14265164  Trooper Frederick Brawn

1st Airlanding Squadron
Reconnaissance Corps
1923 - 19 September 1944

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Researched and written by Chris Graddon

The family of Trooper Frederick Brawn

Frederick Brawn was the third son and third child of George Albert Brawn and his wife Lily.

George Albert Brawn was born on 31 October 1895, the son of Albert and Eliza Brawn. Albert was born in Wolverhampton in the latter part of 1865 and died in Burntwood on 23 January 1929. Albert’s wife Eliza was born in Dawley in Shropshire in 1865 and the couple were married in Salford, Manchester, in the fourth quarter of 1890. Eliza died on 12 July 1955.

George was baptised at St. Anne’s Church in Chasetown on 24 November 1895. In 1911, the family were living on High Street, Chasetown, Albert Brawn working as a butcher. George had two sisters, Gladys two years older and Winnifred 3 years younger; both were baptised at St. Anne’s Church (Gladys 25 October 1893 and Winnifred 30 October 1898). George’s younger brother, Albert Benjamin Brawn was baptised there on 15 November 1891 but died 4 months later on 22 February 1892. Gladys married Albert Thomas Hardwick at St. Anne’s Church on 5 June 1919 and, a year later, Winnifred followed her down the same aisle when she married Arthur Edgar Poxon on 9 August 1920.

George Albert Brawn and Lily were married at the Register Office in Market Drayton in November 1918. At the time, George was serving as a private (regimental number 76486) in the 2nd Battalion of the Tanks Corps. Lily, who was born Lily Jones on 14 June 1894 in Wollerton, Shropshire, married William Johnson in the second quarter of 1917 in the Chorlton district of Lancashire, but William died on 15 July 1918, and Lily (Johnson) then married George Albert Brawn. George worked as a Master Butcher and, at the time of the 1939 census he and Lily were living at 5 Edwards Road, Chasetown. George Albert Brawn died on 29 October 1950 at the age of 54. His wife Lily died in May 1894.

The four eldest children of George and Lily Brawn were all baptised at St. Anne’s Church, Church Street, in Chasetown.

George Albert Brawn (born 27 June 1919, baptised 20 July 1919, died January 1996, the husband of Edith Winifred Bailey (born 5 June 1919, died January 1994); the couple married in Lichfield in the 4th quarter of 1939);

William Arthur Brawn (born January 1923, baptised 11 January 1922; he married Irene Furness in Lichfield in the second quarter of 1943 and the couple lived for many years in the Wavertree area of Liverpool;

Fred Brawn on 29 August 1923, died 19 September 1944

and Joan Mary Brawn (born 16 December 1925, baptised 6 January 1926, she worked for the UK Postal Service and married Enoch William Mills (11 November 1915 to 20 June 1985) in the third quarter of 1950.

The couple had two other children

John Brawn (born on 6 March 1931, baptised on 25 March 1931 at Zion’s Hill Primitive Methodist Church, High Street, Chasetown, he married Barbara Summers in the fourth quarter of 1951 and died at Stafford Hospital in the fourth quarter of 2002.

and Frank Brawn (born on 28 September 1934, baptised at Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church, High Street, Chasetown on 16 October 1934, he married Freda Margaret Fraser at Lichfield in the third quarter of 1956 and died in Walsall in 2015.

Trooper Frederick Brawn

Trooper Frederick Brawn was the third son of George Albert and Lily Brawn, of Chasetown, Staffordshire. He enlisted for the Royal Armoured Corps and was assigned - with regimental number 14265164 - to the 1st Airlanding Squadron of the Reconnaissance Corps, with whom he served in North West Europe.

Fred qualified as a military parachutist on Course 112 which ran at RAF Ringway from 17 to 28 April 1944; he then served as a wireless operator with 9 Section, C Troop, 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, Reconnaissance Corps. Later that same year, during Operation Market Garden, he took part in the Battle of Arnhem, where sadly he was killed during an enemy ambush that also claimed the lives of a number of his comrades.

The 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron

The 1st Airborne Division was formed in late 1941 and, in November that year, its reconnaissance unit became a glider-borne unit, renamed the 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron. By April 1943, the Squadron had a acquired a strength of about 250 men and was stationed at Bulford, near Andover in Hampshire. The Squadron’s commanding officer, Major Freddie Gough, was renowned not only for the high standards and discipline that he expected, but also for the ethos he wanted to create within his efficient unit, typified by the strong bond that existed between the members of the squadron.

In 1943, the squadron was sent to join the rest of 1st Airborne Division in North Africa and a base was established near Tunis for training with the new WACO gliders, the most widely used troop/cargo military glider of World War II. However, the initial shortage of pilots meant the training was often rudimentary, so the Squadron missed the Sicily campaign, finally being deployed into action when the 1st Airborne Division joined the seaborne invasion of the east coast of Italy in September 1943. The squadron advanced with the rest of the 1st Airborne Division against German airborne troops, eventually reaching Bari and taking an airfield near Foggia. The squadron had distinguished itself in its first major operation but had suffered a significant number of casualties along the way. It returned to the UK for Christmas 1943, then moved in the New Year to its new home at Ruskington in Lincolnshire. By February, it was clear that the number of gliders was going to be limited, and the nature of the Squadron was going to have to change. One member of the squadron recalls:  

“I shall never forget the day in February when Freddie had the whole squadron on parade and announced that, on our next operation, there would not be enough room for us in the number of gliders we had been allocated, that we would have to jump. While some of the boys had volunteered to jump while we were in Africa, the majority had not. Cunning Freddie [Gough] announced that he expected most of us would volunteer, because any man who didn't would be posted; men who did NOT want to volunteer to jump should take one pace forward. Not a man moved!'

With this revised role, in 1944 the unit became known as the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, the reconnaissance arm of the 1st Airborne Division. The intention was that the Reconnaissance Squadron would display a similar ethos and esprit de corps to the Commandos and the Paratroopers. Its intended function was to press forward in order to seek and gather vital tactical information, however, in practice, thanks to its fire power and mobility, it was often used as an attack force or - when called upon - an emergency defence force. The Reconnaissance Corps became part of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) in 1944 and - following war’s end - was disbanded on 1 August 1946.

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden, which took place in September 1944, was one of the largest Allied operations of the Second World War. The primary goal of this daring airborne operation was to secure the key bridges over three wide rivers in the Netherlands, the Meuse, the Waal and the Rhine. Success would enable the Allies to outflank the heavy German defences along the Siegfried Line, opening up the German heartland beyond the Rhine, Germany’s industrial bases in the Ruhr in particular. The Allies hoped it would be followed by a swift advance towards Berlin, one that would lead to the War being over before Christmas 1944. Unfortunately the Allies fell short of their objectives but the determination and courage shown by the airborne troops, and the units that assisted them, made Operation Market Garden one of the Second World War’s most famous battles.

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If it was successful, the plan to secure the major bridges at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem - plus two smaller bridges at Veghel and Grave - would see the Allies liberate the Netherlands after sweeping through France and Belgium in the summer of 1944. Conceived by ‘Monty’ {Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery}, Operation Market Garden was strongly supported by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt. It would involve 41,628 English, American and Polish airborne troops, plus a further three divisions on the ground. It had two elements

Market: the airborne assault to seize the key bridges (planned to be the largest airborne operation the world had ever seen),

Garden: the 30th Army Corps campaign on the ground that would follow the assault, securing the bridges captured by the airborne forces, and moving beyond them to create a salient.

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In the end, the failure of Monty’s ambitious operation was the result of a number of contributory factors: communication problems, bad weather conditions, the airborne drop zones being too far from the Nijmegen and Arnhem bridges, the slow advance of the ground troops, and determined German opposition (especially near Arnhem). After successfully taking the bridges at Eindhoven, Veghel and Grave, and the two bridges over the Waal River at Nijmege, the Allies were unable to hold the final bridge in Arnhem, the scene of the ferocious battle which later became the core of Richard Attenborough’s film “A Bridge Too Far”.

The Battle of Arnhem (17th - 26th September 1944)

Around 10,000 men from the 1st British Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed at Arnhem. But their landing zones were seven miles from the bridge at Arnhem and only one battalion reached the objective, the Arnhem road bridge; no attempt was made for a small party to land directly onto the Arnhem bridge. The remaining men were squeezed into a pocket of land at Oosterbeek to the west. Apart from a few anti-tank guns and howitzers, which had been modified to fit inside gliders, the lightly armed airborne troops had few heavy weapons with which to resist the German tanks. The British airborne troops were not relieved according to schedule and, after four days, the small British force at the bridge was overwhelmed.

The airborne divisions’ landings began on 17 September 1944 and all the bridges were taken, but - after a successful drop - British plans soon started to go wrong. There were more German troops in the area than had been anticipated, and the bulk of the 1st Parachute Brigade was quickly cut off from Arnhem. Only the 2nd Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost reached the Arnhem bridge itself and they set up in defensive positions around its northern end. Enemy troops controlled the southern section, and a host of improvised German units (Kampfgruppen) were thrown into action to contain the British advance. Despite the arrival of the rest of the 1st Airborne Division on the landing grounds west of Arnhem, no progress could be made to support the embattled 2nd Battalion on the Arnhem bridge. To make matters worse, many British radios were not working. The 30th Army Corps was not able to reach the bridge at Arnhem in time to stop German forces overwhelming the British defenders, Allied intelligence having failed to detect the German tanks and troops from the 9th and 10th SS Panzer divisions. The 30th Army Corps advance, along a narrow causeway, was hampered by traffic jams and, in some places, the advance was hindered by marshes that prevented movement away from the main track. Determined not to surrender ground so close to its industrial heartland, the German army formed scratch fighting groups that succeeded in delaying the armoured columns of the 30th Army Corps until German reinforcements arrived.

On 24-25 September about 2,100 troops from the 1st Airborne Division were ferried back across the Rhine. Another 7,500 were either dead or had been made prisoners of war. The crossing of the Rhine, and the anticipated capture of Germany's industrial heartland, would be delayed six months because the Allies would now have to fight their way into the Reich on a broad front. There was to be no quick victory.

The last hours of Trooper Frederick Brawn and his comrades in the 1st Airlanding Squadron

Following his enlistment, Trooper Frederick Brawn had been assigned - with regimental number 14265164 - to the 1st Airlanding Squadron of the Reconnaissance Corps. He had qualified as a military parachutist before serving as a wireless operator with 9 Section, C Troop, 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, Reconnaissance Corps. Caught up in Operation Market Garden, he was killed during an enemy ambush that also claimed the lives of a number of his comrades during the Battle of Arnhem.

The extract that follows contains information courtesy of the researchers who update and maintain the Warcemeteries.nl website. We are grateful for their permission to include it here. We gratefully acknowledge the respect they and their supporters have shown - year on year - for Frederick, his comrades and the sacrifice that they made in September 1944. The story of Fred’s final hours can be told thanks to the perseverance and determination of Marcel, Danoesha and Tycho Boven and Erny van Wijk for Warcemeteries.nl, plus Fred Van den Brink and Theo Feenstra who visited Fred’s grave in Oosterbeek together every year. Sadly, Theo died at the age of 96 in 2020.

On the first day of Operation Market Garden, Sunday 17 September 1944, Frederick Brawn landed at Renkum Heath, several miles west of Arnhem. The following day, 18 September, Fred was filmed and photographed by AFPU (the Army Film and Photographic Unit) men Mike Lewis and Dennis Smith, on Duitsekampweg at Wolfheze.

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The next day, Tuesday 19 September, was the third day of the offensive and, in the morning - following the orders of the day - C Troop separated from the Reconnaissance Squadron to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance to the north of Wolfheze station, in the Reijerscamp area. It soon became apparent that they were in the midst of heavy German troop movements. After a council of war, it was decided to make a high speed dash back to Oosterbeek via the Amsterdamseweg and Wolfhezerweg. Unfortunately, the seven jeeps of C Troop ran into a German ambush, and a heavy burst of machine gun fire raked across the jeep carrying Frederick Brawn, killing him instantly. Fred Brawn - just 21 years old - was killed in the Planken Wambuis area, about a mile east from the Planken Wambuis Inn.

The book Operation Market Garden, Then and Now (Volumes 1, 2 and 3, edited by Karel Margry, 2002) describes the ambush: “a patrol of 7 jeeps containing 30 men of C Troop was shot up on the Ede-Arnhem main road. The troop had been scouting out from Wolfheze towards the Ginkel Heath when it found itself virtually cut off with enemy troops on all sides. Their only option was to make a desperate dash out of encirclement down the main road, racing at 60 mph through the German positions with all guns firing. In the event only two jeeps and eight men managed to escape in this way; the other five jeeps were stopped, five of the men killed and the rest taken prisoner”.

The Roll of Honour published by the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum (Jan Hey 1999 and 2011) states that Fred was given a field burial in the Temporary Military Cemetery near Ginkel Heath beside Verlengde Arnhemseweg. He is now buried at Oosterbeek War Cemetery, Arnhem.

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Reference, Item and Source

1. Photograph of Trooper Frederick Brawn © The Warcemeteries.nl website, http://warcemeteries.nl/Brawn.html

2. Map showing the locations of the bridges targeted in Operation Market Garden © National Army Museum, https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/market-garden

3. Photograph from 8 September 1944 showing Field Marshal Montgomery studying a map with Lt-Gen Horrocks, GOC 30th Army Corps, and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, GOC all Dutch forces under Monty's command © Imperial War Museum (Catalogue number BU 766)

4. Photograph showing a PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti-Tank) gun of "C" Troop, 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron, in position behind a tree, covering a road near Wolfheze on 18 September 1944. It is thought that Frederick Brawn is the member of “C” Troop pictured here in the background with a Brengun. © Imperial War Museum (Catalogue number BU 1144)

5. Memorial to the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron at All Saints Church, Ruskington, Lincolnshire © Richard E. Flagg and UKAirfields website, http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/ruskington.html

6. Memorial to the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron at All Saints Church, Ruskington, Lincolnshire © Richard E. Flagg and UKAirfields website, http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/ruskington.html

7. Grave of Trooper Frederick Brawn, Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, grave reference 1.B.2 © The Warcemeteries.nl website, http://warcemeteries.nl/Brawn.html

8. Grave of Trooper Frederick Brawn, Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, grave reference 1.B.2 © The Warcemeteries.nl website, http://warcemeteries.nl/Brawn.html

9. Plan of Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery showing the location of grave reference 1.B.2 for Trooper Frederick Brawn © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

10. Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

11. Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

12. Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

13. Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemoration of Trooper Frederick Brawn, 14265164, 1st Airlanding Squadron, Reconnaissance Corps © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

14. The 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron Memorial Marker at Oosterbeek © Airborne Assault ParaData website, https://www.paradata.org.uk/unit/1st-airborne-reconnaissance-squadron

15. Photograph of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron insignia, as worn on the right sleeve with the Pegasus patch sewn forwards. This photograph also shows the Parachute Qualification patch that Trooper Frederick Brawn was qualified to wear. © Just Ordinary Men website, http://www.justordinarymen.org.uk/page8.html