I first saw this four decades ago and as a young lad thought it was true to life. One of my uncles was a paratrooper during the war and told he it was bunkum. The character played by Ladd wouldn't have lasted a day in real life. They made him (or he played it ) like a tough guy. Maybe in the American market this works but not in 1940's wartime Britain. But hey Ho this film was made to make money for people and not anything else. It's a yarn.