Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Second World War and Korean War campaign group of seven awarded to Sergeant L. Kent, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, late Middlesex Regiment and 2nd Parachute Regiment (A.A.C.), in which latter unit he was present at the airborne invasion of Sicily and afterwards at Arnhem, where he was wounded and taken prisoner at the Bridge itself

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (6200750 Sjt. L. Kent, K.O.S.B.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, contact marks and a little polished, generally very fine (7) £1500-2000

Sergeant L. “Taffy” Kent originally joined the Middlesex Regiment but then transferred to the Army Air Corps. In common with many other soldiers of the Army Air Corps, he successfully completed No. 57 Parachute Course at R.A.F. Ringway, was awarded his “Red Beret” and was posted to ‘A’ Company, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment as a Bren Gun Carrier driver.

He was subsequently among those to be deployed in the airborne invasion of Sicily on 12 July 1943, when his unit and the Parachute Brigade took off from North Africa embarked in 105 Dakotas, eight of them towing Waco Gliders, and 11 Albermarles towing Horsa Gliders. The Brigade's first casualties occurred while they were still en route, when two Dakotas were shot down flying over an Allied convoy and another nine damaged and forced to turn back. When they reached the Sicilian coast, Axis anti-aircraft fire shot down 37 and a further ten were damaged and forced to abort their mission. The survivors, however, landed successfully and captured and held the vital Primosole Bridge. “Taffy” Kent survived this operation and on 11 September 1943 took part in the sea-borne attack on Taranto Harbour in Italy with the 1st Airborne Division. The Battalion probed as far north as Foggia before being withdrawn back to the U.K. in preparation for D-Day.

On 17 September 1944, during Operation ”Market Garden”,  the 2nd Battalion, including Sergeant Kent, dropped at Arnhem with recce. and airborne engineers and some 3rd Battalion soldiers, and captured the road bridge in Arnhem itself. The force was soon cut off but held its ground against incessant German tank and infantry attacks for three days and four nights. The division objective was to hold the Bridge for 48 hours before being relieved by the advancing 30 Corps, which never arrived. By dusk on 20 September, Lieutenant-Colonel Frost, who was commanding 2nd Para was wounded and, as his battalion had been reduced to a few survivors, he ordered his men to break out. It was one of the most fierce and famous battles of the Second World War and Lieutenant J. H Grayburn of 2nd Para was awarded the V.C. The two Parachute Brigades had contained 3,082 men of the Parachute Regiment; of these, 2,656 were killed or reported missing and only 426 made it to safety. “Taffy” Kent, who was serving in Frost’s H.Q. Company, was wounded and captured. In the published roll of British Army P.O.Ws 1939-45, his name appears without a P.O.W. No. or camp location, suggesting that he was still being treated in a hospital at the time of the German surrender in May 1945.

After his release from captivity he was posted to the Training Wing of the Parachute Depot but on 4 February 1947 he rejoined the Middlesex Regiment. He then transferred to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers for active service in the Korean War; sold with a paperback edition of Arnhem Spearhead, by James Sims, also of 2nd Para., together with copied roll verification of the recipient’s role and capture at Arnhem and a copied group photograph of ‘A’ Company, 2nd Para taken at Easton Hall, Lincolnshire in June 1944, which includes the recipient.