Life Story

Early Life and Calling to Arms

Patrick Rupert Richard de Burgh—better known to his comrades

and friends as “Paddy”—was born on 8 November 1923 in Cheshire,

England. He was educated at the Imperial Service College, a school

that prepared many young men for leadership and service for the

country.

When war engulfed Europe in 1939, Paddy was still a schoolboy. By

the time he reached adulthood, Britain was in the throes of its greatest

struggle for survival. In 1941, at just 18 years of age, Paddy enlisted

in the Royal Artillery as a gunner. His intelligence and aptitude for

leadership soon marked him out for greater responsibility, and on 1

May 1943, he received an Emergency Commission as an ofcer.

Into the Airborne: The Road to Arnhem

By 1943, the British Army was developing a formidable airborne

capability—highly trained troops who could strike deep behind enemy

lines. Paddy joined Headquarters, 1st Airborne Division, the elite

formation of paratroopers that had already fought in North Africa and

Italy. Prior to Arnhem the

Arnhem – The Gamble of Market Garden

In the late summer of 1944, Allied forces surged across France and

Belgium after the Normandy breakout. Many believed the war could

be won by Christmas. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery proposed

an audacious plan—Operation Market Garden—to seize a corridor

of bridges through Holland, allowing a rapid advance into Germany’s

industrial heartland, the Ruhr. It would be the largest airborne operation