Airborne forces

Airborne

Military parachuting or gliding form of inserting personnel or supplies.

Purpose

Delivering personnel, equipment, or supplies.

Origins

Attributed to Italian troops on November 1927.

Parawings worn by members of the British Armed Forces who have undergone Parachute Training at RAF Brize Norton.
U.S. Air Force airmen from the 720th STG jumping out of a C-130J Hercules aircraft during water rescue training in the Florida panhandle

Airborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and "dropped" into battle, typically by parachute. Thus, they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have the capability to deploy almost anywhere with little warning. The formations are limited only by the number and size of their aircraft, so given enough capacity a huge force can appear "out of nowhere" in minutes, an action referred to as vertical envelopment.

Conversely, airborne forces typically lack the supplies and equipment for prolonged combat operations, and are therefore more suited for airhead operations than for long-term occupation; furthermore, parachute operations are particularly sensitive to adverse weather conditions. Advances in helicopter technology since World War II have brought increased flexibility to the scope of airborne operations, and air assaults have largely replaced large-scale parachute operations, and (almost) completely replaced combat glider operations.

General information

Paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division jump from a C-17 Globemaster at Ft. Bragg, N.C., during Exercise Joint Forcible Entry in April 2005.

Airborne forces can be divided into three categories:

The basic premise of airborne forces is that they can arrive with such speed that a coherent defence cannot be mounted quickly. It is assumed that this tactical advantage cannot be sustained for very long, so paratroopers must either use the supplies of the enemy, be continuously resupplied by air or wait to be relieved by ground troops. Though airborne troops are usually defenceless in transit, their sudden appearance can surprise or 'shock' defending forces for a short time.

Airborne forces are generally composed of infantry and light, non-armored vehicles and guns. In World War II light motorcycles were used by paratroopers; the American Cushman Model 53 and the British Welbike. After the Korean War, vehicles light enough to be dropped by parachute were developed, such as the M551 Sheridan tank. The Soviets developed the BMD-1 and BMD-3 fighting vehicles. Helicopters can transport light armored vehicles such as the German Wiesel AWC, LAV-25 and British CVR(T) series. Large transports can carry only small numbers of main battle tanks or heavier infantry fighting vehicles.

Early history

The idea of "Sky Soldiers" is by no means a recent thought; Benjamin Franklin envisioned a time when soldiers would be delivered from the sky, with a crude, rudimentary understanding of parachutes:

"Where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense, so that ten thousand men descending from the clouds might not, in many places, do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?" —Benjamin Franklin, 1784

Although Winston Churchill had proposed the creation of an airborne force to assault behind the German lines in 1917 during the First World War,[1] the first modern operation dates to late 1918. Major Lewis H. Brereton and his superior Brigadier General Billy Mitchell suggested dropping elements of the U.S. 1st Division behind German lines near Metz. The operation was planned for February 1919 but the war ended before such an attack could be seriously planned. Mitchell conceived that US troops could be rapidly trained to utilize parachutes and drop from converted bombers to land behind Metz in sychronisation with a planned infantry offensive.

Following the war, the United States Army Air Service experimented with the concept of having troops carried on the wings of aircraft pulled off by the opening of their parachutes. The first true paratroop drop was by Italy in November 1927. Within a few years several battalions had been raised and were eventually formed into two Folgore and Nembo divisions. Although these would later fight with distinction in World War II, the divisions were never used in a parachute drop. Men drawn from the Italian parachute forces were dropped in a special forces operation in North Africa in 1943 in an attempt to destroy parked aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces.

In Peru, on March 27, 1927, Enrique Tavernie entelador from AVRO aircraft, piloted by Captain Clifford, from a height of 2,000 meters, made a leap in Las Palmas, becoming the first Peruvian paratrooper. Subsequently, on May 10, 1928, Second Lieutenant César Álvarez War Palmas Las voluntarily jumped from a height of 3,000 meters, becoming the first military parachutist. Then on May 16, 1928, Major Fernando Melgar Conde and Sergeant 1st. Jose Pineda Castro, jumped from the famous Las Palmas at altitudes of 2,000 and 4,300 meters, respectively. On 24 May of that year, Ensign Peter Griva, the seaplane service from Ancon, jumped from a height of 2,000 meters. As part of events to celebrate the Day of the Air Force, Air Force Base in Chiclayo, and after being summoned by Colonel Cesar Alvarez Guerra CAP and have completed rigorous training, on 23 September 1940, jumped massively from Caproni Ca.111 Panchos, the following: Captain David Rock, Ensign José Luis Quiñones and NCOs Alferano, Oscar Alamo, Antonio Brandariz, Ricardo Colmenares, Nestor and Carlos Raffo Madalengoitia.

At about the same time, the Soviet Union was also experimenting with the idea, planning to drop entire units complete with vehicles and light tanks. To help train enough experienced jumpers, parachute clubs were organized with the aim of transferring into the armed forces if needed. Planning progressed to the point that Corps-size drops were demonstrated to foreign observers, including the British Military Attaché Archibald Wavell, in the Kiev military district maneuvers of 1935.

One of the observing parties, Germany, was particularly interested. In 1936, Major F. W. Immans was ordered to set up a parachute school at Stendal (Borstel), and was allocated a number of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft to train on. The military had already purchased large numbers of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft which were slightly modified for use as paratroop transports in addition to their other duties. The first training class was known as Ausbildungskommando Immans. They commenced the first course on May 3, 1936.

Other nations, including Argentina, Peru, Japan, France and Poland also organized airborne units around this time. France became the first nation to organize women in an airborne unit. Recruiting 200 nurses who during peace time would parachute into natural disasters but also reservists who would be a uniformed medical unit during war time.[2]

World War II

German operations

Several groups within the German armed forces attempted to raise their own paratroop formations, resulting in confusion. As a result, Luftwaffe General Kurt Student was put in overall command of developing a paratrooper force to be known as the Fallschirmjäger.

During the invasions of Norway and Denmark in Operation Weserübung, the Luftwaffe dropped paratroopers on several locations. In Denmark, a small unit dropped on the Masnedøfort on the small island of Masnedø to seize the Storstrøm Bridge linking the islands of Falster and Zealand. A paratroop detachment also dropped at the airfield of Aalborg which was crucial for the Luftwaffe for operations over Norway. In Norway, a company of paratroopers dropped at Oslo's undefended airstrip. Over the course of the morning and early afternoon of April 9, 1940, the Germans flew in sufficient reinforcements to move into the capital in the afternoon, but by that time the Norwegian government had fled.

In the Battle of France, members of the Brandenburg Regiment landed by Fieseler Fi 156 Storch light reconnaissance planes on the bridges immediately to the south of the 10th Panzer Division's route of march through the southern Ardennes. In Belgium, a small group of German glider-borne troops landed on top of the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael on the morning of May 10, 1940 and disabled the majority of its artillery. The fort held on for another day before surrendering. This opened up Belgium to attack by German Army Group B.

The Dutch were exposed to the first large scale airborne attack in history. During the invasion of the Netherlands, the Germans threw into battle almost their entire Luftlandekorps, an airborne assault army corps that consisted of one parachute division and one division of airlanding troops plus the necessary transport capacity. The existence of this formation had been carefully kept secret until then. Two simultaneous airborne operations were launched. German paratroopers landed at three airfields near The Hague, hoping to seize the Dutch government. From one of these airfields, they were driven out after the first wave of reinforcements, brought in by Ju-52s, was annihilated by anti-aircraft fire and fierce resistance by some remaining Dutch defenders. As a result, numerous crashed and burning aircraft blocked the runway, preventing further reinforcements from landing. This was one of the few occasions where an airfield captured by paratroops has been recaptured. The other two airfields were recaptured as well. Simultaneously, the Germans dropped small packets of paratroopers to seize the crucial bridges that led directly across the Netherlands and into the heart of the country. They opened the way for the 9th Panzer Division. Within a day, the Dutch position became hopeless. Nevertheless, Dutch forces inflicted high losses on German transportation aircraft. Moreover, 1200 German elite troops from the Luftlandekorps taken prisoner around The Hague, were shipped to England just before the capitulation of the Dutch armed forces.

The Fallschirmjägers' greatest victory and greatest losses occurred during the Battle of Crete. Signals intelligence, in the form of Ultra, enabled the British to wait on each German drop zone, yet despite compromised secrecy, surviving German paratroops and airlanded mountain troops pushed the Commonwealth forces off the island in part by unexpected fire support from their light 75 mm guns, though seaborne reinforcements were destroyed by the Royal Navy. However, the losses were so great that Adolf Hitler forbade their use in such operations in the future. He felt that the main strength of the paratroopers was novelty, and now that the British had clearly figured out how to defend against them, there was no real point to using them any more.

One notable exception was the use of airborne forces in special operations. On September 12, 1943, Otto Skorzeny led a daring glider-based assault on the Gran Sasso Hotel, high in the Apennines mountains, and rescued Benito Mussolini from house arrest with very few shots being fired. On May 25, 1944, paratroopers were dropped as part of a failed attempt to capture Josip Broz Tito, the head of the Yugoslav Partisans and later postwar leader of Yugoslavia.

Japanese operations

Before the Pacific War began, the Imperial Japanese Army formed Teishin Dan ("Raiding Brigades") and Imperial Japanese Navy trained marine (Rikusentai) paratroopers. They used paratroops troops in several battles in the Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–42.

Rikusentai airborne troops were first dropped at the Battle of Manado, Celebes in January 1942,[3][4] and then near Usua, during the Timor campaign, in February 1942.[5] Teishin made a jump at the Battle of Palembang, on Sumatra in February 1942.[6] Japanese airborne units suffered heavy casualties during the Dutch East Indies campaign, and were rarely used as parachute troops afterward.

On 6 December 1944, a 750-strong detachment from Teishin Shudan ("Raiding Division") and the Takachiho special forces unit, attacked U.S. airbases in the Burauen area on Leyte, in The Philippines. The force destroyed some planes and inflicted casualties, but was eventually wiped out.

Japan built a combat strike force of 825 gliders but never committed it to battle.

Allied operations

Ironically, the battle that ended Germany's paratrooper operations had the opposite effect on the Allies. Convinced of the effectiveness of airborne assaults, the Allies hurried to train and organize their own airborne units. The British established No.1 Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway near Manchester, which trained all 60,000 European paratroopers recruited by the Allies during World War II.

An Airlanding School was also set up in New Delhi, India, in October/November 1941, at the then-Welllingdon Airport (now the defunct Safdarjang Airport) to train paratroopers for the British Indian Army which had been authorised to raise an airborne-capable formation earlier, resulting in the formation of the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade. The Indian airborne forces expanded during the war to the point that an airborne corps was planned bringing together the 2nd Indian Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division, but the war ended before it could materialize.

A fundamental decision was whether to create small airborne units to be used in specific coup-de-main type operations, or to organize entire airborne divisions for larger operations. Many of the early, successful airborne operations were small, carried out by a few units, such as seizing a bridge. The Allies eventually formed two British and five American airborne divisions: the British 1st Airborne Division and 6th Airborne Division, and the U.S. 11th Airborne Division, 13th Airborne Division, 17th Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 101st Airborne Division. By 1944, the British divisions were grouped into the 1st Airborne Corps under Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning, while American divisions in the European Theatre (the 17th, 82nd, and 101st) were organized into the XVIII Airborne Corps under Major General Matthew Ridgway. Both corps fell under the First Allied Airborne Army under U.S. Lieutenant General Lewis Brereton.

The first U.S. airborne operation was by the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion in November 1942, as part of Operation Torch in North Africa. The U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions saw the most action in the European Theater, with the former in Sicily in 1943, and both in Normandy and Holland in 1944. The 17th Airborne Division deployed to England in 1944 but did not see combat until the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945 where they, along with the 82nd and 101st were deployed as ground troops.

The U.S. 11th and 13th Airborne divisions were held in reserve in the United States until 1944 when the 11th was deployed to the Pacific, but mostly used as ground troops or for smaller aiborne operations. The 13th Division was deployed to France in January 1945 but never saw combat as a unit.

Soviet operations

The Soviets mounted only one large-scale airborne operation in World War II, despite their early leadership in the field in the 1930s. Russia also pioneered the development of combat gliders, but used them only for cargo during the war.

Axis air superiority early in the conflict limited the ability of the Soviets to mount such operations, whilst later in the conflict ongoing shortages of materiel, including silk for parachutes, was also a problem. Nonetheless, the Soviets maintained their doctrinal belief in the effectiveness of airborne forces, as part of their concept of "deep battle", throughout the war.[7] The largest drop during the war was corp-sized (the Vyazma airborne Operation, the 4th Airborne Corps). It was unsuccessful.[8] Airborne formations were used as elite infantry units however, and played a critical role in several battles. For example, at the Battle of Kursk, the Guards Airborne defended the eastern shoulder of the southern penetration and was critical to holding back the German penetration.

The Soviets sent at least one team of observers to the British and American airborne planning for D-Day,[9] but did not reciprocate the liaison.

Early commando raids

Operation Colossus: Raid on the Tragino Aqueduct

Britain's first airborne assault took place on February 10, 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 near Tragino in a daring night raid named Operation Colossus.

Operation Squatter: Raid on Axis airfields in Libya

54 effectives 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 on the night of November 16/17 1941 in preparation for a stealthy attack on the forward airfields of Gambut and Tmimi in order to destroy the Axis fighter force on the ground before the start of Operation Crusader, a major offensive by the British Eighth Army.

Operation Biting: The Bruneval raid

A Würzburg radar site on the coast of France was attacked by a company of British paratroopers from 2 Battalion, Parachute Regiment, commanded by Major John Frost, in Operation Biting on February 27, 1942. The key electronic components of the system were dismantled by an English radar mechanic and brought back to Britain for examination so that countermeasures could be devised.

Mediterranean

Operation Mercury: Crete
Main article: Battle of Crete

This was the last large-scale airborne assault by Hitler and the Germans. The German paratroopers had such a high casualty rate that Hitler forbade any further large-scale airborne attacks. The Allies, on the other hand, were very impressed by the potential of paratroopers, and started to build their own airborne divisions.

Operation Torch: North Africa

The first United States airborne combat mission occurred during Operation Torch in North Africa on 8 November 1942. 531 men of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion flew over 1,600 miles (2,600 km) at night from Britain, over Spain, intending to drop near Oran and capture two airfields. Navigation errors, communications problems, and bad weather scattered the forces. Seven of the 39 C-47s landed far from Oran from Gibraltar to Tunisia, and only ten actually delivered their troops by parachute drop. The remainder off-loaded after 28 C-47 troop carriers, short on fuel, landed on the Sebkra d'Oran dry lake, and marched overland to their objectives.

One week later, after repacking their own chutes, 304 men of the battalion conducted a second combat jump on 15 November 1942 to secure the airfield at Youk-les-Bains near the Tunisian border. From this base, the battalion conducted combined operations with various French forces against the German Afrika Korps in Tunisia. A unit of French Algerian infantry, the 3rd Regiment of Zouaves, was present at Youk-les-Bains and awarded the American paratroopers their own regimental crest as a gesture of respect. This badge was awarded to the battalion commander on 15 November 1942 by the 3rd Zouaves' regimental commander, and is worn today by all members of the 509th Infantry.

Operation Husky: Sicily

As part of Operation Husky, four airborne operations (two British and two American) were carried out, landing during the nights of July 9 and 10. The American troops were from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, making their first combat jump. Strong winds encountered en route blew the dropping aircraft off course and scattered them widely. The result was that around half the paratroops failed to make it to their rallying points. British glider-landed troops fared little better. Only 12 out of 137 gliders in Operation Ladbroke landed on target, with more than half landing in the sea. Nevertheless, the scattered airborne troops maximised their opportunities, attacking patrols and creating confusion wherever possible. On the night of 11 July, a reinforcement drop of the 82nd Airborne behind American lines at Farello airfield resulted in heavy friendly-fire casualties when, despite forewarnings, Allied antiaircraft fire both ashore and aboard U.S Navy ships shot down 23 of the transports as they flew over the beachhead.[10]

Despite a catastrophic loss of gliders and troops loads at sea, the British 1st Airlanding Brigade captured the Ponte Grande bridge south of Syracuse. Before the German counterattack, the beach landings took place unopposed and the 1st Airlanding Brigade was relieved by the British Eighth Army as it swept inland towards Catania and Messina.[11]

On the evening of July 13, 1943, more than 112 aircraft carrying 1,856 men and 16 gliders with 77 artillerymen and ten 6 pounder guns, took off from North Africa in Operation Fustian. The British 1st Parachute Brigade's initial target was to capture the Primosole bridge and the high ground around it, providing a pathway for the Eighth Army, but heavy anti-aircraft fire shot down many of the Dakotas before they reached their target. Only 295 officers and men were dropped close enough to carry out the assault. They captured the bridge, but the German 4th Parachute Brigade recaptured it.[12] They held the high ground until relieved by the Eighth Army, which re-took the bridge at dawn of 16 July.

The Allied commanders were forced to reassess the use of airborne forces after the many misdrops and the deadly friendly fire incident.

Italy

Italy agreed to an armistice with the Allies on September 3, 1943, with the stipulation that the Allies would provide military support to Italy in defending Rome from German occupation. Operation Giant II was a planned drop of one regiment of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division northwest of Rome, to assist four Italian divisions in seizing the Italian capital. An airborne assault plan to seize crossings of the Volturno River during the Allied invasion of Italy, called Operation Giant, was abandoned in favor of the Rome mission. However doubts about the willingness and capability of Italian forces to cooperate, and the distance of the mission far beyond support by the Allied military, resulted in the artillery commander of the 82nd, Brigadier General Maxwell Taylor (future commander of the 101st), being sent on a personal reconnaissance mission to Rome to assess the prospects of success. His report via radio on September 8 caused the operation to be postponed (and canceled the next day) as troop carriers loaded with two battalions of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment were warming up for takeoff.

With Giant II cancelled, Operation Giant I was reactivated to drop two battalions of the 504th at Capua on September 13. However significant German counterattacks beginning September 12 resulted in a shrinking of the American perimeter and threatened destruction of the beachhead. As a result, Giant I was cancelled and the 504th instead dropped into the beachhead on the night of September 13 using transponding radar beacons as a guide. The next night the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under Colonel James M. Gavin, was also dropped into the beachhead as reinforcement. In all, 3,500 paratroopers made the most concentrated mass night drop in history, providing the model for the American airborne landings in Normandy in June 1944. An additional drop on the night of September 14–15 of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion to destroy a key bridge at Avellino, to disrupt German motorized movements, was badly dispersed and failed to destroy the bridge before the Germans withdrew to the north.

In April 1945, Operation Herring, an Italian commando-style airborne drop aimed at disrupting German rear area communications and movement over key areas in Northern Italy, took place. However the Italian troops were not dropped as a unit, but as a series of small (8–10 man) groups. Another operation, Operation Potato, was mounted by men drawn from the Folgore and Nembo divisions, operating with British equipment and under British command as No 1 Italian Special Air Service Regiment. The men dropped in small groups from American C-47s and carried out a successful railway sabotage operation in northern Italy.

Western Europe

The Allies had learned better tactics and logistics from their earlier airborne drops, and these lessons were applied for the assaults along the Western Front.

Operation Neptune
Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with American paratroopers of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.

One of the most famous of airborne operations was Operation Neptune, the assault of Normandy, part of Operation Overlord of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. The task of the airborne forces was to secure the flanks and approaches of the landing beaches in Normandy. The British glider transported troops and paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division secured the eastern flank in Operation Tonga of which Operation Deadstick, capture of the Pegasus Bridge is the best remembered objective. Another objective was the Merville gun battery. The American glider and parachute infantry of the 82nd (Operation Detroit) and 101st Airborne Divisions (Operation Chicago), though widely scattered by poor weather and poorly marked landing zones in the American airborne landings in Normandy, secured the western flank of U.S. VII Corps with heavy casualties. All together, airborne casualties in Normandy on D-Day totaled around 2,300.

Operation Dingson (5–18 June 1944) was conducted by about 178 Free French paratroops of the 4th Special Air Service (SAS), commanded by Colonel Pierre-Louis Bourgoin, who jumped into German occupied France near Vannes, Morbihan, southern Brittany, in Plumelec, at 1130 on the night of 5 June and Saint-Marcel (8–18 June). At this time, there was approximately 100,000 German troops and artillery preparing to move to the Normandy landing areas. Immediately upon landing, 18 Free French went into action near Plumelec against German troops (Vlassov's army). The Free French established a base at Saint-Marcel and began to arm and equip of local resistance fighters, operating with up to 3,000 Maquis. However, their base was heavily attacked by a German paratroop division on 18 June, and the men were forced to disperse. Captain Pierre Marienne with 17 of his companions (six paratroopers, eight resistance fighters and three farmers) died a few weeks later in Kerihuel, Plumelec, at dawn of 12 July. The Dingson team was joined by the men who had just completed Operation Cooney. Dingson was conducted alongside Operation Samwest and Operation Lost as part of Overlord.

In Operation Dingson 35A, on 5 August 1944, 10 Waco CG-4A gliders towed by aircraft of 298 Squadron and 644 Squadron transported Free French SAS men and armed jeeps to Brittany near Vannes (Locoal-Mendon), each glider carrying three Free French troopers and a jeep. One glider was lost with the death of the British pilot. The SAS teams remained behind enemy lines until the Allies arrived.

Operation Dragoon: Southern France

On August 15, 1944, airborne units of the 6th Army Group provisional airborne division, commanded by U.S. Major General Robert T. Frederick, opened Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France, with a dawn assault. Called the "1st Airborne Task Force", the force was composed of the 1st Special Services Forces, British 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, the 509th and 551st Parachute Infantry Battalions, the glider-borne 550th Airborne Infantry Battalion, and supporting units. Nearly 400 aircraft delivered 5,600 paratroopers and 150 guns to three drops zones surrounding Le Muy, between Fréjus and Cannes, in phase 1, Operation Albatross. Once they had captured their initial targets, they were reinforced by 2,600 soldiers and critical equipment carried in 408 gliders daylight missions code-named Operation Bluebird, phase 2, simultaneous with the beach landings, and Operation Dove, phase 3. A second daylight parachute drop, Operation Canary, dropped 736 men of the 551st PIB with nearly 100% effectiveness late on the afternoon of August 15. The airborne objective was to capture the area, destroy all enemy positions and hold the ground until the U.S. Seventh Army came ashore.

Operation Market Garden: "A Bridge Too Far"
Waves of paratroops land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

Operation Market Garden of September 1944, involved 35,000 airborne troops dropped up to 100 miles (160 km) behind German lines in an attempt to capture a series of bridges over the Maas, Waal and Rhine Rivers, in an attempt to outflank German fortifications and penetrate into Germany. The operation was hastily planned and many key planning tasks were inadequately completed. Three complete airborne divisions executed Operation Market, the airborne phase. These were the British 1st Airborne Division, the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and U.S. 101st Airborne Division, as well as the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. All units were landed or dropped at various points along Highway 69 ("Hell's Highway") in order to create a "carpet" over which the British XXX Corps could rapidly advance in Operation Garden, the land phase. It was a daylight assault, with little initial opposition, and most units achieved high accuracy on drop and landing zones. In the end, after strong German counterattacks, the overall plan failed: the British 1st Airborne Division was all but destroyed at Arnhem, and the final Rhine bridge remained in German hands.

Operation Repulse: re-supply of Bastogne

Operation Repulse, which took place in Bastogne on December 23, 24, 26, and 27, 1944, as part of the Battle of the Bulge, glider pilots, although flying directly through enemy fire, were able to land, delivering the badly needed ammunition, gasoline and medical supplies that enabled defenders against the German offensive to persevere and secure the ultimate victory.

Operation Varsity: The Rhine Crossing

Operation Varsity was a daylight assault conducted by two airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, both of which were part of the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps. Conducted as a part of Operation Plunder, the operation took place on 24 March 1945 in aid of an attempt by the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group to cross the Rhine River. Having learnt from the heavy casualties inflicted upon the airborne formations in Operation Market Garden, the two airborne divisions were dropped several thousand yards forward of friendly positions, and only some thirteen hours after Operation Plunder had begun and Allied ground forces had already crossed the Rhine. There was heavy resistance in some of the areas that the airborne troops landed in, with casualties actually statistically heavier than those incurred during Operation Market Garden. The British military historian Max Hastings has labelled the operation both costly and unnecessary, writing that "Operation Varsity was a folly for which more than a thousand men paid for with their lives ..."[13]

Pacific Theater

Famous are these airborne operations against the Japanese.

Philippines

The honors for recapturing the Rock went to the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team of Lieutenant Colonel George M. Jones and elements of Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff's 24th Infantry Division, the same units which undertook the capture of Mindoro island. The U.S. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment most famous operation was a landing on Corregidor ("The Rock") in February 1945, during the Philippines campaign of 1944–45.

The U.S. 11th Airborne Division saw a great deal of action in the Philippines as a ground unit. The 511th Parachute Regiment made the division's first jump near Tagaytay Ridge on 3 February 1945, meeting no resistance at the drop zone. The division also jumped to liberate 2,000 Allied civilians interned at Los Baños, 23 February 1945. The final operation of the division was conducted on 23 June 1945, in conjunction with an advance by U.S. ground forces in northern Luzon. A task force from the 11th was formed and jumped on Camalaniugan Airfield, south of Aparri.

South West Pacific
September 5, 1943. C-47 transport planes, silhouetted against clouds of smoke created to provide cover, drop a battalion of the U.S. 503d Parachute Regiment at Nadzab, New Guinea, during the Battle of Lae. A battalion dropped minutes earlier is landing in the foreground.

In September 1943, in New Guinea, the U.S. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment made a highly successful, unopposed landing at Nadzab, during the Salamaua-Lae campaign. This was the first Allied airborne assault in the Pacific Theater.

In July 1944, the 503rd jumped again, onto Noemfoor Island, off Dutch New Guinea, in the Battle of Noemfoor.

Burma

A large British force, known as the Chindits, operated behind Japanese lines during 1944. In Operation Thursday, most of the units were flown into landing grounds which had been seized by glider infantry transported by the American First Air Commando Group, commencing on March 5. Aircraft continued to land reinforcements at captured or hastily constructed landing strips until monsoon rains made them unusable. Small detachments were subsequently landed by parachute. The operation eventually wound down in July, with the exhausted Chindits making their way overland to link up with advancing American and Chinese forces.

For Operation Dracula, an ad hoc parachute battalion group made up of personnel from the 153 and 154 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalions of the Indian Army secured Japanese coastal defences, which enabled the seaborne assault by the 26th Indian Infantry Division to attain its objectives with a minimum of casualties and time.

Ecuadorian–Peruvian War

During the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War, the Peruvian army established its own paratrooper unit and used it to great effect by seizing the Ecuadorian port city of Puerto Bolívar, on July 27, 1941, marking the first time in the Americas that airborne troops were used in combat.[14]

Post World War II

Korean War

The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team ("Rakkasans") made two combat jumps in Korea during the Korean War. The first combat jump was made on October 20, 1950 at Sunchon and Sukchon, North Korea. The missions of the 187th were to cut the road north going to China, preventing North Korean leaders from escaping from Pyongyang; and to rescue American prisoners of war.

The second combat jump was made on Wednesday, March 21, 1951, at Munsan-ni, South Korea codenamed Operation Tomahawk. The mission was to get behind Chinese forces and block their movement north. The 60th Indian Parachute Field Ambulance provided the medical cover for the operations, dropping an ADS and a surgical team totalling 7 officers and 5 other ranks, treating over 400 battle casualties apart from the civilian casualties that formed the core of their objective as the unit was on a humanitarian mission. The unit was to become the longest-serving military unit in any UN operation till date, serving from October 1950 till May 1953, a total of three and a half years, returning home to a heroes' welcome.

The 187th served in six campaigns in Korea. Shortly after the war the 187th ARCT was considered for use in an Airborne drop to relieve the surrounded French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam but the United States, at that time, decided not to send its troops into the combat zone.

The unit was assigned to the reactivated 101st Airborne Division and subsequently inactivated as a combat team in 1956 as part of the division's reorganization into the Pentomic structure, which featured battle groups in place of regiments and battalions. The 1st and 3rd Battalions, 187th Infantry, bearing the lineages of the former Co A and Co C, 187AIR, are now with the 101st Airborne Division as air assault units.

First Indochina War

The French used paratroops extensively during their 1946–54 war against the Viet Minh. Colonial, French Foreign Legion and local Vietnamese units took part in numerous operations which were to culminate in the disastrous siege of Dien Bien Phu.

Suez crisis: Operations Machbesh & Musketeer

Launching the 1956 Suez War, on October 29, 1956, Israeli paratroopers led by Ariel Sharon dropped onto the important Mitla Pass to cut off and engage Egyptian forces. Operation Machbesh (Press) was the IDF's only combat parachute drop.

A few days later, Operation Musketeer needed the element of total surprise to succeed, and all 660 men had to be on the ground at El Gamil airfield and ready for action within four and a half minutes. At 04.15 hours on November 5, 1956, British 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment jumped in and although opposition was heavy, casualties were few. Meanwhile, French paratroopers of the 2nd Regiment of Colonial Paratroopers under the command of Colonel Chateau-Jobert jumped on the water treatment factory South of Port Said.

The landings from the sea the next day saw the first large-scale heliborne assault, as 45 Commando, Royal Marines were landed by helicopters in Port Said from ships offshore. Both the British and the French accomplished total military victory against the disorganized Egyptian military and local armed civilians but political events forced total retreat of these forces after 48 hours of fighting.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

For the first time in a combat in South Asia, paratroopers were used in the subcontinent during the Second Kashmir War of 1965. A covert operation was launched by Pakistan Army with the intention of infiltrating Indian airbases and sabotaging them. The SSG (Special Service Group) commandos numbering close to 200 were parachuted into Indian territory. Indian sources however claim as many as 800–900 attempted the landing. Given that most of the Indian targets (Halwara, Pathankot and Adampur) were deep into enemy territory only a dozen or so commandos made it back alive and the stealth operation proved ineffective. Of the remaining, 136 were taken prisoners, 22 were killed in encounters with the army, local police or the civilians. The daring attempt proved to be a disaster with the Commander of the operations, Major Khalid Butt too being arrested.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

In 1971, the Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army fought numerous actions both in the Eastern and Western Theatres. On 11 December, India airdropped 2 Para Bn Gp in what is now famous as the Tangail airdrop. The paratroop unit was instrumental in denying the retreat and regrouping of the Pakistani army, and contributed substantially to the early collapse of Dacca. The Para Commandos also proved their skills in lightning raids into Chachro (Sindh, Pakistan) and Mandhol (Jammu and Kashmir). The Regiment earned battle honours—Poongli Bridge, Chachro and Defence of Poonch—during these operations.

Indonesian Invasion of East Timor

The Indonesian Army used airborne troops in their 1975 invasion of East Timor. Following a naval bombardment of Dili, on December 7, 1975, Indonesian seaborne troops landed in the city while simultaneously paratroopers descended.[15] 641 Indonesian paratroopers jumped into Dili, where they engaged in six-hours combat with East Timorese gunmen. According to author Joseph Nevins, Indonesian warships shelled their own advancing troops and Indonesian transport aircraft dropped some of their paratroopers on top of the retreating East Timorese forces and suffered accordingly.[16]

Vietnam War

In 1963, in the Battle of Ap Bac, ARVN forces delivered airborne troops by helicopter and air drop. The use of helicopter-borne airmobile troops by the United States in the Vietnam War was widespread, and became an iconic image featuring in newsreels and movies about the conflict.

In February 1967 Operation Junction City was launched, it would be the largest operation the Coalition Force would assemble. During this operation, 845 members of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), the 319th Artillery (Airborne), and elements of H&H company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade made the only combat jump in Vietnam.

Rhodesian Bush War

Main article: Fireforce

Fireforce is a variant of the tactic of vertical envelopment of a target by helicopter-borne and small groups of parachute infantry developed by the Rhodesian Security Force.

Fireforce counter-insurgency missions were designed to trap and eliminate terrorists (to use the contemporary term) before they could flee. The Rhodesian Security Force could react quickly to terrorist ambushes, farm attacks, Observation Post sightings, and could also be called in as reinforcements by trackers or patrols which made contact with the enemy. It was first deployed in January 1974 and saw its first action a month later on 24 February 1974. By the end of Rhodesian operations with internal peace agreements, Fireforce was a well-developed counterinsurgency tactic.

Fireforce was an operational assault or response usually composed of a first wave of 32 soldiers carried to the scene by three Alouette III helicopters and one Dakota transport aircraft, with another Alouette III helicopter as a command/gunship aircraft and a light attack aircraft in support. One of the advantages of the Fireforce was its flexibility as all that was needed was a reasonable airstrip. It was such a successful tactic that some Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) soldiers reputedly made as many as three parachute combat jumps in one day.

Soviet and Russian VDV

A BMD-1 in Kabul, Afghanistan, 1986

The Soviet Union maintained the world's largest airborne force during the Cold War, consisting of seven airborne divisions and a training division. The VDV was subordinated directly to the Ministry of Armed Forces of USSR, and was a 'prestige service' in the armed forces of the USSR and Russia to reflect its strategic purpose. Recruits received much more rigorous training and better equipment than ordinary Soviet units. Unlike most airborne forces, which are a light infantry force, VDV has evolved into a fully mechanized parachute-deployed force thanks to its use of BMD-series light IFVs, BTR-D armoured carriers, 2S9 Nona self-propelled 120 mm gun-howitzer-mortars and 2S25 Sprut-SD 125 mm tank destroyers.

The VDV have participated in virtually all Soviet and Russian conflicts since the Second World War, including the Soviet war in Afghanistan. As an elite force, the VDV developed two distinctive items of clothing: the telnyashka, or striped shirt, and the famous blue beret. Airborne assault (десантно-штурмовые войска or DShV) units wore similar striped shirts (as did the naval infantry) but used helicopters, rather than the Military Transport Aviation's An-12s, An-22s, and Il-76s, which carried the airborne troops and their equipment.

Soviet Glider Infantry

The Soviets maintained three glider infantry regiments until 1965.

Operation Meghdoot

Operation Meghdoot, launched on April 13, 1984, was the name given to the preemptive strike launched by the Indian Military to capture most of the Siachen Glacier, in the disputed Kashmir region.

Recent history

Elements of 1st Bn, 508th Infantry parachuting onto a drop zone, outside of Panama City in support of Operation Just Cause.

With the advantages of helicopter use, airborne forces have dwindled in numbers in recent years.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Reproduced in Blunt, Victor, The User of Air Power. Military Service Publishing Company; Harrisburg, 1943: pp.v–ix.
  2. ↑ "Parachute Jumping Nurses." Popular Science p. 58.
  3. ↑ Donaldson, Graham (1999–2000). "The Japanese paratroopers in the Dutch East Indies, 1941–1942". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942.
  4. ↑ L, Klemen (1999–2000). "The Fall of Menado, January 1942". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942.
  5. ↑ L, Klemen (1999–2000). "The Japanese Invasion of Dutch West Timor Island, February 1942". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942.
  6. ↑ L, Klemen (1999–2000). "The battle for Palembang, February 1942". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942.
  7. ↑ Glantz, David M. Soviet military operational art: in pursuit of deep battle, Frank Cass, London, 1991 ISBN 0-7146-4077-8.
  8. ↑ The Soviet Military Encyclopedic Dictionary (1983), p. 174.
  9. ↑ Described in Gale, Richard (1948). With the 6th Airborne Division in Normandy. London (UK): Sampson Low. OCLC 4447265.
  10. ↑ Warren, Dr. John C., USAF Historical Study No. 74: Airborne Missions in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945 (1953) Air Force Historical research Agency (AFHRA), p. 40.
  11. ↑ Warren, p. 47.
  12. ↑ Warren, p. 53.
  13. ↑ Hastings, Max, 'Armageddon: The Battle For Germany 1944–1945', p.431
  14. ↑ The paratroopers were dropped from Italian Caproni Ca.111 bomber-transports. Skydiving in Peru by General Alberto Thorndike Elmore
  15. ↑ Schwarz (2003), p. 204
  16. ↑ A not-so-distant horror: mass violence in East Timor, By Joseph Nevins, Page 28, Cornell University Press, 2005
  17. ↑ US Army Combat Studies Institute,A Different Kind of Wa, p103
  18. ↑ "75th Ranger Regiment History". United States Army Special Operations Command. United States Army. Retrieved 4 June 2012. On 28 March 2003, 3rd Battalion employed the first airborne assault in Iraq to seize Objective Serpent in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  19. ↑ Fredricksen, John C. (2011). Fighting Elites: A History of U.S. Special Forces. ABC-CLIO. p. 247. ISBN 978-1-59884-810-6. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  20. ↑ Jones Jr., Robert W. (2005). "The jump at Objective Serpent: 3/75th Rangers in Iraq". Veritas: Journal of Army Special Operations History (United States Army Special Operations Command) (Winter): 52–54.
  21. ↑ Schmitt, Eric; Rohde, David (March 27, 2003). "A NATION AT WAR: NORTHERN IRAQ; With Smaller Operation Than First Planned, U.S. Opens Northern Front". The New York Times.
  22. ↑ http://www.173rdairborne.com/menuiraq.htm
  23. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/onpoint/ch-4.htm#173abn
  24. ↑ "French-led operation looks north after Timbuktu". france24.com/en. FRANCE 24. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2013.

References

Further reading

External links

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