Donald Featherstone Wargaming airbornes
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Chapter 2 The Formation of Allied Airborne Forces
There were great obstacles to the formation of airborne forces - a concept that needed men to jump, plus pilots and planes to fly them into battle; all with specialised training. Also, it required the support and endorsement of senior commanders and politicians - the far-seeing Prime Minister flung himself into the fray. On 27 May 1941, Churchill wrote to General Lord Ismay:
‘... in the light of what is happening in Crete and may soon be happening in Cyprus and in Syria ... we ought to have an airborne division on the German model with any improvements which might suggest themselves from experience. We ought also to have a number of carrier aircraft.’
On 22 June 1940, Churchill sent a minute to his Chiefs of Staff: ‘We ought to have a corps of at least 5,000 parachute troops. I hear something is being done already to form such a corps but only, I believe, on a very small scale. Advantage must be taken of the summer to train these forces, who can none the less play their part meanwhile as shock troops in home defence.’
Service planners were sceptical of Churchill’s idea of taking the war to the enemy on land in Europe and believed parachute units to be logistically unsound. Nevertheless, in July 1940 the Central Landing Establishment was formed at Ringway near Manchester, in three sub-units: the Parachute Sqn., the Glider Sqn. and technical Development Unit with R.A.F. and army staffs recruited to organise parachute training and evolve the logistics
In May 1941 it was proposed to Winston Churchill that the future composition of airborne forces should be two parachute brigades, one in the U.K. and one in the Middle East, and a glider force sufficient to lift 10,000 men and associated equipment; ten medium bomber squadrons were to be converted to paratroop dropping and glider towing role. Thus the small airborne cadre expanded into brigades and later divisions that were to play major parts in future operations.
Brigadier R. N. Gale, a ruddy-faced, moustached World War One veteran who wore riding breeches and polished field boots, but possessed all the qualities of a first-class British Senior Officer, was appointed to command 1st Parachute Brigade of three battalions and 11th SAS became 1st Parachute Battalion. In September 1941 volunteers between 22 and 32 years of age were called for from all infantry battalions in the United Kingdom; not more than ten men were to be taken from any one unit - the standards of fitness were very high. Lieut. Colonel Brown took over the 1st Battalion, the 2nd was raised under Lieut. Colonel Flavell and the 3rd under Lieut. Colonel Lathbury. In mid-1942 a new recruitment policy drafted trained infantry battalions, from famous county regiments, who brought their own regimental traditions to benefit the fledgling formation of which they had become a part. Men of these regiments who failed the selection course were replaced by volunteers from other sources. The first converted battalions were 7th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders who brought their own pipe band with them, and 10th Royal Welch Fusiliers, becoming 5th (Scottish) and 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalions. From 1st Parachute Brigade was transferred the 4th Battalion (later the Wessex) and on 17 July 1942 Brigadier Down formed 2nd Parachute Brigade of 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions.
On 1 August 1942 the War Office approved the formation of the Parachute Regiment to serve in conjunction with the Glider Pilot Regiment as part of the Army Air Corps. These airborne units were welded together as a fighting machine by Brigadier F. A. M. Browning, then commanding 24th Guards Brigade, who was selected to be ‘Commander Paratroops and Airborne Troops’ with the rank of Major-General. A colourful personality, gifted with the style and looks of a film star and the acme of sartorial elegance, ‘Boy’ Browning had all the qualities of superb leadership and it was he who chose the maroon beret as a distinctive headgear of the Airborne Division, and the emblem of Bellerophon mounted on the winged horse Pegasus to adorn the arm of all airborne soldiers.
In late 1942 Brigadier Hackett's 4th Parachute Brigade was formed in Egypt and Northern Palestine. It consisted of the 10th (Sussex) Parachute Battalion (formerly 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment); the 11th from volunteers serving in units in the Middle East, and the 151st Parachute Battalion was the original 156th (British) Parachute Battalion transferred from India.
In May 1943 6th Airborne Division was formed. Its 3rd Parachute Brigade consisted of 7th, 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions formed of the following battalions impressed into the Parachute Regiment: 7th (Light Infantry) Bn. (from 10th Bn. Somerset Light Infantry); 8th (Midland) Bn. (from 13th Bn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment), and 9th (Eastern and Home Counties) Bn. (from 10th Bn. Essex Regiment). On 1st June, the War Office re-named 10th Bn. Green Howards (2nd/4th Bn. South Lancashire Regiment) as 12th (Yorkshire) and 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalions of Brigadier Poett's 5th Brigade to make up the 6th Airborne Division with Hill's 3rd Brigade. The Division was commanded by Major-General Richard Gale.
In 1942 a British Division numbered 757 officers and 16,764 men in two infantry brigades, each of three rifle battalions, and a tank brigade. It was supported by three field regiments of artillery, an anti-tank regiment, and a light anti-aircraft regiment. Other support elements included Royal Engineers, Divisional Signals and a Reconnaissance Regiment; service elements were an Army Service Corps for transport, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Provost plus other minor units. H.Q. Staff was assisted by Intelligence, Field Security and Defence sections.
In the British services the term ‘Airborne’ covers parachute and glider-borne troops, raised, organised, trained and equipped for their respective roles. An airborne division was formed of many elements: the Parachute Regiment, the glider pilots and glider-borne infantry, plus essential support and service units. Its establishment followed the same overall pattern, the tank brigade being replaced by the Air Landing Brigade, and with a drastic cut in ancillary services to achieve air mobility. This reduced the strength of the division by about a third as compared with the conventional infantry division.