PARACHUTE TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1941, Page 8

PARACHUTE TROOPS

TRAINING IN CANADA GETTING MOST SERIOUS CONSIDERATION. ! CHANGE IN BRITISH OPINION. [ A statement made by Mr C. G. Power, the Canadian Air Minister, has disclosed that the Defence Department of Canada is giving the most serious consideration to the matter of training parachute troops (the air correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" wrote recently). Various Infantry units, he revealed, would in all probability be sent to parachute ' schools for special courses. This in- ' ' formation suggests a change in British • i opinion regarding parachute troops. ‘. which hitherto has been that they would be largely inelTective in the i - present war. 11 Russia was the first country to in- , I troduce a parachute corps. It was ' evolved by Marshal Tuehachevsky. i I who was executed in 1937. When the ‘ i Russians were building up their paraI chute arm Germany, in common with ’ i other countries, appeared to attach ‘ j small importance to it. yet in 1935 they themselves formed two specialis•I ed regiments of parachute-equipped I infantry. These troops are known as , i Fallschirm-Jager. They are trained iat schools at Brunswick. Wittstock. ■ Stentuil. and Gulsheimcrheide. and beI sides learning all the technique of ■ jumping and landing they are given ; an intensive training in topography, i They are also trained as sappers to j make them efficient in destroying I vital targets. They first went into action in Nor- ! way. but there they were of little . value: many were injured in landing I and captured, and some died in the , snow. Their failure was due to insufficient training. When the Nazis ■ overran Holland and Belgium their parachute troops were more effective, ! lor as soon as they landed they were 1 strongly supported by dive bombers. But in all the successes which they have achieved so far the German parachutists have benefited largely by the element of surprise. Now that this has been removed any attacks on this country which they might attempt would inevitably fail. Nevertheless. as the use of para- 1 ' chutists so far has been only on a , moderate scale, the practical possibili- , ! tics of the parachute arm are not yet i proved. The fact that the British 1 : Empire as well as the United States j I is now giving it very close attention suggests that this new form of warfare may develop on a grand scale in the future. i