The Red Beret

The Story of the Parachute Regiment at war 1940-1945

by Hilary St. George Saunders

Michael Joseph, 1952, black and white photographic plates, black and white photographic frontispiece, illustrated endpapers (maps), hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges, corners and covers, no inscriptions, some foxing on fore edges, small hole on title page, clipped dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing, bumping, chipping and small tears (see photographs)

“This is the story of the Parachute Regiment, of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men, drawn from almost every unit of the British Army, who volunteered to reach the field of battle by a novel and unique method.  They were the first to wear the Red Beret, and to ern for themselves the name of the ‘Red Devils’, bestowed upon them in North Africa by an enemy who had good cause to fear their prowess.  They were not however, the only members of the British Army to wear this distinguished headgear.   Those who dropped with them belongings to the Royal Engineers, the Royal Admiralty, the Royal Corps of Signals, the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps and those who went to battle in gliders also wore it and added lustre to its fame.”