282969 Captain William Buchanan GRAY - 1st Airborne Provost Coy at Arnhem: DOW 29/09/1944

Who can help ? Did Captain Gray of the 1st Airborne Division Provost Coy land on the 17th or 18th ? and was this by Parachute or by glider? ( Was he a qualified parachutist? Does someone know his jump course to confirm this? ) I can not find anything about him for the fist few days apart that he was wounded on the 25/26th and died of his wounds in Apeldoorn. There seems to be no further information about him in the booklet The Pegasus Patrol dealing with the Company's history. Thanks in advance

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2644709/william-buchanan-gray/

 

Given that Captain Gray's Paradata entry refers to "The Pegasus Patrol" I'll dig my copy out this evening and double check.

William B Gray | ParaData

Always remember, never forget,

Jim.

EDIT: William B. Gray, Capt. | The Digital Monument | Market Garden

 

"Was he a qualified parachutist?"

Courtesy of Paradata; Wings up in his photo here, so yes.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.





EDIT: Corpsofmilitarypolice.org entry:

CMP Soldier

 

Yo,

Their war diary mentions 1 and 2 sections with the first leaving on the 17th and No. 2 on the 18th. Don't currently know where either left from ... ?

No. 3 was out of Blakehill Farm and perhaps No.4 out of Fairford, both by glider.



Regards ...

 

Arnhem Orbat - Pegasus Archive

1st (Airborne) Divisional Provost Company, CMP
Commander : Captain Bill Gray

No.1 Provost Section (1st Para Brigade) : Lieutenant W. D. Morley
No.2 Provost Section (4th Para Brigade) : Lieutenant T. G. A. Smith
No.3 Provost Section (1st Airlanding Brigade) : Lieutenant F. L. Horton
No.4 Provost Section (Divisional HQ) : Lieutenant R. J. Falck

Based at Stubton Hall and Newark, with sections at Divisional and brigade HQ's. Company HQ flew in a Horsa from Down Ampney, sections in C-47's and Horsas with other units.

Went in: 69 - Men Died: 7 - Evacuated: 13 - Missing: 49

War Diary

" ... At Div. H.Q. the Company Commander and all Airborne personnel landed safely, including the Jeep. ..."

Regards ...

Edited

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry couldn't quite sort where all the different sections left from ... ?

Regards ...

 

Cee, Please focus on the question, the rest I have figgerd out already
Did Gray land on the 17th or 18th by parachute or glider?

 

Curious, so who is the actual overall Commander - Haig or Gray? I get the impression the OC came in by glider. Also can you tell us if sections 1 and 2 jumped as it doesn't appear Gray was with either sub-unit.

War Diary:

Month and year: September 1944
Commanding Officer : Major O.P. Haig

Orbat:

Assistant Provost Marshal : Major O. P. Haig

1st (Airborne) Divisional Provost Company, CMP
Commander : Captain Bill Gray

Hopefully Jim finds something more.

Regards ...

 

The sections were attached to brigade' s
But realise that the sections were also split up in 2 lifts.

The section attached to the airlanding brigade arrived all bij glider (also split up between the 2 lifts).

All attached to parachute brigades always jumped, appart from the transport ofcourse. A luxery in an Parachute operation.

The transport of the sections attached to a Brigade flew in with the Brigade HQ gliders of that brigade.

Those attached to Div HQ Coy HQ and 4 Sect is a bit different, they are a mix of airlanding and para's for in case a glider does not arrive and also split over 2 lifts.. . so you have para' and gliderborne troops on each day. We are talking about 25 men of Coy HQ and No.4 Section , split up over 2 days and some by glider and some by parachute.

Transport, drivers and a few HQ personal arrived by glider, the remainder jumped mostly.

For take off airfields just have a look from where the transport took off of the Brigade Transport.

Div HQ took gliders took off from Fairford, but here we see that a few members of HQ Coy lifted with the transport of No.1 Section, forinstance Kimble. The glider with the no.1 section jeep arrive on D+1 (no priority). Here starts the confusion...

Haig and his batmen jumped on Ginkel Heath the 18th together with the 2nd lift of No. 4 Section.

Haigs batmen is also mentioned as driver, but they had no jeep! So after landing they joined up at Hartenstein.

The Provost coy hq jeep (not Haigs) an that of no.4 section arrived both with the 1st lift as well as 6 motor cycles. 2 m/c for escort duty 2 m/c for Coy HQ and 2 m/c for no. 4 section.
Its not clear if any m/c arrived with the 2nd lift but its most likely some did.

I personaly believe - and I had hoped that some one could have confirm this - that Gray arrived by glider on the 17th. I almost now the chalk number but that I will not reviel (yet).

This all seems also logic, as for DDay the c.o. of no.4 section arrived bij parachute (in a plane allocared to Div HQ) and the Coy CO by glider with Div HQ.

Its always a split with Div HQ: some jumped some by glider just in case the one or the other does not arrive.

 

Yo,

That is even more complex than first thought. I was surprised to learn that Major Haig jumped with Driver/Batman which may suggest that Captain Gray came in by glider as they tended to spread the risk around in case something went amiss. I have an idea where he left from going by Orbat info but who knows ... ?

Regards ...

 

Hello Cee, hello Commando.

Starting with "The Pegasus Patrol" photo I was hoping to find a personal account from one of the chaps that went on the 17th (and survived Arnhem) detailing the when, how, and from where but for all the scouring of books, Paradata, The Pegasus Archive etc., nothing concrete as of yet.

I do lean towards "by glider on the 17th" for Captain Gray (as I think do you chaps) but nothing %100 yet.

I'll keep looking, and if a definite answer is found I will post up here. And, maybe "Horsapassenger" (John) may have something somewhere.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.