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With his special forces training completed, Sergeant Roland Barker
was allocated to Operation Arundel as its radio operator. Led by
Captain Martin Smith MC, he was parachuted into the Dolomites in
1944. The team’s brief was to cause havoc in the area around the
Italian border and to infiltrate into Austria. Whilst attempting to
evade German forces, Sergeant Barker and Major Bill Smallwood were
navigating mountainous terrain when the Major fell injuring himself
and thus was unable to move rapidly. Despite their best efforts,
both Smallwood and Barker were subsequently captured by pursuing
German troops who they were unable to outpace. Barker provides a
vivid account of being ‘interrogated’ by the SS and Gestapo and
despite the threats and the terrible conditions, the true nature of
their mission was never revealed to the enemy. Having survived
these experiences, he was incarcerated in Stalag Luft XVIII in
Southern Austria. Ever defiant, Barker escaped by having himself
admitted to the camp hospital and made his way into Hungary, from
where, as this account of his wartime service reveals, he was
eventually repatriated to the UK. After the war Barker opted to
remain in the Army, at which point he took a commission. Promoted
to Major, Barker became the Officer Commanding 22 SAS in Malaya. He
was killed in a helicopter crash in Malaya in 1953, before he could
see through his plan to have his memoir published.
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