PARACHUTE RAIDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1940, Page 6

PARACHUTE RAIDERS

ORIGINATED IN RUSSIA

METHOD OF ATTACK EXPLAINED

The newest flying force with the most strenuous service is the “parachute hunters.” soldiers who fall from heaven. There are already several regiments of them. There were forerunners of these regiments in the World War: men who scorned death by descending in parachutes far beyond the front to blow up bridges, munition depots, or other military facility. Rarely did one of these brave men return.

Fifteen years ago Soviet Russia formed the first parachute squadrons —with German-made parachutes, by the way. In Russia they are slill called “death regiments'’ because of the high rate of mortality during training. For two years a parachute school existed in Stendal, and there the first parachute regiment is garrisoned, originally recruited from Goering’s own crack regiment. Only the toughest, soundest, more dare-devil young men are admitted, after elaborate psychophysical tests. The training is a sports training at first, teaching the technique of falling, the change from a vertical motion to a forward motion, rolling forward, rolling backward, until the necessary acrobatic dexterity is achieved. Then follows the jump from towers into canvas nets and the handling of the silken parachute. All the parachutes of the German air force open automatically. Landing technique is practised on the ground with the help of old aeroplanes. The spinning propellers inflate the parachute. propelling the man fastened to it several hundred metres Across the field. The soldier thus learns to catch the rope and fold the parachute quickly.

The mass jump from flying ’planes takes place at a horizontal angle and as fast as lightning, to enable the jumpers to land on a small area, close to each other. A jump of 120 men from ten planes takes place in as many seconds. An electric horn gives the signal for the start, and the commanding officer gives the man nearest the door a light tap on the shoulder. He jumps, and the others follow., The arms equipment is thrown down in special parachutes carrying containers holding machine-guns, ammunition, hand grenades, explosives and tools: the bottom of the container is like a big, empty can receiving the landing shock and thereby protecting the aims. Reaching the ground, the soldier tumbles forward, making sev-l oral complete turns, folds the parachute together, frees himself of the straps and grabs the nearest arms container. When whole regiments fall from the skies in the midst of the enemy's land, fortification lines become illusory barriers.