Ian Wellsted - With the SAS: Across the Rhine

Ack-Ack

Anti-aircraft.

Administrative and supply facilities immediately available to troops in action.

APC

Armoured Personnel Carrier.

German equivalent of a motorway.

The common name for a man-portable recoilless

anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded

by the United States Army as the M1.

Administrative and supply facilities held in reserve behind the troops in action.

An ambulance on the Dropping Zone during parachute training.

British light machine-gun.

US M2 Browning .50 calibre machine-gun, referred to as the .5 Browning in British and Commonwealth service.

The supporting element of a parachute, which fills with air when released from its pack.

A sudden turn with skis held parallel; often used as a means of stopping.

A swift surprise attack on a specific object.

Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General; a staff officer of majors rank responsible for supplies and transport.

Small 4-wheeled armoured reconnaissance vehicle.

An easily movable road barrier composed of a timber frame about a metre high, similar in shape and construction to the domestic kniferest used for the support of a carving knife. It is overlaid with barbed wire and usually covered by fire.

Laager

(noun or verb) An all-round defensive position.

Straps from the rigging lines, which support the parachutists harness and give him some limited control over his direction.

Lines of Communication.

German light infantry projector for anti-tank rockets.

Prisoner(s) of War.

Quartermaster; responsible for supplies and transport.

Reconnaissance.

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; responsible for repairs to vehicles.

Nylon cords from the canopy to the lift-webs to support the parachutist.

Royal Tank Regiment.

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

German light machine-gun.

Allied wheeled armoured personnel carrier.

A turn with the back of the skis apart and points close together for a controlled change of direction at the end of a traverse across a slope.

Thompson sub-machine-gun.

Vergeltungswaffen 1 German flying bomb.

Vergeltungswaffen 2 German long-range guided ballistic missile or rocket.

The leading units ahead of the main body of advancing troops.

British air-cooled medium machine-gun.

The armed wing of the Nazi Partys SS organisation.

No.1 Jeep

Captain Ian Wellsted (wounded 8 April)

A

Trooper Reyes (exchanged for Geordie Younger 4 April)

Trooper Peter Middleton

No.2 Jeep

Lieutenant Denis Wainman (commands 3 Section from 29 March)

B

(Jeep destroyed 8 April)

Corporal Alec Hay

Trooper Blakeney (killed 8 April)

No.3 Jeep

Sergeant Jack Terry, DCM

C

Trooper Swag Jemson, DCM

Trooper Paddy Kennedy (awarded MM for 28 March)

No.1 Jeep

Lieutenant Johnny Cooper, DCM

D

Trooper Murray, MM

Trooper Brown, MM

No.2 Jeep

Sergeant Tom Rennie (slightly wounded 8 April)

E

(Jeep captured 8 April)

Trooper Backhouse, MM (wounded 8 April)

Trooper Davies, MM (killed 8 April)

No.3 Jeep

Corporal Jack Corbett

F

(Jeep destroyed 8 April)

Trooper Poland

Trooper Taffy Glyde (killed 8 April)

No.1 Jeep

Lieutenant Tony Trower

G

Trooper Dixie Deane (awarded MM for 8 April)

Trooper Brinkley

No.2 Jeep

Sergeant Maggie McGinn, MM

H

(Jeep broke down 6 April)

Trooper George Elliott

Trooper Kearney

No.3 Jeep

Sergeant Geordie Cunningham, MM

I

(Jeep had an accident 7 April)

Corporal Bunker Burgess (Replaced by Trooper Owen when repatriated 23 March. Owen wounded 8 April)

Lance-Corporal Pringle Gibb

No.1 Jeep

Lieutenant Red Hunter (transferred to Force HQ 29 March)

J

(Jeep transferred to Force HQ 29 March)

Trooper Andrew (wounded 28 March; died of wounds)

Trooper Grundy (wounded 28 March; died of wounds)

No.2 Jeep

Sergeant Jeff Du Vivier MM (wounded 8 April)

K

(Jeep captured 8 April)

Lance-Corporal Digger Weller MM

Trooper Homer Marshall

Wireless Jeep

(Ex Squadron HQ joined 3 Troop on 28 March)

L

Squadron Sergeant Major Reg Seekings, DCM,

MM

Trooper MacKenzie (wounded 28 March)

Wireless Operator (wounded 28 March)

M

Major Harry Poat

Trooper Ferguson (his batman)

Trooper Harrison (his signaller)

No.1 Jeep

Captain Ian Wellsted

Trooper Peter Middleton

Trooper Owen

No.2 Jeep