion. War Diary. March 1943.

[3] Parachute Course Report. Ramat David. April 1943.

[4] Via Gerrit Pijpers.