A typical “ tough guv ” of the Parachute Corps.PARACHUTE

CORPSThe first lesson. Swinging in a parachute
harness from the roof of the training hanger.

The very first jump. Recruits practising
landings on a mattress from a special platform.The second stage in training. A recruit drop-
ping from a dummy-fuselage. The speed of his
drop is regulated by counter-balance weights.

A recruit makes a jump from a tower,
using a cable-controlled parachute. His
colleagues, waiting their turn, look on.

TN her Parachute Corps, Britain has the best-equipped and
I most highly-trained troops in the world. She has studied
-i- the lessons provided by the use of such troops by Russia
and Germany and has learned much.

The men who serve in this special corps are all volunteers,
men who have chosen the toughest job in the Army to-day as
the one they want to do. The standard of physical fitness
required is very high and intelligence must be above the
average. Hundreds of volunteers have to be turned down and
those that are accepted are literally hand-picked. The general
age is between 19-30, but the upper limit is not inflexible—if
an older man has the necessary qualifications, he is accepted.

The men of the Parachute Corps are tough—but they are
not just “ toughs.” Every man is taught to think for himself
and act on his own initiative ; he must be capable of taking
over the leadership of his section or carrying on alone, if others
become casualties. With parachute troops there is no
possibility of immediate reinforcements—speed is essential and
the loss of Officers and N.C.O.’s must never hold up the
programme.Ready for their first actual parachute
jump. Recruits seated in the specially
constructed “cage” of a captive balloon,
listen to a final word from the sergeant.

The balloon comes down. Only the ser-
geant instructor has remained in it,
and now the next batch of recruits are
going up to make their first real jump.

When a volunteer has got through a stiff “ medical ” and
been passed as otherwise suitable, he is sent to a camp to start
his highly specialised training. There he meets his fellow
troopers, ex-Guardsmen, ex-infantrymen, ex-Artillerymen,
men who have volunteered from all branches of the Army.

The new recruit’s earliest acquaintance with a parachute is
when he swings from the roof of the training gymnasium in a
’chute harness. This is to get him used to the feel of it.

His first real lesson is in the art of falling. A man landing
by parachute must fall correctly or he is liable to break or sprain
an arm or a leg, and thus be useless for the job in hand. An
instructor shows the man the right way to fall, and then he has
to practise until he can do it as well as the instructor.

The first jumps, without a parachute, are made from a height
of ten feet, with a thick mat on which to land. Later in his
training these jumps are increased by stages to about 15 feet.
It is reckoned that from a fifteen foot drop a man hits the
ground at the highest speed he is ever likely to reach with a
parachute.

The next stage in training is the controlled jump. This ismade from a dummy fuselage about 30 ft. above the ground
and counterbalanced weights are so arranged that the man
falls at about the same speed as if he had jumped with a
parachute from 3,000 feet. There is also a specially con-
structed tower from which a man drops with a cable-controlled
parachute.

Then comes the great day—the day of the recruit’s first real
parachute jump, from the cage of a captive balloon. The cage,
which has a hole in the centre through which the men drop,
holds three or four men and their sergeant-instructor. The
first three men go up whilst the rest wait below, craning their
necks to watch the rising balloon. Soon it will be their turn,
and each man feels a thrill as he realises that at last he is to do
what he has been training for—a real parachute jump. Probably
he will never have quite the same thrill again. Soon, jumping
will be no more exciting to him than having his breakfast.

The final stage of his parachute training comes when he
makes his first jump from a moving plane. The paratroops
drop through a well in the centre of the fuselage, following
one another with amazing speed.

Paratroops do not wear the type of ’chute used by airmen,
on which the rip-cord has to be pulled to make the ’chute open.

Paratroops and their pilots being “ briefedBefore going on an operation they receive
detailed instructions as to the job they have to do, with the aid of diagrams and photographs.Every paratrooper must be skilled in the art of unarmed
combat. An instructor shows how it should be done.



The paratrooper must know how to tackle an
armed man, even though he is unarmed himself.

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Everything must be perfect. An instructor examines
the harness of his men before they take off.Boarding the aircraft. Even this requires practice to obtain the necessary speed and precision.

Jumping has no fears for these fellows. There is always plenty of laughter
and high spirits to while away the time before the objective is reached.

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	V.			W jLTheir special parachutes open as they leave the plane. This
is done by what is known as a static line, a strip of webbing,
one end of which is attached to the inside of the fuselage of
the plane before the man jumps, while the other end is attached
to his parachute pack.

One of the most important lessons that the paratrooper has
to learn is how to control his parachute so that he lands near
his companions, and how to spill air from it when he lands, in
order to prevent a high wind from dragging him across country.

So much for his parachute training, but this is only a part
of all that he has to learn. The parachute is mainly the means
of getting the paratrooper into action, and he must learn
everything that will help him to “ arrive ” safely. The real
essence of his training is to make him a tough, hard and
resourceful soldier.

Much of his time must be spent in the lecture room, where
he learns, among other things, map reading, and gets some
knowledge of foreign languages, especially German.

First stage in an operation. Paratroops marching across an airfield
to the giant bombers which will carry them to their destination.His knowledge of weapons must be much more complete
than that of the ordinary infantryman. He must understand
the Bren-gun, Tommy-gun, rifle and all types of automatic
weapons and grenades, and work out how to use them. More
than this, the paratrooper must know how to handle weapons
which he may capture from the enemy.

Emplaning, as the act of entering a plane is called, would
seem a simple enough process, but here, as in everything else
that a paratrooper learns, there is a right way to do it. Speed
is essential and this can only be obtained by practice.

Sabotage forms a very important part in his training. The
blowing up of bridges, destruction of port installations and
wreckage of vital parts of electricity, gas and water plants must
be familiar to him. Speed is almost always the essence of this
type of sabotage, and the paratrooper must know exactly what

Men from the sky. Paratroops leaving a plane.

.“ White Mushrooms.” Paratroops seen from a plane as they float to earth.
Top right is the coloured ’chute which lands a container of equipment.

to do and where to find the most vital spot, the moment he
reaches his objective.

All this is designed to make the paratrooper a super-soldier,
but it would be of little use if he were not also made physically
hard and capable of great endurance.

The “ toughening ” process makes him, and keeps him, as
fit as a boxing champion when he enters the ring. A forty-mile
march followed by the swimming of a river in full equipment,
with rifle or tommy-gun held above the head and a hard-fought
hand-to-hand battle on the far bank, is the sort of thing he has
to face. All-in wrestling helps to harden the muscles for
unarmed combat, at which every paratrooper must be an expert.
Not only must he know how to deal silently with a sentry, but
how to tackle an armed man when he himself is unarmed.

Food is always a problem for the men of the Parachute
Corps, and they must learn to live for days on such food as
they can carry with them, or scrounge from the countryside.

“ Initiative ” training forms yet another side of this business
of becoming one of the supermen of the British Army. The
paratrooper must learn to look after himself. Men are sent
out from their camp, alone or in pairs, with no money, and have
to report at a town 50 miles away and get back to camp, withinGrim and determined, paratroops rush their objective.

the time limit set for the completion of the operation. The
means employed rests entirely with each individual. At night
men are dropped by parachute in strange country and told to
make their way to a rendezvous which must be reached by a
certain time.

When he has undergone all this, and much more, the recruit
becomes a fully-fledged paratrooper—entitled to wear the much
envied badge, a white ’chute supported by pale blue wings, on
his right shoulder. His uniform is the ordinary battledress
of the British Army, but on operations he wears Army boots
with one-inch crepe rubber soles and heels, a specially designed
helmet and overalls over his battledress. He carries a revolver
in addition to his Tommy-gun, Bren-gun or rifle, and supplies
are dropped from planes, in containers which have coloured
parachutes to make them easily distinguishable.The men of the Parachute Corps are drawn from all types.
If a man is physically and mentally suitable for the job, his
previous history does not matter. Wealthy young business
men, dock labourers, plumbers, insurance agents, speedway
riders, mechanics and men from hundreds of other occupations
and professions have been welded into a magnificent fighting
force.

One man, a wealthy manufacturer, had a bad smash during
training, but even after months in hospital he elected to return
to his training : “ That has taught me how not to jump,”
was his comment.

And what are the results of this intensified training ? Are
the men just tough automatons ? Far from it. They are
high-spirited, cheerful, full of guts and energy.

When they have an exercise they do the job thoroughly.
They commandeer cars and generally carry out the operation
as if it were the real thing. On one occasion a number of
paratroops grabbed a high R.A.F. officer just as he was
leaving his aerodrome to go on leave, bundled him out of his
car, and drove off. On another occasion paratroops
“ captured ” a Brigadier in his car and forced him, at pistol
point, to drive them to G.H.Q. But the Brigadier had the last
laugh—he had taken them 20 miles in the wrong direction
before they found him out

No rime to waste. The second they reach the ground they dash into action.Before going on an operation paratroops are “ briefed.”
They are told the object of their raid and diagrams and photo-
graphs are used to assist them. Before he emplanes, every
man knows exactly what his primary objective is and what he
has to do when he gets there—but he also knows that he must
use his own judgment to deal with unforeseen happenings.
For the paratrooper there is no “ Find the sergeant, Bill, and
ask him what to do.” Snap decisions must be made and put
into action in the shortest possible time.

These, then, are the men of the Parachute Corps of the British
Army—the finest, toughest and most perfectly-equipped body
of fighting men in the world. Their coolness and entire
disregard of danger has already been exemplified in such
actions as the raid on Rommel’s H.Q. in Libya and the
destruction of the Bruneval radio-location plant.

The Guards of the British Army have long been regarded
as the best soldiers in the world, but even they willingly leave
their regiments for the honour of belonging to the Parachute
Corps—the men who will be the spear-head of the attack
when the second front is opened.

Men of the Parachute Corps, wearing the specially designed helmet.

wAfter the raid is over. Paratroops who took part in the
raid on Bruneval looking at a helmet taken from one of
the prisoners they brought back. Holding it is the Officer
Commanding the squadron zuhich carried the paratroops

■MmYALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002

Printed in England.

A paratrooper,
in full equipment,
ready to emplane.

Their special parachutes open as they leave the plane. This
is done by what is known as a static line, a strip of webbing,
one end of which is attached to the inside of the fuselage of
the plane before the man jumps, while the other end is attached
to his parachute pack.

One of the most important lessons that the paratrooper has
to learn is how to control his parachute so that he lands near
his companions, and how to spill air from it when he lands, in
order to prevent a high wind from dragging him across country.

So much for his parachute training, but this is only a part
of all that he has to learn. The parachute is mainly the means
of getting the paratrooper into action, and he must learn
everything that will help him to “ arrive ” safely. The real
essence of his training is to make him a tough, hard and
resourceful soldier.

Much of his time must be spent in the lecture room, where
he learns, among other things, map reading, and gets some
knowledge of foreign languages, especially German.

First stage in an operation. Paratroops marching across an airfield
to the giant bombers which will carry them to their destination.

After the raid is over. Paratroops zvho took part in the
raid on Primeval looking at a helmet taken from one of
the prisoners they brought back. Holding it is the Officer
Commanding the squadron zvhich carried the paratroops