Mid-last year my boxes of to be built miniatures had started to cascade off of their storage shelf and onto the extra bed and surrounding floor so I set aside an afternoon and began to clean them up. Organized and stacked in appropriate piles I noticed that between Plastic Soldier Company and Battlefield miniature, I had about 300ish 15mm British airborne figures (over half way to a battalion my inner miniature gremlin quickly let me know). This was quickly followed up by a light bulb moment, wouldn’t it be awesome to model a battalion 1 for 1 in 15mm… and with that thought began a project to recreate the 543 jumpers of the 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion as they mustered on 5 June 1944 in 15mm.

A year, 300 more figures, 3 Horsas, 1 C-47, and 2 custom Albemarles, a handful of CMP trucks, and A LOT of research later, I’m finally ready to start the painting and basing of 543 paratroopers and 6 glider pilots. My original plan was to try and associate every figure with the name of a member who jumped on D-Day, right down to the section they were in, but this turned out to be a much harder task then I thought. Assuming that organizational information from 75 odd years ago would be kept like it is today was my first mistake… always remember, to assume will make an ass out of you and me. Anyway, I hit the google and started firing off emails to Ministries, government organizations, museums, and associations.

What both helped and made this adventure a little more fun was that the 1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion was under the command of the UK’s 3rd Parachute Brigade. The good was that the TO&E and ORBAT for a Second World War British parachute battalion is fairly well documented. The bad part was now reaching out across the air gap in hope that records of the unit were still being held by its parent organization or the National Achieves. As emails started to come back, I was able to start piecing together and corroborate different sources to build the ORBAT of the Battalion but then I struck gold as both Mr. Mark Worthington, Curator of the Museé Memorial-Pegasus, and Dave Pentney, Treasurer Canadian Airborne Forces Association, put me into contact with Ms. Joanne De Vries.

Ms. Joanne De Vries is the wife of the late Jan de Vries, CM. Mr. de Vries was born in the Netherlands and served with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Jumping into Normandy on D-Day he fought until in he was wounded in action by a German sniper in July 1944. Rejoining the Battalion in September 1944, Mr. de Vries again jumped into combat as part of Operation Varsity on March 24, 1945. Following the war Mr. de Vries became a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and remained so for 40 years. He served as a President of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion Association for 12 years and held numerous board positions and membership in other associations and history projects regarding Canadian contributions during World War II. In June 2004, Mr. de Vries was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour and in 2007 was named to the Order of Canada.

I feel very privileged to have been put in touch with Ms. Joanne De Vries, who is still very active in the Airborne community and in keeping the memory of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion alive. She was able to provide me with a scanned copy of the original embarkation and disembarkation list of personnel emplaned in UK 5 JUN 44 and parachuted into FRANCE 6 JUN 44, which has already and will continue to be of great help in this project.

Below are those I would like to thank who took their time to point me in the right direction or help me research the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion:

Ms Joanne De Vries
Mark Worthington, Curator Musee Memorial-Pegasus
Dave Pentney, Treasurer Canadian Airborne Forces Association
Juno Beach Centre
The MOD
Canadian War Museum
The National Archives of the United Kingdom

Some links that have also been key in piecing together and organizing the TO&E and ORBAT of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion:

TO&E for a British parachute Battalion, 22 March 1944

British Parachute Company 1944

6^th Airborne Division ORBAT

1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion War Diary

1^st Canadian Parachute Battalion Info

Now that the research and organization is done, well at last 95% is, it’s time to get on to the main event, recreating the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in 15mm.

Who knows how long it will take but I’ll make sure to keep posting updates as I go along. My original objective was to have the project completed for the 75^th anniversary of D-Day… maybe I’ll shoot of the 75^th of Varsity instead. My final goal of the project would be to have on display in a museum (my dream would be at the Museé Memorial-Pegasus) to honour the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.