TRAINING PARATROOPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 45, 5 February 1943, Page 5

TRAINING PARATROOPS

OFFICER SPEAKS

METHOD EXPLAINED

"Parachute control is first taught' without a parachute, on an ordinary trapeze about ten feet from the ground. This is so that the pupil will -learn to balance while swinging. And then when he's accustomed himself to that, he swings off from a platform about twenty feet up, letting go at the bottom of the* swing. Later on parachute harness is attached to the trapeze, and the man sits 1 in the harness and is taught how to turn his body in. the air. That is so tlVt he'll know how to land facing down wind —or In other words, with his back to ilio wind. Its only after you've done 1 <?.n elementary course that you use u parachute at all. And you start your advanced training by making two descents from captive balloons. The balloons look exactly like an extra large barrage 1 balloon, with a box-, or car suspended beneath itjust like the pictures of balloons you used to see years- ago. The box holds five people—four pupils and an instructor. The reason for. ma le, ing preliminary jumps from a balloon is mainly because there is no noise, and the instructor is able to give last-minute instructions to the pupils. As well as the instructor in the car, there*s another one on 7 * the ground with a loud; speaker, and. as soon as the men leave the. balloon car and are airborne he tells them exactly what to do in order to make a safe landing."—A British Officer of the Airborne speaking in a BBC Radio Newsreel on "Elementary Pajatroop Train-

ing."