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There was life and energy about every phase of life. Everyone put all they knew into everything they did, whether it was working or playing and as a result a splendid spirit of comradeship, esprit de corps, team spirit, call it what you like, developed automatically throughout the Division.

The battalion, for its part, always possessed a distinct spirit of its own just as some individuals have a pronounced personality. No one has ever been able to describe just what this spirit is, and no attempt will be made here, suffice it to say that it exists to a marked degree and that it grew stronger as time went on.

In July 1943 Brigadier JHN Poett joined the Division and was charged with the job of forming and training a brand new brigade, to be known as the 5th Parachute Brigade. His job was formidable and time was not unlimited; he had to get results and he had to get them quickly. One of his first steps was to ask Gen Gale to give him one battalion which was already a going concern which he could use as a nucleus. The Seventh battalion was selected for this job and joined the 5th Brigade the same month and has served in it through all the events described in this account.

The battalion was naturally drawn on freely not only for advice on matters parachuting, but also for personnel. Many first class officers and other ranks left at this stage to assume appointments within the brigade. Their loss was a heavy blow to the battalion but the resulting gain to the brigade as a whole was an asset to everyone, including the battalion. It was a period of give and take but, under the circumstances, included much more give than take as for as the battalion was concerned.

The training of 5 Brigade followed much the same lines as that of 3 Brigade and the rest of the division; there was a very noticeable spirit of competition between the two brigades. The battalion had a big advantage by having served in both of them and practically everyone knew personally the members not only of their own brigade but of the other one as well.

In February 1944 Lt Col HN Barlow, OBE, who commanded the battalion, was transferred to the 1st Airborne Division as Deputy Commander of the 1st Airlanding Brigade, in which capacity he was unhappily killed at Arnhem. The battalion owes much to the steady work put in by Barlow who made no secret of the fact that he would have much preferred to have gone to war in command of the men that he had himself trained. Command of the battalion passed to Maj RG Pine-Coffin, MC who had joined the battalion three months previously from the 1st Airborne Division, and was then Second—in—Command. Not many officers can have had the luck to be handed such a powerful weapon almost simultaneously with the opportunity to wield it.

The battalion was practically ready for action so the training took the form of keeping the edge sharp and the introduction of improvements of method here and there.

The whole division was ready for war at about this time and a considerable number of large scale exercises were carried out, many of them including a parachute descent. It was obvious that, during these exercises, the brigades and battalions were being weighed up against each other and it was a trying time for commanders lest some error of judgement on their part or some case of slackness by any of their subordinates should prejudice the chances of their commands when the selection of the real jobs was being made. The 1st Airborne Division, veterans of North Africa and Italy, were also in England and ready for further action so it was a matter