A brave soldier who was part of the very formation of the Parachute Regiment and served throughout the war as Part of the 4th Battalion with distinction.
Former Para Peter Matthews who was 86 passed away in the Bristol Royal Infirmary on 12th December 2011 after a brief illness. He lived and worked in the Bristol area for over 40 years, initially in the construction industry and in the licensed trade until his retirement.
He was born on 20th February 1925
Wanting to fight for his country when the war broke out he went to the recruiting centre on 21st September 1941 whilst only sixteen years old and stated that he was born in 1923. He enlisted into the London Irish Rifles and almost immediately volunteered for the newly formed Parachute Regiment, then under the umbrella of The Army Air Corps. After training at Hardwicke and Ringway he was posted to B Coy, 4th Bn Parachute Regiment.
In February 1943 he set sail for Oran in Africa and was then deployed to Tunis.
On 5th September 1943 he went to Southern Italy seeing action in Taranto and Laterza. It was during this time in the front line that Peter’s Company Commander Major Dick Hargreaves was awarded the MC. Towards the end of September 1943 the Battalion were re-deployed on the front line on the outskirts of Bari. In October 1943 they were on the outskirts of Naples along what had become known as “The Mad Mile” because of bobby traps and enemy sniper fire. By February 1944 Peter moved on with the Battalion to Monte Casino and after 2 weeks of intense fighting moved position again to Mount Pietro. By May 1944 they were back at Monte Casino and in June of the same year the battalion withdrew to Salerno where they trained for a “Top Secret” operation which would become known as Operation Dragoon, the liberation of Southern France. In August 1944 Peter as part of the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade dropped deep behind enemy lines in the Le Muy region of Southern France. Peter was part of the successful attack to secure the main bridge and crossroads which lead up from the coast and was paramount to help the American seaborne advance. Also as part of B Company Peter also helped liberate the town of Le Muy itself.
Early in September 1944 the battalion was back in Italy deployed to Rome and in October 1944 moved to Foggia to board planes to drop in Greece. The Battalion fought up through Greece to Yugoslavia and then back to Greece. Fierce fighting in and around Athens followed until the cease fire was announced on 5th January 1945.
After the war Peter saw action in Palestine and was de mobbed January 1948.
Le Muy became a special place for Peter and over a 17 year period he never missed one Anniversary of the Liberation on 15th August each year. He contributed when he could to the town museum with military memorabilia.
He and 8 other former members of this operation where held in such high esteem for their achievement they were awarded The Légion d´Honneur by the French government on 16th August 2004.
Peter was also awarded the Greek Star by the Greek Government recognising his action in the Greek Civil war.
Upon leaving the Regiment and after a brief spell playing football for Swindon Town, Peter went to work in the construction industry.

Taken from Michaels own account of his involvement in Operation Dragoon.

“……We spent the first four months of 1944 on Sicily, based on three USAAF bases – Gerbini, Ponte-Olivio & Comiso, (where we loved the food, after our British rations, especially at breakfast – “how many eggs? Sunny side up or easy over?” and all the trimmings!- and the PX !), training with the American aircrews to bring them up to pathfinder standard – to home in on our directional beacons and ground landing aids, so as to avoid a repetition of the disastrous Sicily landings.   We carried out numerous day & night exercises with them, dropping between one man at times and a section of eight at others to let them get experience of making correct landfalls and identifying the dropping/landing zones which we would mark out.

This training paid off in August when we were able to pick our own crews for our pathfinder drop in the south of France (part of Operation “Dragoon”) who dropped us, despite heavy ground fog, on the correct spot.  Our work was also appreciated by the American Air Force, who awarded us the unique right to wear their torch pathfinder batch on the left sleeve of our uniforms.

On Operation “Dragoon” we dropped at 03.34 hrs into the fields & vineyards of the village of Le Mitan  near the village of La Motte & town of Le Muy and set up our Eureka beacons and other landing aids in good – 3 -time for the arrival of the Brigade at dawn.  Again the leading planes of the three battalions were crewed by our friends from Sicily and two of the three battalions landed right on target on our DZ; the third, unfortunately had its Rebecca receiver malfunction and, not receiving the signal from our Eureka beacon, dropped its battalion some miles away.     (They were able to rejoin the Brigade later during the day.)    The value and efficiency of the pathfinder unit had been proved to the full.  During the rest of the  day and subsequently we cleared the ground of obstacles, brought in American gliders and supply drops, created landing strips for light aircraft and so on.   We returned to Italy by sea on 29th August, billeted near Rome, and were re-equipped for our next adventure, already in the pipeline…………”

Michael Compton was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French on the 6oth Anniversary celebrations of Operation Dragoon at La Motte.