Sidney Frank Capon

1924 – 2006

Sidney was born in 1924 and comes from a large family of 7 children from London. When war broke out in 1939, he was only 15, so he was too young to enlist. In 1942, he was disqualified from the RAF because he was colour-blind and joined the army. He was quickly assigned to the King’s Royal Rifle Corps based in Fulford where he began his training and was sent six weeks later to the East Surrey Regiment based in Kent before joining the Parachute Regiment and the 9th Battalion for his new training.
On the night of June 5, he and his comrades embark in the dakotas that will transport them to Normandy. In the early hours of June 6, he and a hundred of his comrades reached the meeting point of the 9th Battalion. Despite the small number of paratroopers present at that time, about 150, he will participate in the assault of the battery. He was part of the 32-man No. 12 platoon commanded by Lieutenant Alan Jefferson. Their objective was to seize casemate 1. Unfortunately, at the time of the assault, there were only a third of them, only a dozen present. After having fought at the Merville Battery, he will take part in the various battles located a few kilometers from Merville: in the Plain, in the Bois des Monts, in the Mesnil and in the Bois de Bavent. On 24 July, he was wounded by a German shell and was transported to a first aid station before being repatriated to England.

After some convalescence, he managed to return to the paras of the 9th Battalion at the Bulford barracks. In December 1944, with the 9th Battalion, he was sent to the Belgian Ardennes before jumping the following year in Germany to cross the Rhine and finish his journey in the Baltic Sea at the time the war stopped in Europe. Then the 9th went to India and Palestine. Along with other paratroopers of the 9th Battalion, Sid was decorated with the Legion of Honour in 2005, he died the following year.