Unit
: 1st Airborne Divisional Signals
Service No.
: 71076
Awards
: Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross
and Bar, Twice Mentioned in Despatches
Tony
Deane-Drummond, a member of the Royal Corps
of Signals, was amongst the first of
Britain's parachutists and was attached to
the 11th SAS Battalion in the early days of
the airborne movement. As a Lieutenant, he
accompanied a detachment of the battalion on
the ill-fated Operation Colossus - Britain's
first airborne raid. On the 24th January
1941, he flew to Malta, ahead of the raiding
party, to ensure that preparations there had
been made for the attack. The men parachuted
into action on the 10th February, but after
achieving their objective almost all were
taken prisoner, such was the fate of
Deane-Drummond. However he soon escaped, but
was recaptured only to escape again and
successfully make his way to Switzerland, and
from where he was returned to England. For
this endeavour he was awarded the Military
Cross.
This
officer was one of a party of paratroops who
landed near Calabria in Southern Italy on
10th February, 41. Two days later he was
captured and taken to Naples aerodrome from
where after interrogation he was later
removed to the camp at Sulmona.
On
15th June 1941, Lieutenant Deane-Drummond had
made plans to get out of the camp in a
garbage wheel-barrow, but had to abandon the
idea, as the guards had been warned. In July
he again attempted to escape, together with
about 20 others, by digging a tunnel, but the
scheme was discovered before the tunnel had
been completed.
Lieutenant
Deane-Drummond made a further attempt to
escape in December 1941, accompanied by
another officer who was, however, hit by the
guard who fired when he saw them climbing
over the wire which surrounded the camp.
Lieutenant Deane-Drummond got away, and
managed to travel as far as Ponte Chiasso
before he was detained by soldiers who took
him to the frontier post to be searched.
Later he was again transferred back to
Sulmona, but after a month was moved to the
camp at San Romana. Here another plot to
escape was discovered and all the English
officers were moved to a special camp south
of Naples. Lieutenant Deane-Drummond,
however, had managed to be sent to hospital
at Florence a few days before the party left.
Here he was left locked in a room on the
fourth floor with a guard outside the door.
On 15th June 1942, he escaped from the room
by sidestepping along the ledge outside his
window, entering another room some distance
away, and going downstairs and out through a
window on the ground floor. Dressed in
battle-dress, trousers and a navy blue
sweater he travelled by train to Varese,
changing at Milan, and walked towards the
frontier. After seeing what he thought were
sentry boxes, he decided to return to Varese
and travel on towards Como. He was stopped by
a Mareschallo (Regimental-Sergeant-Major)
while passing through a village but was
allowed to proceed. He reached Ponte Chiasso
and at night on the 19th June he managed to
scoop enough earth to allow him to get under
the frontier wire.
He
intended to try to get to Berne without
giving himself up, but at Chiasso he was
stopped by a Swiss policeman and after
questioning, he admitted that he was an
escaped British prisoner. He was taken to
Berne on the same day and after further
questioning was handed over to the British
authorities for repatriation.
In
1944, the 27 year old Major was
Second-in-Command of the 1st Airborne's
Divisional Signals. He and his fellow
Signalmen were very worried about the
distance from the drop zones to the Bridge,
and they were aware that there would be a
radio blackout between these two areas until
the second day when the Division advanced
towards Arnhem. To try and ease this problem,
Deane-Drummond would have liked more of the
powerful jeep-mounted Type 19 radio sets, but
to take these would require extra gliders, of
which there were none. The short time the
Division had to prepare before D-Day dictated
that it was too late to work around this
problem, and so Signals just had to make the
best of what they had. Deane-Drummond himself
noted after Arnhem that absolutely everyone
was so keen to get into battle that many
risks, such as with the radios, were taken
entirely on purpose.
Upon
arriving in Arnhem, Deane-Drummond was
pleased that the radio sets appeared to be
working perfectly, but as the 1st Para
Brigade moved closer towards Arnhem the
clarity of radio messages began to
deteriorate rapidly. The larger jeep-mounted
sets weren't working at all, despite the
advancing units only being two or three miles
away. The Major sent a jeep forward so that
any messages Brigadier Lathbury's HQ sent out
could be relayed back to the Division as it
was vital that Major-General Urquhart was
kept abreast of these events. However the
signal from this jeep faded away completely.
On
Tuesday 19th, Deane-Drummond left Divisional
HQ and set out to where the remains of the
1st Para Brigade were making their last
effort to break through to the Bridge, to
inform them of a new radio frequency for the
day. When he arrived he ran into a small
group of leaderless men from the 3rd
Battalion retreating from the area. He took
command of this group and led them forward to
within sight of Arnhem Bridge, but they came
under heavy fire and were forced to fall
back. Trapped in a futile situation,
Deane-Drummond decided to split the remaining
20 men he had left into three groups. He
thought it best to shelter until night fell,
swim to the other side of the river where the
enemy presence was less significant, and then
head west back towards the Division where,
south of Oosterbeek, they would try to cross
over again back to friendly troops. The Major
took three men with him, one of whom was his
batman, and sheltered in a small house only
800 yards from Arnhem Bridge. German troops
entered the building with the intention of
fortifying it, but were completely unaware of
Deane-Drummond's presence, who quickly took
his men to the back of the house where they
locked themselves inside a lavatory. The
handle was tried several times, but not once
was an attempt made to force it. Unknown to
both parties was that another group of men,
under the command of Lieutenant John Dickson,
were hiding in the attic of the same house.
For
three days the men sat in this small room
until on Friday 22nd, with their boots
wrapped in their battle dresses to dull any
noise, they crept down the stairs and out of
the house. The men split up, but all intended
to swim the Rhine and assemble on the other
side. Deane-Drummond stripped and tied his
clothes inside his Denison smock, and
successfully made his way over. He then
dressed himself and proceeded towards the
railway bridge, through an orchard and across
some fields, until eventually he could hear
the voices of German troops in the area.
Passing a line of slit trenches, he had
almost reached the bridge when he stumbled
into a trench and landed right on top of a
German soldier. Deane-Drummond drew his
pistol and shot the man in the head, but he
was unable to escape as another German
arrived. For that moment the Major was fair
game, and he was certain that he was about to
be killed, but instead he was taken prisoner;
possibly because he was lying on top of the
dead man and his comrade did not know that he
was dead and so did not fire for fear of
harming him.
However,
Major Deane-Drummond did not remain a
prisoner for long. He was taken to a
temporary POW shelter in Velp, where he
spotted a large cupboard and immediately
dived into it. For no less than thirteen days
he stood inside this cupboard, rationing
himself on a few biscuits and sips of water,
until he was able to make good his escape on
October 5th. Initially he hid in the garden
outside this building, feeling not in the
least weary from exhaustion, and soon after
managed to contact the Dutch Resistance, who
hid him until October 22nd when he, together
with the 137 other men of Pegasus I, crossed
the Rhine and rejoined the Allies. For his
role in Market Garden, Deane-Drummond was
Mentioned in Despatches and awarded a Bar to
his Military Cross.
Tony
Deane-Drummond continued to serve in the
armed forces and commanded the 22nd SAS in
the latter stages of the Malayan Emergency.
Under his guidance, the unit became expert at
living deep in the jungle, and from this base
were able to inflict terrible damage upon the
communist bandits. Later actions saw him
commanding the Regiment in Oman, where
spectacular success resulted in him being
awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His
citation reads:
When,
on the 1st January 1959, Lt-Colonel
Deane-Drummond arrived in Oman to command two
Squadrons of his regiment, rebels were
holding the JEBEL AKHDAR : a formidable
mountain range rising to 10,000 feet. All
known tracks up the very steep slopes were
dominated by rebel piquets, which had defied
earlier attempts to dislodge them.
After
successful patrol actions during the month
Lt-Colonel Deane-Drummond on the night of
26th/27th January, took personal command of
an assault of the JEBEL AKHDAR. By a forced
night march up extremely difficult country,
he surprised the enemy and gained complete
success. At one stage the ascent was possible
only by using ropes. Moving immediately
behind the leading troops, Lt-Colonel
Deane-Drummond by his courage and leadership
throughout the assault, and on the following
days, inspired men by his example. The
remaining rebel opposition was quickly
overcome and the whole operation was
completed at small cost to the attacking
troops.
Towards
the end of the 1950's, Deane-Drummond was
promoted to Brigadier and took over command
of 44th Parachute Brigade (TA) from John
Frost, who was later destined to play the
deceitful friend that brought him to London
under false pretences before handing him over
to Eamonn Andrews, presenter of the This Is
Your Life television programme; for his
trouble, Frost received the customary bout of
good humoured curses. A British gliding
champion and author of the book, Return
Ticket, Tony Deane-Drummond aspired to the
rank of Major-General.
