317 (Airborne) Field Security Section, Int Corps

317 (Airborne) Field Security Section, Intelligence Corps, (317 FSS) was formed on 1 June 1943 to support 6th Airborne Division, using personnel from its counterpart in 1st Airborne Division, 89 Field Security Section.

The section establishment typically consisted of 19 personnel commanded by a Captain or Lieutenant and included a Company Sergeant Major, four Sergeants, 12 Corporals and a batman. 

The duties of an airborne field security section included the gathering of intelligence in the field from informant handling, prisoner interrogation, and exploitation of captured enemy material. They were also required to fight as infantry, for example during Operation Varsity and the Rhine crossing in March 1945.

The section was first deployed for the Normandy landings in June 1944, with the majority of the section deployed by glider. It remained in Normandy for nearly three months until withdrawn back to the UK in mid August.

It also deployed with 6th Airborne Division for the Battle of the Bulge in Christmas 1944, returning to the UK in February 1945 to prepare for the largest airborne operation of World War II, Operation Varsity, a few weeks later.

During the ensuing advance to the Baltic members of 317 FSS were involved in the discovery of the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. By May 1945 317 FSS was in the port of Wismar on the Baltic coast.

317 FSS was then deployed to Palestine with 6th Airborne Division later in 1945 and was disbanded in July 1948.