John Frost

Major-General J.D. Frost was a true British Hero of the 2nd World War. He was born the son of Brigadier-General F.D. Frost of the Indian Army in 1912. Educated at Wellington public school and Sandhurst Military Academy he joined the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), with whom he served in England and Palestine. At the outbreak of WWII he had been seconded to the Iraqui Levies and was quietly enjoying colonial life. However he soon volunteered to become one of the first of the newly formed parachute corps. His first action was a combined operation to parachute into occupied France and break into a German radar station to steal all the equipment (and a few prisoners) to see how advanced the German radar was. This raid was used as the basis of the movie "Paratrooper (1953)". He then took the 2nd battalion through sterling service in the North African campaign, twice parachuting far behind enemy lines, causing chaos and fighting their way home. After landings in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy they came home to rest before joining the main invasion of Europe. On the 17th September 1944, he led the 2nd battalion as part of operation Market Garden, where the Parachute Brigade was dropped "A A Bridge Too Far (1977) (1977)". Of the thousands who were dropped on the far bank of the Rhine (10 miles from the bridge they were to defend) only John Frost and a few hundred men fought their way to the bridge, where they found they had been dropped in the middle of two SS panzer divisions !! The whole brigade had been ordered to hold the bridge for the two days that were thought to be required. Instead a single battalion held the bridge against overwhelming odds for 3 days and 4 nights. Just before they had to surrender, John Frost was wounded in the legs by a mortar bomb and was taken prisoner for the duration. On his release after the war, he returned to staff college, became variously GOC Malta and Libya and commanded the T.A. parachute brigade. He retired in 1968 and took up farming in West Sussex.