Several groups
within the German armed forces attempted to raise their
own paratroop formations, resulting in confusion. As a
result a Luftwaffe general, Kurt Student, was put in
overall command of developing an airborne force. Student
created a force with three elements - a small glider
commando for attacking special targets, one division of
paratroops backed by another of air-landing troops. In
support was a 500 strong force of Junkers 52 aircraft.
During the
invasion of Scandinavia on 9 April 1940 the Luftwaffe
dropped paratroops for the first time on operations. In
Denmark a small unit was dropped on the Masnedøfort on
the small island of Masnedo to seize the Storstrom
Bridge linking the islands of Falster and Zealand.
Paratroops also dropped onto Aalborg airfield which was
crucial for planned Luftwaffe operations over Norway. A
company sized force dropped onto Oslo's undefended
airfield. Over the course of the morning and early
afternoon, Student flew in sufficient reinforcements to
move into the capital during that same afternoon. By
that time the Norwegian government had fled the city.
A month later on
the 10 May 1940 Hitler invaded Holland, Belgium and
France. German paratroopers landed at three airfields
near the Hague and hoping to seize the Dutch government.
They were soon driven from one of these airfields. The
first wave of reinforcements flown in by Junkers 52s
suffered heavily from anti-aircraft fire and fierce
resistance by the Dutch troops. Landing aircraft crashed
and burning aircraft blocked the runway, preventing
further reinforcements from landing. This was one of the
rare occasions where airfields captured by paratroops
were recaptured - the other two airfields were
recaptured. Another group landed by seaplane to seize
bridges near Rotterdam. Simultaneously the Germans
dropped small packets of paratroopers to seize crucial
bridges that led directly across the Netherlands and
into the heart of the country. These latter attacks,
though not all successful, opened the way for the 9th
Panzer Division. Within a day the Dutch position swiftly
deteriorated. The airborne operation eventually
recovered its momentum but the Dutch forces inflicted
high losses among the Junkers 52 fleet.
From the Swiss
frontier to the southern Ardennes, a string of
fortresses known as the Maginot Line defended France.
Northwards the wooded hills of the Ardennes were
regarded as impassable for the German armoured
formations and Belgium remained neutral. Hitler launched
his main attack through the Ardennes with a right hook
through neutral Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force
moved straight into Belgium to defend Brussels and cover
the northern flank of the French Army.
Troops of the
Brandenburger Regiment landed by Storch light aircaft on
the bridges immediately to the south of the 10 Panzer
Division's route of march through the southern Ardennes.
A small group of German glider-borne troops landed on
top of the Belgian fortress of Eban Emael on the morning
of 10 May. Attacking through the roof hatches, they soon
disabled the majority of its heavy guns. The fort held
on for another day before surrendering; it's loss opened
up Belgium to attack by a whole German army group.
Ironically it was the British who took to heart the
brilliance of these tactics and four years later
employed the same formula during the night on D Day.
Two days after
the Dunkirk Evacuation ended on the 4 June 1940 Winston
Churchill wrote a minute with a list of offensive
measures - including 5000 paratroops - for attacking the
coastline of occupied France. After the French
surrendered Churchill returned to the charge with
another minute on the 22
June 1940 to General ' Pug ' Ismay his Military Aide
at 10 Downing Street, proposing a corps of at least 5000
parachute troops and urged that advantage be taken
of the summer to train these forces, who could play
a role as shock troops in home defence. Short of
aircraft, facing massive air attack and invasion,
not surprisingly the RAF only reluctantly agreed to
train a small force of 500 rather than the 5000
paratroops Churchill wanted. A fundamental decision
was whether to create small airborne units for
coup-de-main operations, like Eban
Emael, or whether to form entire Airborne Divisions for
large operations. As with most innovation in the British
Army a Royal Engineer was sent for and two days
after Churchill wrote his perceptive minute the War
Office summoned Major John Rock and informed him
that he was charged with the formation of airborne forces.
Across the
Atlantic on the 25 June the Parachute Test Platoon was
set up at Fort Benning. The Chief Instructor, Warrant
Officer ' Tug ' Wilson, was a veteran of the 1928
experimental jump. They began jumping during August and
a leading figure was Major William C Lee who was
promoted and the following spring created the
Provisional Parachute Group. Many of the famous names in
US airborne history became involved at this stage and
Lee, who later rose to high rank, became known as the '
Father of Airborne Forces ' in the US Army. Crete in May
1941 triggered the major expansion of US airborne forces
and the newly formed 501 Parachute Infantry Battalion
was ordered to expand into a regiment of three
battalions. From this time starts the ' airborne
brotherhood ' between American and British airborne
troops. General Hap Arnold, Chief of the USAAF and a
staunch supporter of mass airborne tactics, took Lee
over to England and General Browning paid a return visit
to the USA. Churchill then invited Roosevelt to allow
the 2nd Battalion of the 503 Parachute Infantry Regiment
an attachment with 1 British Airborne Division.
America's military attaché lent the 1 Airborne the very
first jeep to reach British shores. Today the tradition
continues strong as ever with cross-postings, exchanges
of ideas and presently combat in Afghanistan.


The
German airborne assault of the island of Crete in May
1941 -jumping from three motor Junkers 52 transports -
at least three still flying today - although with parachutes they could
not steer.
During July and
August 1940 both
German airborne divisions prepared to spearhead an
invasion across the Channel. Throughout the summer and
autumn a great air battle raged over southern England.
By early October the Luftwaffe recognised they had been
defeated by the British fighter pilots and that while
night bombing could be carried out almost without loss,
there was no possibility of supporting an invasion force
during daylight.
A year later Student's airborne
force won its greatest victory and suffered its greatest
losses during the invasion of the island of Crete in May 1941. Ultra intercepts enabled the British
Commonwealth Forces to strengthen the defences at each
intended German drop zone but the intercepts - detailed Luftwaffe
message traffic - also implied a seaborne threat and
General Freyberg, a tough New Zealander, had no choice other
than to allow for the possibility otherwise the invasion
might have been repulsed.
Despite
compromised secrecy, consequent severe losses, the surviving German paratroops and air-landed
mountain troops established airheads on the airfields
and pushed the Commonwealth Forces off the
island. Air support from bases in Greece proved
overwhelming and the paratroops were heavily armed.
Though seaborne reinforcements were destroyed by the
Royal Navy at night - the Royal Navy dared not operate
during the day off Crete. Eventually there was no choice
when the garrison needed to be taken off the island.
After the evacuation almost half the Mediterranean Fleet
had been sunk or damaged. However, Student's losses were
so great that Hitler forbade any more such operations. He regarded the main power of the paratroops
was their novelty. Clearly the British had learnt how to
defend against paratroops. No further major airborne
operations were attempted but later a parachute corps
was based in Southern France as a strategic reserve.
The battle that ended Germany's airborne operations
had the opposite effect on the Allies. Heavy German
casualties during the Battle of Crete were hidden from
Allies. Convinced of the effectiveness of airborne
assaults, the Allies hurried to train and organize their
own airborne units.


With a
blank sheet of paper the instructors at Ringway copied
whatever they could from the German Fallschirmjaeger in
the right photo.
The previous
summer the Central
Landing School opened at Ringway near Manchester to
train the first 500 paratroops who
became known as the ' Argonaut ' in British Airborne
folklore. These troops belonged to Number 2 Commando
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel I Jackson. All were
volunteers. B and C Troops arrived on 9 July and the
first training jumps took place on the 13 July with a
demonstration by the RAF instructors.
Rock quickly discovered that nobody in the
Army had any advise let alone a policy on airborne
forces. He set to work
with two RAF officers - Louis Strange and ( Sir ) Nigel
Norman - and Major John Lander who concentrated on
designing equipment. Training jumps were made from an
old Bombay bi-plane and later from the
cramped fuselage of converted Whitley bombers. The
Bombay with a door exit was a far better parachute
aircraft but obsolete for operations. Aircrew
clothing and flying helmets were used to begin with but
gradually a soft helmet and parachute smock were
developed - copying samples captured from German
paratroops as were the parachutes for there was not much
else to go on. The first jumps employed the pull-off -
an established method for teaching aircrew - where the
parachutist stood on a platform ( replacing the rear-gun
turret ) faced into the slip-stream and pulled the
rip-cord. However, airborne troops would need to land
close together, so an aperture cut in the aircraft floor
became the normal exit method. The great fear was a '
roman candle ' when the parachute failed to open and
there were two fatalities before GQ the parachute makers produced a parachute that
would open safely with a static line attached to a wire
cable running through the aircraft. Once equipped with
this forerunner of the famous X type parachute - which
remained in service for nearly three decades - the RAF
instructors mastered the techniques of teaching soldiers how
to exit safely.
Training was
hampered because there were only four Whitleys and
not always serviceable. All sorts of ground
equipment was invented and tried out. Not all proved
wise - such as jumping from moving trucks - and the
injury rate soon ruled out other ideas. At this stage
some instructors were Army and that November one
officer along with Flight Sergeant Brereton RAF and
another volunteer travelled south to try jumping
from a balloon cage. The balloon floated like a
tired elephant over a hangar floor at Cardington. As
it was too windy for parachuting they tried floating
inside the hangar until below the bird and bat
infested roof. All three
were soon violently sick. Next day in calmer weather all
three jumped and before long every paratrooper made
their first two jumps from a balloon.


The
author aged 18 on the left of the stick about to jump
from the balloon cage at 800 feet. You can see behind us
the cage and the balloon's tail fin and the windsock on
its cable. We're all wearing the wartime X type main
parachute with its central quick release box. This
allows you to slip from the parachute harness rather
than have the wind drag you along the drop zone after
landing. We're also all wearing reserves - one fails to
understand the British though not American wartime logic which regarded reserve
parachutes as superfluous! Balloon jumps allowed
the parachutist to master exits and steering without the
wind blast experienced when leaving a big aircraft.
And cost much less!
Only in recent
years has the balloon given way to a small aircraft. For
those lucky enough to experience balloons, nothing quite
matched the peaceful ascent, nor that feeling of
stepping off an 800 foot high wall. Once you stepped
into the void, all you heard was the swish of slipstream
until your boots floated
level with your eyes just before a crisp crackle
announced the parachute opening and you peered
skywards at a streaming khaki canopy. The colours and
sharpness of sky and landscape were
never less than spectacular. I once counted mushroom rings
from 800 feet, clearly showing below on the green meadows of Oxfordshire. The RAF trained no less than 60,000 troops as
parachutists during the war and with remarkably few
fatalities and relatively few serious injuries. During the 1950s and
1960s some 10,000 paratroops
and SAS troopers made at least 8 jumps each year with
hardly any serious accidents. This amazing record continues to the present
day although the troop numbers are now halved and all
too often penny-pinching cancels jump training sorties. After the
war the parachute school moved from Ringway to RAF Abingdon
in the Thames Valley and nowadays is not far away at RAF Brizenorton.

A Horsa
glider towed by an Albermarle bomber.
Sadly John Rock
was killed testing a glider during October 1942
otherwise he would have become an even greater influence
on airmobile strategy and tactics. George Chatterton
took his place as commander of the Glider Pilot
Regiment.
Britain’s first airborne assault
- Operation Colossus - took place on 10 February 1941 when 'X' Troop, No 11 Special Air Service
Battalion (which was formed from No 2 Commando and
subsequently became 1st Battalion, The Parachute
Regiment) dropped into southern Italy from converted
Whitley bombers flying from Malta and demolished a span
of the aqueduct at Tragino. One wonders why this target
was chosen other than nobody in Southern Italy expected
an attack by paratroops from southern England. After
destroying the aqueduct the raiding party had to march
50 miles to the coast where a submarine, HMS Triumph, would pick them
up. Nearly seventy years later this sounds an incredibly
optimistic plan.


Jumping
with weapons containers from a Whitley over Netheravon.
This left hand photo was probably taken in 1941 or
1942. A paratrooper is exiting through a hole in the
aircraft floor keeping himself at attention so he falls
cleanly and avoids his rigging lines twisting as the
canopy opens. It's surprisingly like a modern student
free-fall exit. The previous jumper is already well
below the aircraft - showing it's flying slowly to
reduce the wind blast - and the parachute rigging lines are fully
paid out along with the parachute canopy emerging from the bag
dangling below the aircraft. Only a cotton break-tie
still holds the parachute apex to the bag - so that the
chute drags against the aircraft's speed and thus opens
faster and tidily - and this tie about to snap before the canopy
deploys cleanly. The basic techniques for opening static
line parachutes are still the same. Netheravon is
now the home of the Army Parachute Centre busy teaching
soldiers how to jump free-fall for business or sport. The right hand
photo shows a parachutist making a good clean door exit and
wearing a soft helmet.
Everyone in the
battalion volunteered but the force
selected numbered 38 men led by Major T Pritchard. A
strong Royal Engineers contingent under Captain Daley
were to carry out the demolitions while the rest of
Pritchard's force acted as the protection party. Three
spoke Italian including a former waiter from the Savoy
Hotel. Two of them were Italian citizens. Lieutenant
Tony Deane-Drummond was sent ahead to organise the
preparations in Malta. On the night one man drowned
through landing in a lake and the explosives were
dropped two miles off target. Worse, engine failure
caused a Whitley to crash - exactly where HMS Triumph
was to wait offshore to pick them up. Her captain
decided that staying in such a hot spot risked losing
his ship and was given permission to slip away. All the
raiders were soon captured; the former waiter, sadly, was tried and
shot. One man escaped and eventually returned to England.
During April
Winston Churchill paid a visit to the Central Landing
School with Averill Harriman, President Roosevelt's
personal representative, and they watched a
demonstration jump and glider landing. Churchill was
asked if he would like to give the order to start the
show. He politely declined. This was just as well - a
voice over the loud speakers explained that he couldn't start right then as six
of the buggers had just fainted.



Winston
Churchill and General ' Boy ' Browning in 1941 - centre
photo about a
year later during the war showing a test flight with the Hanibal
glider capable of delivering a small tank -
American airborne troopers making a training jump. Already the
troops are tucking tight into an exit position -
avoiding twisted rigging lines - and jumping with steel
helmets thus ready for combat, moreover wearing purpose
designed jump boots. Their parachutes are also designed
for the job.
After the Battle
of Crete, barely a month later, Winston Churchill immediately
pressed for his 5000 parachute troops and brooked no
argument. Churchill had no wish to be told that Cyprus
had been captured by German paratroops or worse, the
Suez Canal. He saw the strategic opportunities. The future General Frederick ' Boy' Browning
became the commander of Britain's airborne
forces. Browning had shared a dugout with Churchill
on the Western Front during the latter's political exile during the First
World War. A guardsman and qualified glider pilot, he believed in training,
professionalism, discipline and smartness. Browning was married to the popular novelist,
Daphne du Maurier. Airborne folklore claims that he took home a selection of
berets and emblems for the new formation - sand, maroon, sky
blue and green berets plus heraldic
badges. Daphne du Maurier chose the maroon beret. She
may have influenced the decision is a more probable
story.
Browning commissioned Major Edward Seago, an artist, to
design an emblem - Seago came up with Bellerophon and Pegasus the winged horse in sky blue. Later David
Stirling's SAS was to take the sand beret and the Army
Air Corps the sky blue. Green berets were adopted by
Britain's commandos. At first the parachute troops
wore the Army Air Corps cap badge until replaced by the
one still worn today. The red beret first went into
action in North Africa during November 1942 and its wearers soon baptised as ' Die Roten Teufeln - the
Red Devils ' by their German opponents.
Operation Squatter took place
on the night of 16 November 1941 and was a raid on
Axis airfields in Libya. Some
54 members of 'L' Detachment, Special Air Service
Brigade (largely drawn from the disbanded
Layforce) mounted a night parachute insertion onto
two Drop Zones in Bir Temrad, North Africa. The
operation involved an
attack on the forward airfields of Gambut and Tmimi in
order to destroy the Axis fighter force on the ground
before the start of a major offensive by the British
Eighth Army.

Among Browning's
first actions was to pick Brigadier Richard Gale and
task him with forming the First Parachute Brigade from
the core First Parachute Battalion. Gale split the
battalion into three and built three battalions from the
original companies. Much of the attitude, approach and
spirit of Britain's airborne forces was sown
by Richard Gale. He was much loved by his men and famed for
a turn of phrase that was both earthy and inspiring.


Johnnie
Frost describing the Bruneval Raid still wearing his
jumping jacket copied from the Germans and years later with Lord Louis
Mountbatten at the dedication of the memorial on the
cliffs.
The first
airborne venture across the Channel was Operation
Biting on the 27 February 1942. Scientists were anxious
to know more about the German radar - particularly
whether it could be confused by a technique known as '
windows ' by which strips of foil dropped from aircraft
resembled radar reflections of ships or aircraft. Today
we call this by its NATO code-name - chaff. The
radar known as a giant Wuerzburg sent out medium length
waves of sufficient accuracy to enable flak gunners to
engage unseen aircraft. At that time Britain possessed
no comparable position finder or gun-layer radar and the
Wuerzburg had been giving RAF aircraft trouble for some
months. The scientists were keen to have a look at
components from this superior radio-location equipment. A site
near Cap d' Antifier on the cliffs at Bruneval was
chosen. On a snowy night a company of British Paratroopers from 2
Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, commanded by Major
John Frost took off from Thruxton and jumped about a
mile inland from the Wuerzburg radar. Sergeant
Cox of the RAF jumped with them. He dismantled the key electronic
components of the system and brought them back to Britain
for examination so that counter measures could be
devised and the technology stolen. There was considerable opposition from the
Germans but nearly all the force reached the
beach and were taken off by the Royal Navy.


On the way to
Normandy we fly alongside Bruneval and point out where
the raid took place. Left hand photo shows the
Wuerzburg radar dish and odd-looking villa where its
crew lived. Right hand photo taken from near the
memorial shows the cliffs today - the villa has long
gone - and the valley exit onto the rather exposed beach
where Frost's men waited for the Royal Navy to come
inshore and pick them up. Three pill boxes on the cliff are also long gone but the photo gives a very clear idea
of how hard it must have been to hold the beach under
heavy fire before the navy arrived. Bruneval was a text
book coup de main by a small airborne force - tactical
daring married to surprise delivered a huge strategic
gain. Windows confused German radars for the rest of the
war and played a vital role in the crucial deception
plan on the night of D Day.

Horsa
glider towed by a Lancaster bomber.
For some
time SOE had been receiving reports from the Norwegians
that the Norsk Hydro plant at Rjukan was involved in the
production of deuterium oxide - heavy water - which acts
as a moderator in nuclear reaction. After the invasion
of Norway the Germans ordered Norsk Hydro to produce a
substancial amount of heavy water for their atomic bomb
research. Situated on the side of a steep wooded valley
among high mountains east of Stavanger and north of
Oslo, the plant was a difficult target for bombers, nor
was there a suitable open space for landing gliders or
paratroops. A suitable LZ for gliders was found a day's
march from the plant and Eureke signals devices smuggled
into the area by the Norwegian resistance. On the 19
November 1942 the operation went ahead.
Two Halifax bombers
each towing a Horsa glider set off from Wick airfield in
northern Scotland for their distant objective in
southern Norway. The importance of the task was such
that all risks had to be taken but this remained the
first time that British gliders set out to attack the
enemy. One flown by Sergeant M. F. C. Strathdee and Sergeant P. Doig of the Glider Pilot
Regiment, the other by Pilot Officer Davis and Sergeant
Fraser of the Royal Australian Air Force. Each glider
carried fifteen sappers, all volunteers, under the
command of Lieutenant Methven, G. M. The Royal Engineers
were from 9 Field Company and 261 Field Park Company.
Their task was to destroy the heavy water production
plant and the difficulties were considerable. In the
first place, towing gliders was an art which the tug
crews had not been given much time to practice.
Secondly, the tugs had to be adapted and their engines,
having to pull the added weight of the glider behind,
developed defects, particularly in the cooling system.
Fortunately these and other troubles were discovered
during the practice tows and remedied,
so that on the night of the operation two Halifaxes were
serviceable, though a third held in reserve could not be
flown. The greatest difficulty of all was the distance
to be covered, some 400 miles on a freezing night,
combined with the necessity for extremely accurate
navigation over the rugged mountainous district where their
target lay.
We shall never know all the details because so few
survived. A correct weather forecast was of vital
importance. On the morning of the attempt, thick cloud
for most of the way, but clear skies and a good moon
over the target area were promised. The two Halifax
bombers took off while it was still light and set course
for Norway. Almost immediately the intercommunication
system connecting the gliders and the tugs broke down.
One Halifax kept low, seeking to fly beneath the cloud
and then to gain height on nearing the Norwegian coast,
where the pilot hoped for clear weather. What happened
is not exactly known, but at some moment the tug hit the
side of a mountain, crashed, and all its crew were
killed. The violence of the shock loosed the glider,
which made a very heavy landing close by, killing and
injuring several of its occupants.
The other Halifax was more fortunate. It flew high and
approached the Norwegian coast at 10,000 feet. Here, as
promised, the weather cleared, but it was found
impossible to locate the landing zone. Though
the best that could be obtained, their maps were
exceedingly inaccurate, and the necessary pin-point
navigation could not therefore be achieved. The whole
district was covered with snow which made the
identification of objects on the ground even more
difficult. The pilot of the Halifax, Squadron Leader A.
B. Wilkinson, with his commanding officer, Group Captain
T. B. Cooper, DFC, on board, made every effort to find
the right spot, until, with petrol running low, he was
forced to turn for home. The glider was still at the end
of its tow rope, but on crossing the coast the combination
ran into heavy cloud and icing conditions, the air
became very bumpy, and the two parted. This glider, too,
made land and crashed not very far from the other. The
survivors of both gliders were captured and almost
immediately fell into the hands of the Gestapo. Hitler
had given an order that all commandos were to be shot.
The injured of the second glider were administered
poison by German doctors in Stavanger Hospital. The
remaining survivors of the first glider were shot within
a few hours and the survivors from the second glider
some two months later. Because he did not intervene or
disobey the order - the legendary Desert Fox, Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel ignored such orders - after the
war, General von Falkenhorst, German Commander in Norway
at the time, was found guilty of war crimes and
sentenced to be shot himself. This was later commuted to
20 years in prison. In a sense von Falkenhorst, dismissed by Hitler because he behaved well
towards the Norwegians, became a
scapegoat for the Nazi Chief in Norway, the hated Josef Terboven, who
rather than surrender blew himself up along with the corpse of
the SS Commander who already had shot himself.
All these operations
were small scale, classic coup de main attacks, Frost's
smash and grab raid on Bruneval with a whole company by
far the largest. Shortage of aircraft dictated
that nothing more could be attempted. This situation was
about to change dramatically. Nearly 2000 miles south
the newly formed British First Parachute Brigade and US 503 Parachute Infantry
supported by USAAF 60th and 64th Troop Carrier Groups had gone into
action along the coast of North Africa.
AIRBORNE TWO
AIRBORNE THREE
BRITISH DEFENCE STRATEGY