I have just been reading Niall cherry book Red Berets & Red Crosses, I noted the story of 1 Paras mutiny at Grimthorpe castle near Bourne in Lincolnshire in May 1944. The problem arose when Major Dobie was not appointed CO of the regiment and as NC puts it an interloper with a very strict RSM was put in charge, this caused outrage from the rank & file who refused to follow out orders, consequently 600 men were all arrested and guarded by the Regimental Police, after a lot of pressure put on the RP they joined the mutiny, this prompted Brigadier Lathbury to intervene who afterwards settled the problem by giving Major Dobie command and not charging or taking any other action against the mutineers. My father lived in Bourne during that time and remembers the Military & Civilian Police going around the lodgings of the Paras to take them back to Grimthorpe under-arrest, Dad did mention that there was a lot of drunkenness and fights breaking out in the public houses in the area Any ideas why Lathbury took such easy action on the 1st Paras as Arnhem was a few months off.
Briefly thinking about this....Lathbury was probably aware that D Day was just around the corner and I guess he hoped his Brigade would get a part to play and would it be good for a commander to declare that one of his major units was off the order of battle for disciplinary reasons?????
The 'interloper' Medic7922 refers to was Lt. Colonel Kenneth T. Darling KCB, DSO, CBE, MBE. Following his 'removal' from 1 Para, he took over command of the 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion from 1944 till 1946. He ended his military career as a Mjaor-General. As for the reason behind Lathbury's apparent lack of action. I think AM is probably right. Not only was D-Day looming but how would it make Lathbury look to his superiors!! The 1st Airborne wasn't a stranger to this kind of thing. Dickie Lonsdale for example spent most of his airborne career being bounced from one unit to another because of his "unconventional behaviour" until he finally arrived at the 'troubled' 11th Battalion.
Don't forget the 13th Battalion mutiny in SE Asia which led to the disbandment of the battalion and was hushed up for a number of years, Arnhem
Actually, far from being hushed up, the 1946 'Muar Camp Mutiny' and its aftermath was a great cause celebre in Britain, as contemporary accounts in Hansard and the Times show. Best, Alan
Nope but just to tease you I have all the names from the Courts Marshall Registers, copies of the register pages. Unfortunately at this time I am unable to post them up
Can I just add... For the record, of the 255 men of 13 Para that were accused of mutiny, hardly any were men who had fought from Normandy to the Baltic coast in Germany. They had mostly demobbed. The men who had suffered so much from Ranville, Putot-en-Auge, Pont L'Eveque, Bure, Operation Varsity etc etc would not have considered a bit of spit and polish in a tented camp in adverse weather a reason to mutiny/strike! The men were mainly new recruits that had recently joined and had never seen any wartime active service. 50 of these had been involved in a few other disputes prior to this event and many of the others were led by very convincing and forceful men. Many didn't even really know what they were doing and simply followed others. Most of the 'wartime' members had by this time been promoted to NCO's or Officers and you will find that EVERY person who was accused of mutiny was a Private. It saddens me that 13 Para's reputation is tarnished by all this. The unit simply wasn't the one who fought gallantly and lost so many brave men during the war. Andrew
Drew I also have a lot of info and documents regarding this matter, but I don't have that. Any chance you could email me it. I might be able to pick out a few names. Do you have anything else regarding this? Andrew
Of course, what the "mutiny" of 1 Bn Para Regt in 1944 suggests is that all was not well within 1 Airborne Division during the months before D Day (a fact that Urquhart subsequently hinted at). I have often wondered if the subsequent criticism of the formations brought back from the desert would have been as equally applied to 1 Airborne Division were it not for the tragedy of Arnhem, i.e. if the division had been employed in a relatively benign role during the advance through Belgium and then been retained to fight on the ground. BTW I certainly do not mean to cast a slur on bravery of the individual members of any formation, however, I don't think that we should shrink from criticising the process of training of 1 Airborne Division before Arnhem. Regards Tom
roodymiller, That's really insightful and can I smell a book cooking somewhere there in the background ... Regarding the 1st Para Battalion Mutiny The May 1944 date for the mutiny makes me wonder about Lathbury's awareness of the fact that the 6th Airborne was chosen by that time as the Division that would go in on D-Day and how much of that knowledge had percolated down to the men in general. The way it's made out it depended on the performance of the the two divisions when they were pitted against each other on Exercise Mush which took place on about April 20th. My gut feeling is that the 6th were chosen well in advance of that date. In May the specialized training had intensified to a high pitch for the units involved in the various airborne operations on D-Day. We know a lot about the training for the 6th Airborne, but very little of what was occurring in the 1st Airborne camp. 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion There was also minor rebellion involving this unit which escapes me at the moment. I think it occurred sometime before the Varsity Drop. Correction - 1 Can Para went on a hunger strike October 20-23, 1944 in protest to the rigorous training regime imposed by CO Jeff A. Nicklin Regards ...
Haha... You know too much! Would agree that after a year of training the 1st AB would be getting frustrated...
My two cents/pince What I've read about and learned from this site a series on the British airborne contains as many/or more ( did not want to step on toes) good stories that would make a series/movie as good as or better than BoB. What a war cry "waho Mohammed", or 6th divisional saying "Go to it". The only division I was in the 7th their saying was "Light Fighters", talk about lame.A telling of a story such as this one would be Great. I'll get off my soap box now. Ttyman P.S. Would love to see some of the Tv shows you talk about in Britian, American Tv copies you and what is orginial SUCKS!:p
Sorry to resurrect a thread from 9 years ago, but I was told by my last living Uncle that his older brother was in the 13th Para at that time of the mutiny in Asia. In looking at his records, he immediately then went to Palestine with 4th Para in July 46. Having been sent out to Asia in June 45 on ship I would imagine. It would seem strange that someone accused of mutiny is allowed to join another Paratroop Batt rather than infantry where many others were sent after such an event. Is there a list of those found ‘guilty’ and later pardoned? Clearly it affected him, as soon after, he emigrated to Australia where he died in the late 80’s. I only met him once. All my Uncles met for the 1st time in decades and I remember it being emotional. The eldest was in South Staffs, the next in 13th Para, the next in Royal Navy also in Asia and my living Uncle 1st N’Hants. Would have loved to have been a fly on the pub wall that day. Any help, I would appreciate.
The convictions were quashed. The outcry in the United Kingdom against the whole case and the sentences led to the establishment of the " Army and Air Force Courts-Martial Committee" or Lewis Committee. This was long overdue. The Parliamentary debates are here: MUTINY CHARGES, MALAYA (SENTENCES) (Hansard, 8 October 1946) MUTINY CHARGES, MALAYA (CONVICTIONS QUASHED) (Hansard, 10 October 1946)
Some years back, when I was researching my book on 50th Division, I had occasion to go through the records of court martials prior to D Day. I was somewhat startled to discover that the two airborne divisions were among the leaders in 21 AG in disciplinary offenses. Some historians cite court martials and arrests as indicators of poor morale and they can be such at times, but the airborne fought magnificently once they got into action
Recently I came across a mention of the 13th Parachute, in the e-book on a HMS Sainfoin : Link: ray self The author also refers to a far smaller disturbance on the ship: I note this partly / wholly new formation did experience 'peacekeeping' in the Dutch East Indies (DEI), citing Wiki: Link: 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion - Wikipedia It appears something was procedurally wrong with the court-martial:
There was one defending officer for all the accused ! "It was in the following respects that serious irregularities occurred in the course of the trial in Malaya: In the first place, evidence in the majority of cases was allowed to be taken from spokesmen of groups, a method not in accordance with the Rules of Evidence Secondly, the Judge Advocate acting at the trial misdirected the court in law as to the bearing of the evidence in its application to each individual case. Thirdly, he failed to deal with the case of each accused individually on its own facts. In short, the evidence was neither elicited nor applied in such a way as to establish either the guilt of those who were really guilty or the innocence of all those who were really innocent. There was thus no assurance that justice had been done, and in view of the legal opinion I had received that the convictions ought not to be allowed to stand, I felt it my duty to quash the proceedings." MUTINY CHARGES, MALAYA (IRREGULARITIES) (Hansard, 15 October 1946) There is an article here from the Modern Law Review published in 1947 which discusses the case ( free to download ): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1947.tb00053.x Curiously enough, the IMT at Nuremberg had just given their verdicts, but one of the most important trials to be held in Singapore by a military tribunal to be administered by the Deputy Judge Advocate General in Singapore was about to commence. See the abstract of evidence and summary here: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/52113b/pdf The Lewis Committee eventually reported in January 1949.
The 13th Bn was amalgamated with 12th Bn. to form the 12/13th Battalion Parachute Regiment as part of 44 Para Brigade TA,in the 60's
