PARACHUTE TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1940, Page 9

PARACHUTE TROOPS

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.

Invasion by parachute troops was thought of long before Adolf Hitler was born. In January, 1784. Benjamin Franklin, then at Passy, France, wrote a letter to a Dutch friend, after seeing the first balloon ascents in Paris in 1783. Benjamin Franklin, wrote: “It appears, as you may observe, to be a discovery of great importance, and what may possibly give a new turn to human affairs. Convincing sovereigns of the folly of wars may perhaps be one effect of it, since it will be impracticable for the* most potent of them to guard his dominions. Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than five ships of the line, and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defences as that 10,000 men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief, before a force could be brought together to repel them. It is a pity that any national jealousy should, as you imagine it may, have prevented the English from prosecuting the experiment, since they are sueh ingenious mechanicians, that in their hands it might have made a more rapid progress towards perfection, and all the utility it is capable of affording."