Private Sydney Carter

Private Sydney Carter was born on November 5 1914 in Wheatley Hill, County Durham, and was a soldier in the 3rd Parachute Battalion. He initially enlisted into The East Yorkshire Regiment on the 1 April 1939. The Parachute Course that he did is unknown, but was either No 2 in November 1941, or No 21/22 in August 1942 (the course report of the latter is missing). Either way he would have served in the North African campaign, and also taken part in Operation ‘Slapstick’, the operation in Southern Italy in September 1943.

On Sunday, 17 September 1944, he boarded a Dakota aircraft of the 314th Troop Carrier Group, U.S.A.A.F. at Saltby Heath aerodrome in Lincolnshire. He was bound for D.Z. ‘X’, near Renkum in Holland, as part of Operation ‘Market-Garden’. He dropped successfully at 13.56 hours. He was taken POW and sent to Stalag 12A at Limburg in Germany. His POW No was 93349. He was released from further military service to the Section ‘B’ Reserve on 5 February 1946 and then to the Class ‘Z’ Reserves on 1 April 1947.

He died in October 1973 in County Durham.