THE RED BERET: The Story of the Parachute Regiment at War 1940 - 45
by Hilary St. George Saunders MC
Category: History

They were no ordinary soldiers. Their battlefields were behind enemy lines. They dropped silently from the sky, bringing messages of death and destruction. Lightly armed, unsupported by tanks and heavy artillery, they fought time after time against overwhelming odds—and won. This is the story of Arnhem, Bruneval, the Ardennes, Normandy, the crossing of the Rhine. It is the story of the Red Devils, the most heroic band of daredevils any war has ever produced. This is the story of the Parachute Regiment, of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men, drawn from almost every unit of the British Army, who volunteered to reach the field of battle by a novel and unique method. They were the first to wear the Red Beret, and to earn for themselves the name of the ‘Red Devils’, bestowed upon them in North Africa by an enemy who had good cause to fear their prowess. They were not, however, the only members of the British Army to wear this distinguished headgear. Those who dropped with them belonging to the Royal Engineers, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Corps of Signals, the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps and those who went to battle in gliders also wore it and added lustre to its fame. Their story will, I hope, one day be told, when the facts have been collected and are available.