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BR E Airborne
Private Sidney Capon was one of the men who went with Otway to blow
up the Merville Battery. Like everybody else in the 9th Parachute Bn,
the drop was haphazard due to flak. He landed in a field expecting to
see hundreds of other paratroopers and all he saw was the silhouette
of his friend Priveat Bert Hall who was in the same platoon. Capon had
seen him coning down through the air a short way from him. When he saw
Hall in the field he was instantly challenged by Bert with the password
which for that day was "Punch” and "Judy”. Bert called out "Punch *1
and Capon replied "Sid Capon".
At the rendezvous he discovered that of the entire 600 men who were to
attack the battery ohly 150 of them had assembled.
The following items will liven up the Otway march towards the battery:-
He remembers two Germans who came out of a trench one of them holding a
Red Cross box with the cross facing his captors high above his head.
The Red Cross presumably was an effort on their part to Indicate that they
wanted to surrender. He rembers the confusion during the attack on the
battery with Germans pushing one another out, many of them shouting
"Ruski, Ruski".
He particularly remembers Lieutenant Alan Jefferson blowing a hunting horn
as they went to attack the battery. He saw [crossed out] Jefferson [end crossed out] fall and he is
not sure whether he stood on a mine or was shot. Jefferson
But although wounded Jefferson continued to blow the horn and in between
blasts yelled "Carry on, carry on". He remembers Jefferson being a short
thick set strong type who was extremely polite.
Capon survived the attack but as they were=leaving the battery he was
nearly killed by our own planes who strafed and bombed the area.
Pick up additional details from questionnaire and letter.