Talk:6th Airborne Division (United Kingdom)

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1 Division Numbering
2 Nickname
3 Glider Pilot Regiment
4 Page move

[edit] Division Numbering

The reason the second Br ABD was number 6th was that the preceding numbers were deception formations (info from Axis History Forum - http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=67514): 2nd,formed with the 11th & 12th Parachute Brigades and 13th Air-Landing Brigade. Based in Lincolnshire. Used as a deception division leading up to DDay, and then again for the proposed Air-Op around Kiel-Bremen when actually Arnhem was underway. The Division was disbanded in December'44, as its troops provided replacements for the 1st & 6th Airborne Divisions.

3rd, was active in SE Asia, for proposed missions in Burma etc. Elements of 5th Parachute Brigade (6th Airborne) were allocated to the division from March'45 onwards

4th, composed as of April 1943 of the 6th (Gurkha) Parachute Brigade, 1st Special Air Service Brigade and 7th Airborne Brigade (OoB's available if you want). The division arrived in Palestine in early'42 for notional op's against Greece. Then moved to Cyrenaica as part of Twelth Army for nominal op's against Crete.

5th was activated in late 1943 and contained the genuine 2nd Parachute Brigade from 1st Airborne. The division stayed in the western Med till 1944 where it was used in various ploys concerning Allied landings along the Adriatic coast. At a later stage German agents were close to finding that this division was not all it was made out to be. So the division was moved. Its HQ and 9th Brigade were sent to Rome, where the genuine 2nd Parachute Brigade was based, whilst its 8th Brigade was 'sent' to Malta for training and to recieve reinforcements from England.

32nd (Air Transit), formed in late '44, and was doing training with transport aircraft, under Central Command, India in early 1945

[edit] Nickname

1st Airborne Division gained the name Red Devils during the fighting in Tunisa, but did this nickname carry over to all British airborne forces?--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 15:09, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't believe so, although a number of post-war publications do use the phrase to refer to all British airborne divisions and forces. Skinny87 (talk) 10:50, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Cheers, with no official word on it or citations to show it was used during there service ill remove it.--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 14:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

If you wouldn't mind replacing it in the article, I have a book I've just used in the Operation Varsity which I can use to cite it, but it'll take a few days to get a hold of it and cite from it. Skinny87 (talk) 18:24, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok then, right oh - readded--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 21:12, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Glider Pilot Regiment

The current Order of Battle shows that two wings of the Glider Pilot Regiment was attached to the division for the invasion of Normandy, is this correct? I would have imagined they were assigned to lift the division in but not temporally attached to the division so i.e Gale would have command etc of them. Can anyone clear this up?--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 14:12, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, it's my understanding that the Glider Regiment pilots were trained as infantry and often fought alongside the infantry they had piloted into battle. Whether that means they were under Gale's control I'm unsure of. Skinny87 (talk) 16:39, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

At Arnham they were deployed as Infantry and dug in holding the line , I have not read/seen anything about what they did in Normandy , Skinny 87 is correct that they were trained as infantry unlike there US couterparts who had had no training and had to be defended by the troops they delivered .

JS1 (talk) 17:00, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Right oh, fair enough guys :) --EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 17:24, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Page move

Just to let everyone here know why, I moved the page (Airborne -> Airbourne) to conform with WP:ENGVAR. Since this is a British military article, it should use British English. I'm sure there wouldn't be many American paratroopers happy with 82nd Airbourne Division (United States) :). Parsecboy (talk) 22:36, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

As stated on the talk age for the 1st Airborne, i dont believe this is the correct spelling.

The army and the official history do not spell it this way and it doesnt even show up as a legimate version of the word in the Oxford or Cambridge dictionaries.--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 23:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

See my reply on 1st Airborne. Parsecboy (talk) 00:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)