Badger | Peter George Henry William
- First names
Peter George Henry William
- Age
21
- Date of birth
1924
- Date of death
07-05-1945
- Service number
4699060
- Rank
Lance Corporal
- Regiment
The Parachute Regiment, A.A.C., 2nd Bn.
- Grave number
IV. A. 2.
Biography
Corporal Peter George Henry William Badger was the son of William (1899-1974) and Doris Mary Badger (1903-1964).
Peter was born on the 12th of August 1923. His parents lived on Archer Lane, Millhouses, Sheffield with their two children.
Peter was first registered in the military in August 1941 but was not officially employed by the British army until November 1942. After his enlistment with the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, he is promoted to Lance Corporal in 1943. After successful completion of his Parachute training on the 21st of May 1943, he was transferred to the 1st Parachute Brigade. In all likelihood, Peter already fought with the 2nd Battalion in Africa and Italy before being sent to The Netherlands in 1944.
September 17th was the day that Operation Market Garden commenced. Along with over 34,000 other paratroopers, Peter was dropped from his C-47 Dakota plane and landed in the area around Renkum. Together with A-Company, he marched on to defend and hold the bridge over the river Rhine at Arnhem. They waited for reinforcements which never showed up.
As many other soldiers during Operation Market Garden, Peter was captured by the Germans on the 21st of September 1944. He was kept in a POW camp in Falingsbostel (Germany) until the 28th of January 1945 due to a presumed pelvis fracture. By the end of January 1945 he was transferred to a camp just south of Berlin: Stalag 3A was liberated by the Russians on the 20th of April 1945.
Only two days after the surrender of the German troops in The Netherlands, Peter George Badger dies in the 7th of May 1945 at the age of 21, it was presumed a death by poisoning. He was initially buried at the American Cemetery in Margraten, after which he was finally laid to rest in Overloon on the 1st of May 1947.
HE WEARS IMMORTAL HONOUR AND IS PROUD WITH THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR ENGLAND
Sources and credits
Bob Hilton (Various official documents e.g. POW cards)
Mark Hickman (Pegasus Archives)
UK 1939 Census (Findmypast.co.uk)
Research Gerard Berkers, Oscar Huisman