6353580 Private Stephen George Danby
6353580 Private Stephen George Danby was born on January 26th 1924 in Birmingham, Warwickshire;
the son of Walter Edward Danby and Ethel (née Howes) Danby.
Stephen joined the Army on November 28,
1940 and attended parachute course No. 45 at Ramat David in Palestine from 01 to 12 June 1943. After succesfully completing
the course he was assigned to C Company, 11th Parachute Battalion.
During the Battle of Arnhem Stephen was taken
prisoner of war. However, Stephen had other ideas about being held captive and in his Escape & Evasion report of MI9 he stated the following.
“I was dropped with the 11th
Parachute Battalion on 18 September 1944 about six miles West of Arnhem. On the morning of 19 September we were
split up in an attack and three others (names not known, but one a Sergeant in the S. Staffs Regt) and I were
proceeding to regroup, when we ran straight into a German Machine Gun post, the crew of which had apparently been
watching us. No shots had been fired. We were blindfolded and led away to a dense wood, where the blindfold bandages
were removed. There were four of us, and we were being led by two sentries. I was with the Sergeant in the South
Staffordshire Regiment, and we managed to lag behind with our sentry and, when we saw our opportunity, jump on him
from behind and knock him senseless. I believe we killed him. The Sergeant took the sentry's gun, which turned out
to be my Sten gun. We agreed to separate, the Sergeant keeping the gun.
I wandered aimlessly throughout the night,
crossed the railway bridge West of Arnhem, and continued South. At about mid-day on 20 September I was passing a
house near the village of Elst when I was seen and drawn into the house by some Dutch people, who put me in touch
with the underground movement. I was here until 23 September 1944. On 21 September a pilot of a Stirling bomber crew
which had bailed out came to the house. On 23 September the Germans were about to enter Elst and we had to move. The
pilot and I left on our own and ran into British troops (the Worcestershires) just south of Elst”.
In 1952 he married Merrie Mathilda Brown in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.
Stephen died on 21st January 2005 in Solihull, West Midlands