Private William F Small

William Small enlisted into the Royal Armoured Corps on the 26th February 1942.

He was serving in the Middle East when he volunteered for Airborne Forces, and was sent on parachute course No 25 at Ramat David in Palestine. This ran from the 25th February to 6th March 1943. Upon completion he was posted to the Motor Transport Section, Headquarter Company, 156 Parachute Battalion.

He is likely to have served in the Italian campaign, September – December 1943, before returning to England.

On Operation ‘Market’ (Arnhem) he flew in a Horsa glider from R.A.F. Keevil on Monday, 18th September 1944. He, and the others from the 156 Para Battalion glider lift landed successfully on L.Z. ‘X’, except for glider C/N: 964. They linked up with the main part of the battalion coming from D.Z. ‘Y’ and proceeded to attack the German blocking line along the Dreijenseweg on Tuesday, 19th September. Somehow Private Small survived this action and the following ‘siege’ of the Oosterbeek perimeter and managed to withdraw back across the Lower Rhine on the night of the 25th/26th September.

Upon return to England, he and the other survivors were absorbed into the 1st Parachute Battalion.

At some stage he was posted to the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion and sent with that unit to the Far East.

He died of poisoning on the 9th October 1945 – he was 25 years old.

He now lies at rest in the Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore.