Airborne forces

Airborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and 'dropped' into battle. Thus they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have an ability 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 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 helicopters have largely replaced large-scale parachute operations. Due to the limited range of helicopters and the limited number of troops that can be transported by them many countries retain Paratroopers as a valuable strategic asset.

General information

Airborne forces can be divided into three categories:
* Paratroops — landed by parachute from aircraft,
* Airlanding troops — landed by aircraft (usually glider),
* Airmobile infantry or air assault troops — transported to the battle by helicopter or by aircraft.

The basic premise of the Airborne is that they can arrive with such speed that a coherent defence cannot be mounted against them for some time. It is assumed that this tactical advantage cannot be sustained for very long, so effective Airborne missions require the rapid advance of ground based troops in support.

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. The first modern consideration of the use of what we now call a paratroop force dates back to 1918. Towards the end of World War I, Brigadier General Billy Mitchell suggested dropping elements of the United States 1st Infantry Division behind German lines near Metz. The war ended before such an attack could be seriously planned. It's somewhat unclear how this was to be achieved given the state of development of both the parachute and aircraft at the time.

The first true paratroop drop was carried out by Italy in November 1927. Within a few years several battalions had been raised and were eventually formed into the two elite Folgore and Nembo divisions. Although these would go on to fight with distinction in World War II, they were never used in a parachute drop.

At about the same time the Soviet Union was also experimenting with the idea, planning to eventually drop entire units complete with vehicles including light tanks. To train enough experienced jumpers, parachute clubs were set up all over Russia with the aim of being able to transfer skilled members (or at least the men) into the armed forces if needed. Planning and organization progressed to the point that Corps-size drops were demonstrated to foreign observers in the Kiev military district maneuvers of 1936. By the late 1930s, the USSR possessed the largest Airborne forces in the world, but development stagnated prior to WW2 as a result of the great purges.

One of the observing parties, Germany, was particularly interested. In 1936, Major Immans was ordered to set up a parachute school and was given a number of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft to train on. The military had already purchased large numbers of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft which were now modified (slightly) for use as paratroop transports in addition to their other duties.

Other nations, including Japan, also organized airborne units around this time.

World War II

German operations

Several groups within the German armed forces attempted to raise their own paratroop formations and there was some confusion all around. This changed when Luftwaffe General Kurt Student was put in command of the effort, and the true power of the Fallschirmjäger finally started to take form. Several operations were carried out during the war of which the best known are mentioned below.

During the invasion of Norway and Denmark in Operation Weserübung the Luftwaffe dropped paratroopers on several locations. In Denmark a small unit was 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 was also dropped at the airfield of Aalborg which was crucial for the operations of the Luftwaffe for operations over Norway. In Norway a company of paratroopers was 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 were dropped 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 it was captured in a matter of hours. This opened up Belgium to attack by the German Army Group B. Two simultaneous airborne operations were made during the invasion of the Netherlands. German paratroopers landed at an airport near The Hague, hoping to seize the Dutch government. But they were driven out of the airport before they were reinforced by troops brought in by Ju-52s. This was one of the few occasions where an airfield captured by paratroops has been recaptured. 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 10th Panzer Division. Within a day the Dutch position was hopeless. Nevertheless, Dutch forces inflicted a high loss of transportation aircraft on the Germans. See Battle of the Netherlands

The Fallschirmjäger's greatest victory and greatest losses were suffered during the Battle of Crete. The losses were so great that Hitler forbade their use in such operations in the future. He felt that the main power of the paratroop 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.

There was one notable exception to this and that 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.

Allied operations

The actual heavy German casualties during the Battle of Crete were hidden from allied planners. 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 organize their own airborne units.

A fundamental decision was whether to create small Airborne units to be used in coup-de-main type operations, or to organize entire Airborne Divisions for larger operations. Many of the early, successful Airborne operations were coups-de-main carried out by very small units. The Allies eventually formed two British and five US Airborne Divisions: the British 1st Airborne Division and 6th Airborne Division, and the US 11th Airborne Division, 13th Airborne Division, 17th Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 101st Airborne Division. By 1944 the British Divisions were grouped in the the 1st Airborne Corps under General Frederick Browning, while US Divisions in the ETO (the 17th, 82nd, and 101st) were organized into the XVIII Airborne Corps under Gen Matthew Ridgway. Both Corps fell under the First Allied Airborne Army under US General Louis Brereton.

Early commando raids

= Operation Colossus: the raid on the Tragino Aqueduct

=

Britain's first airborne assault took place on February 10, 1941, when No. 2 Commando introduced themselves to the enemy by jumping into Italy and blowing up an aqueduct in a daring raid named Operation Colossus.

In some official circles Commandos were termed Special Service troops, and for this raid the men of No.2 Commando were termed "II Special Air Service", (the 'II' being the Roman numeral for '2' though generally thereafter corrupted to be 'eleven') This was the first time the term 'SAS' was used and when it was soon realised that far more than 500 paratroops were needed, the men of No.2 Commando became the foundation of the Parachute Regiment.

= Operation Biting: The Bruneval raid

=

A Wuerzburg radar on the coast of France was attacked by British Paratroopers in Operation Biting on February 27, 1942. The electronics of the system were brought back to Britain for examination so that counter measures could be devised.

Mediterranean

=Operation Torch: North Africa

=The first major United States paratroop drop occurred during Operation Torch in North Africa. The U.S. 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion flew 1500 miles from Britain, over Spain, intending to drop near Oran and capture two airfields. The drop was a fiasco. Navigation and communications problems scattered the forces from Gibraltar to Tunisia. The 509th was not a factor in the initial invasion.

The 509th had several additional drops during the North Africa campaign.

=Operation Husky: Sicily

=

As part of Operation Husky four airborne operations were carried out, landing during the night of the 9/10 July; two were British and two American. The American troops were the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, making their first combat parachute jump. The strong winds blew the dropping aircraft off course and scattered them widely; the result was that around half the US paratroops failed to make it to their rallying points. British glider-landed troops fared little better; only 12 out of 144 gliders landing on target, many landing in the sea. Nevertheless the scattered airborne troops maximised their opportunities, attacking patrols and creating confusion wherever possible. Some reserve 82nd paratroops dropped later during the campaign. This resulted in heavy friendly-fire casualties when U.S Navy landing craft shot down 23 of the transports as they flew over the beachhead.

The First Air Landing Brigade captured the Ponte Grande Bridge and before the Germans counter attack, the beach landings took place unopposed and the First Air Landing Brigade were relieved by the 8th Army as it swept inland and north towards Catania and Messina. For more details on this action see the article on The Staffordshire Regiment.

On July 13 1943, more than 112 aircraft and 16 gliders carrying 1,856 men, took off from North Africa. Their initial target was to capture the Primosole bridge and the high ground around it, providing a pathway for the 8th 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 on the bridge. They captured the bridge but the German 4th Parachute Brigade recaptured it. They held the high ground until relived by the 8th army, but the mission had been a failure.

The Allied command was forced to reassess the use of airborne forces after the many misdrops and the deadly friendly fire incident. However, improved training and some tactical changes kept Airborne units in the war, eventually in much-increased numbers.

= Operation Giant II

=Operation Giant II was a planned drop of the 82nd Airborne on the outskirts of Rome, with the objective of seizing the Italian capital alongside four Italian divisions that were presumed to be friendly to the Allied cause. The Division Commander (Matthew Ridgway) and 5th Army Commander (Mark Clark) strenuously objected to this unrealistic plan. The artillery commander of the 82nd, (Maxwell Taylor, future commander of the 101st) was sent on a personal reconnaissance mission to Rome to assess the prospects of Italian participation. His report via radio caused the operation to be cancelled only hours before launch.

= Italy

=US airborne forces were held in reserve during the initial invasion of Italy at Salerno, called Operation Avalanche. A few days later, during the German counter attacks, 5000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and 509th PIB dropped to help secure the beachhead.

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.

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 Overlord: D-Day

=

The most famous airborne operation was Operation Overlord on D-Day June 6, 1944. The task of the airborne forces was to secure the flanks of the landing beaches in Normandy. The British glider transported troops and paratroopers secured the Eastern flank in Operation Tonga of which Pegasus Bridge is the best remembered objective. Another objective was the Merville gun battery. The American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divsions, though widely scattered by poor weather and unmarked landing zones, secured the western flank in Operation Chicago and Operation Detroit with heavy casualties.

=Southern France

=

On August 15, 1944, parachute units, which included the 4th, 5th and 6th Para battalions and lst Indian Army Pathfinders, dropped into Southern France between Frejus and Cannes as part of Operation Dragoon. Their objective was to capture the area, destroy all enemy positions and hold the ground until the US Seventh Army came ashore. Once they had captured their initial targets, they were reinforced by three thousand soldiers and critical equipment carried in over three hundred gliders in an operation code named Dove. The drop was almost unopposed and within days the British parachute group was withdrawn by sea to Italy in readiness for future operations.

US airborne forces dropped over 5000 airborne troops during this operation. They were called the "1st Airborne Task Force", comprised of several unattached units, including the 509th and 551st PIBs and the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team.

=Operation Market Garden: "A Bridge Too Far"

=

The cleanest drop of the war, Operation Market Garden of September 1944, involved 35,000 troops dropped up to 100 miles behind the German front lines in an attempt to capture a series of bridges over the Maas, Waal and Rhine rivers, ultimately enabling the Allies to outflank German fortifications and penetrating into Germany. The operation was hastily planned and many kep planning tasks were inadequately completed. Three complete airborne divisions, the British 1st Airborne Division, and the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were dropped at various points along Highway 69, or "Hell's Highway", in order to create a "carpet" over which the British XXX Corps could rapidly advance. It was a daylight drop, with little initial opposition, and most units achieved high accuracy on drop 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 Varsity: the Rhine Crossing

=

Operation Varsity was a two-Division daylight drop conducted as part of the British 21st Army Group's crossing of the Rhine. With the lessons of Market Garden behind them, the Airborne units were dropped only a few thousand yards forward of friendly positions, enabling a fast linkup between heavy units and the British 6th and US 17th Airborne Divisions. Resistance to the main crossing was light, but casualties in the Airborne Divisions were heavy. The British historian Max Hastings has labeled the operation both costly and unnesessary.

Pacific Theater

Less famous are these airborne operations against the Japanese.

=New Guinea

=In the fall of 1943, the U.S. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment had a successful drop on the Markham Valley during the invasion of New Guinea. This was the first Allied airborne assault in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

In July of 1944, the 503rd jumped again to capture Noemfoor Island of New Guinea.

=Philippines

=Several drops occurred during the invasion of the Philippines. Most of these involved the U.S. 11th Airborne Division.

=Burma

=A large British force, known as Chindits, operated behind Japanese lines during 1944. Most of the units were flown into landing grounds which had been seized by glider infantry.

For Operation Dracula, a parachute battalion secured Japanese coastal defences, which allowed the seaborne occupation of Rangoon to proceed without opposition.

Japanese operations

The Japanese used paratroops in several battles. The Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces had several parachute units and the Imperial Japanese Army had at least one parachute brigade that saw action during the war, most notably an air assault which helped capture Java in early 1942.

Soviet Operations

The Soviets mounted no large-scale Airborne operations in WW2, despite their early leadership in the field in the 1930s. The largest drop was Brigade-sized, and was not successful. However, Airborne formations were used as elite Infantry units and played a critical role in several battles. For example, at the Battle of Kursk, the defense of the eastern 'shoulder' of the southern penetration by Guards Airborne units was critical to holding back the German penetration.

Post World War II

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 Easter Sunday, 1951 at Munsan-ni, South Korea. The mission was to get behind Chinese forces and block their movement north.

The 187th served in six campaigns in Korea. The unit was deactivated as a combat team in 1956. The 187th Infantry is now with the 101st Airborne Division as an Air Assault Unit.

Operation Musketeer: Suez crisis

During the Suez Crisis, 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.

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.

Israeli paratroopers led by Ariel Sharon dropped into the important Mitla Pass to cut off and engage Egyptian forces. This was the IDF's first and only combat parachute operation in its entire history up to present day.

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 Services 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.

Vietnam War

The use of helicopter-borne airmobile troops by the United States in Vietnam was widespread, and became an iconic image featuring in newsreels and movies about the conflict.

In February of 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 PIR, 319th Artillery, and elements of H&H company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade made the only combat jump in Vietnam.

Recent history

With the advantages of helicopter use, airborne forces have dwindled in numbers in recent years. Their strategic capabilities have ensured that Airborne forces are still a part of armies today with the 82nd Airborne Division being the largest formation of paratroopers in the world.
*In 1983 during the Operation Urgent Fury, US Army Rangers (75th Ranger Regiment) made a combat jump on Salines airfield in Granada.
*In 1989 during the Operation Just Cause the 82nd Airborne Division made its first combat jump in over 40 years. 2nd battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment secured Torrijos Airport in Panama. The jump was made hours after the 75th Ranger Regiment conducted its two separate combat jumps.
*On October 19, 2001 during Operation Enduring Freedom the 3rd Ranger Battalion and a small Command and Control Element from the Regimental Headquarters of the 75th Ranger Regiment jumped into the night to secure an airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the war's first combat mission.
*In November 2001, for the 2nd time during Operation Enduring Freedom B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion conducted another combat airborne jump in a remote region in Afghanistan to establish a Forward Staging Base.
*In February 2003, elements from the 2nd Ranger Battalion and the 82nd Airborne Division conducted the 3rd combat jump for Operation Enduring Freedom.
*On March 19, 2003 C Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion conducted a combat jump into western Iraq, spearheading the 2003 invasion of Iraq, to seize an airfield.
*During Operation Iraqi Freedom the 173rd Airborne Brigade made its combat jump into Northern Iraq.

See also

* Airborne gun
* Airhead
* HALO/HAHO
* Special forces

References

*

External links

* Evaluating a Swedish Airborne Combat Capability using Computer Supported Morphological Analysis From the Swedish Morphological Society
*Royal Engineers Museum - Airborne Sappers
*Israeli Airborne Special Forces at isayeret.com
*germanairborne.de - German Fallschirmjaeger-Community with News, Informations, Pictures, Board