Airborne forces comprise specialist troops landed by parachute, gliders, or helicopter. Their development involved three major issues. First, were they special forces, best suited for coups de main and the like, or a major arm in their own right? Secondly, what balance should be struck between parachute delivery, which might leave men scattered over a wide area, or glider landing, where men arrived in small groups but were vulnerable as they did so? Finally, how should they compensate for the fact that they usually lacked firepower and heavy equipment, and were hard to support logistically?

The first unit of airborne troops was established during the 1920s by Italy which formed a company of parachutists. By the end of that decade the USSR had formed and trained a battalion of paratroops and during the early 1930s conducted a number of exercises culminating in 1934 in a drop of a complete regiment of 1, 500 men. France followed in 1938 with the formation of two companies of Infanterie de l'Air.

It was the Germans who saw the opportunities offered by airborne units operating in conjunction with armoured formations. In 1938 7th Flieger Division, commanded by Maj Gen Kurt Student, was formed by the Luftwaffe, comprising parachute and airlanding units with their own integrated air assets which included a number of gliders. Elements saw action for the first time in May 1940 during the invasion of the Low Countries, featuring in the attack on the fortress at Eben Emael when parachute engineers landed by glider on top of the casemates. In May 1941 7th Flieger Division, by then part of XI Air Corps, was subsequently used in the invasion of Crete which was the first battle won by airborne troops alone. However, together with XI Corps' Assault Regiment, it suffered very heavy losses and Hitler decreed that German airborne forces were thereafter to be used solely in the ground role.

The Allies followed the Germans' lead. In October 1941, Britain formed the 1st Airborne Division and in May 1943 the 6th Airborne Division, each comprising two parachute brigades, a gliderborne air-landing brigade, and divisional troops. Air transport was provided by the RAF which converted bombers for dropping parachutists; from the latter part of 1944 onwards these were replaced by Dakota (Douglas C-47) transports. Air-landing units and the majority of divisional troops travelled in Horsa and Hamilcar gliders crewed by members of The Glider Pilot Regiment and towed by RAF bombers. The Americans formed five airborne divisions: 11th, 13th, 17th, 82nd, and 101st. Larger than their British counterparts, each comprised three parachute and one glider infantry regiments (each of three battalions) with supporting arms. Parachutists were carried in C-47 Dakotas which were also used as tugs for the Waco and Horsa gliders of the gliderborne units. British airborne forces first saw action when 1st Parachute Brigade, part of 1st Airborne Division, was deployed to North Africa during the period 1942 to 1943. Subsequently the complete division, commanded by Maj Gen G. F. ‘Hoppy’ Hopkinson, took part in operations in Sicily and Italy during 1943. Airborne units were also used in two coup de main operations in 1942. In February, a company of 2nd Parachute Battalion was dropped at Bruneval, on the French coast, in a successful operation to capture a new type of German radar. In November, a force of sappers from 1st Airborne Division was flown in two gliders to Norway in an unsuccessful attempt to sabotage a factory producing heavy water for the German atomic weapon development programme. In November 1943, 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group under Brig C. H. V. Pritchard was deployed to Italy and was subsequently employed on operations in southern France, as part of 1st Airborne Task Force, and Greece during the following two years. In June 1944 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Maj Gen Richard Gale, took part in the invasion of Normandy, along with the 82nd ‘All American’ and 101st ‘Screaming Eagles’ US Airborne Divisions under Maj Gens Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor respectively. The division remained on operations in France until withdrawn three months later.

In September 1944 Lt Gen ‘Boy’ Browning's I Airborne Corps, part of First Allied Airborne Army under Lt Gen Louis Brereton, was deployed on MARKET GARDEN. It comprised 1st Airborne Division under Maj Gen Roy Urquhart, 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions commanded respectively by Brig Gen James Gavin and Maj Gen Maxwell Taylor, and 52nd Lowland Division. The two American divisions achieved their objectives but 1st Airborne Division, dropped and landed too far from its objectives, was decimated in the ensuing battle of Arnhem and Oosterbeek against elements of two SS panzer divisions. In late March 1945 the XVIII US Airborne Corps under Ridgway, comprising 6th Airborne Division under Maj Gen Eric Bols and 17th US Airborne Division commanded by Maj Gen William ‘Bud’ Miley, took part in VARSITY, the highly successful crossing of the Rhine. Avoiding the mistakes made at Arnhem, both divisions were dropped and landed directly on to their objectives which were taken by the end of the first day after hard fighting.

The Indian army had in 1941 formed 50th Indian Parachute Brigade which subsequently saw extensive action in the infantry role in the Burma campaign. In 1944, 44th Indian Airborne Division (later redesignated 2nd Indian Airborne Division) was formed under Maj Gen Eric Down, comprising two parachute brigades and an airlanding brigade. Only one airborne operation was carried out, a composite battalion group being dropped at Elephant Point in May 1945. Airborne operations in Burma otherwise consisted of landings behind Japanese lines in 1944 by Chindits of Maj Gen Orde Wingate's Special Force which comprised 14th Long Range Penetration Brigade; 16th, 23rd, 77th, and 111th Infantry Brigades; and 3rd West African Brigade. Pathfinders and airstrip construction teams of a USAAF airborne engineer squadron were landed in gliders of the USAAF's No.1 Air Commando. Troops were subsequently landed by RAF and USAAF C-47 transports, with fire support and casualty evacuation being provided by P-51 fighters and L-5 light aircraft of No.1 Air Commando.

The principal American airborne formation deployed in the Pacific theatre was the 11th US Airborne Division, commanded by Maj Gen Joe Swing. At the beginning of February 1945, two battalions dropped at Tagaytay Ridge and later that month the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped on to the Japanese-held fortress on Corregidor, an island off Manila Bay in the Philippines. Six days later, the 1st Battalion 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped north-east of Tagaytay Ridge, 20 miles (32 km) behind Japanese lines, to release POWs from a Japanese prison camp. In June, elements of 11th Airborne Division carried out an airlanding operation to intercept the Japanese withdrawal from Luzon.

The Italians, having led the way at the outset, expanded their airborne forces to two under-strength parachute divisions but never used them in the airborne role, though they fought with distinction on the ground. Similarly the Soviets increased their airborne forces but made little use of them, carrying out a small number of brigade-sized parachute operations in 1943 and 1944. The Japanese also made little use of their airborne forces during their invasion of South-East Asia. Two successful operations, at Menado and Palembang in the Dutch East Indies, were carried out in 1942 but thereafter no further use was made of airborne units until December 1944 when two parachute regiments took part with limited success in an attack on three American airfields in the area of Burauen in the Philippines.

The aftermath of WW II saw drastic reductions in western airborne forces, Britain eventually reducing hers to two parachute brigade groups (one a Territorial Army formation) and America retaining only one of its airborne divisions. Five years later elements of the 187th Parachute Infantry Regiment carried out two operations during the Korean war in October 1950 and March 1951. France was the exception, forming the 10th and 25th Airborne Divisions and subsequently using them in the first of the post-war colonial wars in Indochina where they fought heroically at Dien Bien Phu. In 1956 French paratroops of the 2^ème Régiment Parachutiste Colonial and 11^ème Demi-Brigade Parachutiste de Choc, together with the British 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment Group, took part in MUSKETEER, the airborne operation conducted during the initial stage of the disastrous invasion of Suez. In 1957, the Soviets revealed they had been developing a complete airborne army comprising six divisions. Indeed, they had surpassed the West in development of equipment designed for airborne operations, including light armoured vehicles and self-propelled (SP) guns capable of being dropped by parachute.

During the last thirty years, the delivery of large numbers of troops by parachute to their objectives has been made more difficult by a number of factors such as the development of sophisticated air defence systems, which has increased the risk of interception of transport aircraft, and modern battlefield surveillance and target acquisition systems which render dropping zones vulnerable. Furthermore, light scales of equipment and limited organic logistical support inevitably limit the ability of parachute formations to conduct extended operations, particularly against a heavily armoured enemy. There has thus been a shift of emphasis in airborne deployment away from the parachute to a method of tactical air transport which overcomes many such problems and offers greater flexibility: the helicopter.

It was in the 1950s that helicopters first saw real operational employment. During the Korean war, US forces employed them for liaison, supply, casualty evacuation, and troop transportation. Four years later, French forces used them for deployment of airborne units on counter-insurgency operations during the Algerian independence war. Some were armed with missiles and employed successfully in the attack role. The Vietnam war saw the helicopter come into its own as a method of large-scale transportation of troops and equipment. During the early 1960s the 11th Air Assault Division, commanded by Maj Gen Harry Kinnard, was formed as the US Army's first dedicated airmobile formation. Subsequently redesignated 1st Cavalry Division (Air Mobile), it saw extensive service in Vietnam and developed the role to a fine art. Today the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is the US army's major helicopter-borne formation, equipped with its own light, medium, and heavy lift transport as well as attack helicopter assets.

Helicopters were also extensively used during the war in Afghanistan, during the period 1979 to 1989, where the Soviet army used them on operations against mujahedin guerrillas. Airborne and air-assault units mounted tactical air-assault operations against guerrilla-held areas, being landed under supporting fire from artillery, multi-launch rocket launchers, and ground-attack (see fighter) aircraft. Heavily armed attack helicopters preceded landings, laying down suppressive fire if necessary.

The parachute does still have a role to play in operations where delivery is beyond the range of helicopters. An example of this occurred in 1978 when the French Foreign Legions's 2^ème Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes and the Belgian Régiment Para-Commando were flown from Corsica and Belgium, subsequently being dropped on to an airfield at Kolwezi in Zaire, in an operation to rescue Europeans under threat from rebel forces. Moreover, the use of free-fall parachuting, developed for military use since the 1960s, continues to be a viable method of long-range airborne delivery of small groups for pathfinding and reconnaissance tasks.

Airborne forces still form part of many armies. The US army features two major regular formations: the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). France has its 11^ème Division Parachutiste and 4^ème Division Aéroportée, both of which form part of its Force d'Action Rapide. Germany's airborne forces currently comprise the Airborne Forces Command, incorporating the 26th and 31st Airborne Brigades which have parachute and airmobile capabilities, while the Italian army has the Folgore Parachute Brigade and a carabinieri parachute battalion. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia's airborne forces currently comprise five airborne divisions, an independent brigade, three regiments, an independent battalion, and a Spetsnaz regiment.

The year 2000 will see 16th Air Assault Brigade as the British Army's newly formed airborne formation, possessing its own attack and light helicopter assets which will include three Army Air Corps regiments equipped with the GKN Westland Apache WAH 64 attack helicopter. Light- and medium-support helicopters of the RAF will be provided as required by the newly formed tri-service Joint Helicopter Command. Two of the three regular army battalions of The Parachute Regiment will form the infantry component, together with an airlanding battalion. These two units will retain their parachute capability for long-range airborne operations or those requiring the insertion of a leading parachute battalion group.

Coming as they do at the air-land interface, airborne forces do not always fit comfortably into structures which have tended to separate air from land. Germany's WW II parachute arm was part of the air force, and it was only with the 1998 Strategic Defence Review that Britain established a unified command structure for its helicopters. The doctrine governing their use is still developing, and in the West is increasingly linked to manoeuvre warfare. Airborne forces offer the opportunity of creating room for manoeuvre by using the third dimension, achieving ‘vertical envelopment’, in addition to—or instead of—envelopment achieved by ground manoeuvre, and helping shape deep, non-linear, battlefields. The traditional functions of their component arms are likely to become blurred, with a growing emphasis on linking troops who move by air to battle with fires delivered by artillery and aircraft against targets identified or designated from the ground. Their mobility gives them a particular utility in intervention operations, and the qualities engendered in their training supply an important combat edge.

Bibliography

• Allen, Patrick, Screaming Eagles: In Action with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) (London, 1990).
• Edwards, Roger, German Airborne Troops (London, 1974).
• Grau, Lester W., The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan (Washington, 1996).
• Harclerode, Peter, PARA! Fifty Years of the Parachute Regiment (London, 1992).
• Tugwell, Maurice. Airborne to Battle (London, 1971)

— Peter Harclerode

The Oxford Companion to Military History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.