"Airborne Operations in World War II" Topic

"Benjamin Franklin, America's versatile commissioner in Paris, was so enthused by the success of hot air balloons in 1784 that he posed this interesting military question. "Where is the prince who can afford to cover his country with troops for its defense as that ten thousand men descend from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief?".

A plan to drop the US 1st Infantry Division from a Handley-Page Bombers on the German controlled city of Metz was devised by a young officer on General Billy Mitchell's staff, Lewis H. Brereton. He presented the plan to General Billy Mitchell who supported it and took it to General "Black Jack" Pershing. "I proposed to him that in the spring of 1919, when I would have a great force of bombardment planes, he should assign one of the infantry divisions permanently to the Air Force, preferably the 1st division; that we would arm the men with a great number of machine guns and train them to go over the front in our large airplanes, which would carry ten or fifteen Soldiers. We could equip each man with a parachute, so when we desired to make a rear attack on the enemy, we could carry these men over the lines and drop them off at a prearranged strong point, fortify it, and we could supply them by aircraft with food and ammunition. Our low flying attack aviation would then cover every road in the vicinity, both day and night, so as to prevent the Germans falling on them before they could thoroughly organize the position. Then we could attack the Germans from the rear, aided by an attack from our Army from the front, and support the maneuver with our great Air Force.".."
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Amicalement
Armand

Yes, we had heard/read about the plan of dropping the 1ID in WWI. That certainly would have been an interesting event. Could be a neat WWI scenario wargame too.

Don't they use helicopters now?

Dude…! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The US and other armies use both Heliborne and Parachute troops today. The US 82d, 173d, Ranger, SF and a few other are on jump status. And considered Airborne troops.

Where the US 101 is an entire Air Assault heliborne Div. since after Vietnam. But many US units in the US Army & USMC use helicopters for insertions, etc. E.g. the US Army 10 Mtn Div.

The 1ID today is Mech Div. But in Vietnam they like many used helicopters for insertions too.

Many in the US Army are both Parachute and Air Assault/heliborne trained and qualified. Regardless of what unit they are assigned to. I was awarded both Airborne and Air Assault wings. Having successfully graduated from both those schools.

This is not rare in the US Army that many have both sets of those wings. Especially in the combat arms branches, e.g. Infantry, FA, Armor, etc. E.g. I as an infantry Officer served with 1 Air Assault Bn and 3 Mech Bns, '79-'90.