News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

THE AIR FORCES NEII'8 LETTER
I
toon jUIIIPSare included, usually from a considerably
lower altitude than the D09ice jumps, Novice
jumpe are .. de fro. hilher altitudes because of
the safety factor involved,
"ratrooper equipment is surprisingly complete.
r Depending upon the circUIIIstances, it may include
\( rifles, light and heavy machine guns, 50 caliber
antitank and antiaircraft machine IUDS, 37 _. cannon,
hand grenades, pistols, infantry mortars,
sub-machine guns and demolition equipment. As D1Ch
al'mBlllent as ponible is dropped with each individual
.oldier, there_inder being lowered separately.
.If the occa.ion demands, it has even been demon-
.trated as practicable to transport and lower 75
_. howi hers. The Germans have even been known
to drop collapsible bicycles, small boab. and
knives with their parachute troope.
In addition to armament, parachutists mu.t carry
their own means of comnunication, as _11 as their
own ration. and supplies. Ccammication equipment
includes portable radio sets, aircraft .ignal
panels and pyrotechnics. Each soldier carries one
ration on his person. Others are dropped in .eparate
containers and are picked up after landing.
For head protection parachute troops are supplied
with crash helmets. Special boots strongly reinforced
at the ankle and at the calf are used to
minimize the dancer of leg injury.
Altt-J1h the hhtor.y of the parachutiat is closelyallied
with the development of the modern blitz
type of _rfare, this does not mean that landing
troops and equipment by parachute i. a new military
tecmique. As far back as 1929 the United State.
Army conducted one of the first succeuful experiments
of this nature by landing a machine gun
crew, complete with gun and ammunition, at Kelly
Fiel;d in Texas. The 'chute used to lower the machiile
&un had been sper lty -1esigned and developed
by Sgt. (later Mr. Sgt ) Erwin H. Nichols, the"daddy"
of ArmY parachut ~sts.
Sergeant Nichols the fifth man in the world to
make a parachute .i ;.lDIpfrom an airplane, enlisted
at Brook. Field dUJing the World War, and, because
of his special interest in this activity, soon.became.
the first parachute instructor in the United
States ArmY. For several years he was in charge
of parachute training at Randolph Field. Sergeant
Nichols _s head of the parachute rigging depart.
ment at Chanute Field, Ill., at the time of his
death from a heart attack in 1931.
Probably the first conscious effort to experiment
with the use of parachutists in mass proportions
was by the Soviet Union during the several
years which irr.n.e.liatelypreceded the outbreak of
the present _!". The Red ArmY firs t used its new
technique in Bessarabia. and met with a moderate
degree of success. Later on, however, when used
in greater nunb"rs in Finland, the paratroops failed
almost completely.
12
From the .atandpoint of effecUvene •• in actual
III1Utary cC-bat, the Gar ..... t..e s. far been the
_oat suee ... ful by far in the Ua. of the parachutiat.
During the Polhh .c8Ilp8ilD the deYice
w •• used, but .omewhat .parinlly. In Po~aad the
Qer.... , ~ ..sPAracbut •• chi.f1:lrtD.drop .abo~.ura
.-.d. "'Jona ~lye~ 1JUhio..ho-.,Ul. te,rUor,..
Alain in No y the paraclu".t. _. u.ed by the
Ger_DlI,. this time in a IIOre i.....tAlnt role. and
played a ."ital part in the captur •• 1 0.10 .and in
reinforcinl the German Expeditionary Force in the
wilder regions of Nor_y. Also valuable as an adjunct
to the operations in Belgium and Franc., it
was, however, at Waalhaven and later in Crete,
that the Ger_n paratroopers achieved their lIIO.t
outstanding successes. At Waalhaven, the Rotterdam
airport, a well-equipped, superbly coordinated
force landed and captured the strongly fortified
air field in less than a half-hour.
One of the main advantages in the use of parachute
troops is that they can be u.ed wherever
aviation can operate, and yet they have the holdina
pOlll'erofinfantry, which air power alone completely
lacks. In using paratroops the element of surprise
is highly important, because of the vulnerability
of the troops during the descent, and
because of the time needed after landing to e.tablish
contacts and secure equipment. Once a foot-'
hold has been established additional number. can
be landed in a very short time.
DIe illlPOrtanceof the ai rplane' s role in the. u.e
of parachute troops cannot be minimized. If the
troops are to be used in any great nUlllbers it is
essential that aerial reconnaissance precede them,
in order that a geographically suitable landinl
area can be located, and also to determine the approximate
strength of possible oppo.ition. Since
the troop. are transported in highly vulnerable
military cargo planes it is necessary that a friendly
air force establish local air superiority prior
to the arrival of the transports.
Dlere is a definite technique in the succe.sful
landing of a large group of parachutists. They
must be dropped as near their objective, and .s
close together as possible, and must not be in the
air long enough to become easy targets for ground
troops. In order to accomplish these ends, both
delayed openings and jumps frOD extremely low altitudes
are used. The Germans in many instances
have jumped from altitudes of less than 300 feet.
Fr~ this altitude landing takes less than five
second.. Dangerous as this technique is, the speed
and protection from ground defenses afforded by
the swlft descent is held to be more valuable t~n
the danger of jnjuries.
In a well-balanced, well-equipped armed force
there are many _ys in which parachute troops -y
be utilized to a considerable degree of succe.s,
(COIIClud.d on P••• 11)