INVASION FROM THE AIR

Evening Star, Issue 23378, 22 September 1939, Page 11

INVASION FROM THE AIR

TACTICAL USE OF PARACHUTE Reports continue to come in from Germany of the intensive development there of the tactical use of the. parachute for dropping infantry and machine-gun detachments at focal points (writes the air correspondent of the London ‘ Observer ’). A battalion of parachute troops took part in Herr Hitler’s birthday parade. Experts are sharply divided as to the value of parachute battalions; but Great Britain is now the only important European Power which has not formed any. The limitations on the use of such •'ops are considerable, but it is being increasingly obvious that, when .king with naval forces, for example, j a landing, they might bo of value. •• Invasion ” in the full sense may be looked upon as impossible, but the possibility of a small diversion created by a landing backed up by a few battalions of parachute troops can no longer be overlooked. It will be recalled that the German staff during the war of 1914 decided that it was worth sending aeroplanes to bomb London as a diversion, for they knew the total material damage could not be very great. And those raids succeeded as *i diversion, for they caused large numbers of aeroplanes, sorely needed on the western front, to bo brought borne for defence purposes. It is generally thought that Russia first developed the parachute as a tactical instrument. Italy took it up energetically, and a year ago, during the manoeuvres in Libya under Marshal Balbo, two battalions of parachute infantry were dropped behind the lines of an imaginary enemy. At Brunswick in November a test was made with a German infantry company. which was taken to its barracks by air and dropped close to the barrack doors.

No units of parachute infantry have been formed in England, but Mr HoreBelisba lias stated that the “ technical aspects ” of their formation are “ always before the General Staff.” France has done some useful work in developing parachute infantry, and in France there have been public demonstrations wherein detachments have been dropped with their machine guns in parts, and have them rapidly formed up and assembled the guns.