PARATROOPER: Training Pocket Manual 1939-45

Featuring original manual diagrams and illustrations plus new introductory text explaining the history and context of airborne warfare, here is detailed insight into the principles and practice of this unique type of combat. It includes details of the physical training, instruction in static-line parachute deployment, handling the various types of parachutes and harnesses, landing on dangerous terrain, small-arms handling, airborne deployment of heavier combat equipment, landing in hostile drop zones, tactics in the first minutes of landing, radio comms and much more. Using material from contemporary British and American manuals, many never before published, the book explains paratrooper theory, training and practice and the great innovations of the 1930s and 40s when a new 'vertical' dimension to infantry warfare was introduced. By the onset of WWII in 1939, Germany, Italy and Russia were already advanced in their development of paratrooper units as most spectacularly shown in Crete in 1941. This galvanized the UK and US to expand and train their own airborne forces which they unleashed in 1943-45. The Allied paratrooper drops on D-Day and those of Operation Market Garden were the stuff of legend. 160pp, photos and diagrams.