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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1304.PDF
EARLY DAYS. The Whitley as a poratroop aircraft was difficult of ingress and exit and as uncomfortable as it appears. wider appreciation of universal application. Although men August 7th, 1947 General Crawford was discussing airborne operations in Sicily, and Kilkenny was study- ing American methods at Fort Benning, I spent my time at Tatton Park with a pair of binocu- lars watching parachute landings from early morning until late evening. I had no confidence that a stable parachute would be produced within a reasonable time, and felt that an im- provement in flight and landing technique offered the best means of reducing uncontrolled landings and the injuries which resulted. The more I watched the more impressed I became with certain similarities between flying a parachute in the air and sailing a small boat on the sea. I reflected that air and water were both unstable elements which were fundament ally uncontrollable. Both were subject to &*£ mospheric forces which caused currents, waves, eddies and varying degrees of buoyancy. A sailing boat could not of itself resist the move- ments of the waves, and a parachute was simi- larly at the mercy of wind and air currents. Both could, however, be controlled to some extent by human agency. A skilled sailor would ensure that his craft was correctly trimmed, and a trained parachutist should be able to poise would be trained under varying conditions and circum- his body in the best position for landing. Had we suffi- stances it was necessary for them to be fit for employment ciently explored the possibilties of improving upon the in any part of the world, and a standardized parachuting technique must take such considerations into account. Except by certain elements in the R.A.F., who were ob- sessed with the importance of their own particular r61e, military parachuting was no longer regarded as a sort of circus act, but was rapidly becoming recognized by the Army as a vital factor in future operations. As the air- borne battalions grew into brigades and the brigades into divisions it became increasingly evident that sound training was the key to success. It was clear enough from all the records that the uncon- trolled landing was the most serious technical problem in military parachuting, whether this was carried out in .England or Timbuctu. The inherent instability of the parachute, which permitted the slightest air current or gust of wind to set up that pendulum swing which so often landed a man slap on his back, was unquestionably a matter of the highest importance. Almost equally dan- gerous was the menace of twisted rigging lines which prac- tically nullified any attempt to control the parachute and caused a man to strike the ground while he was rotating like a slowly spinning top. Injuries The nature of the injuries derived from these causes was most worrying. Whereas a straightforward broken leg or arm could normally be mended without much ultimate damage, the shock to the nervous system caused by a bad concussion or spinal injury was likely to affect a man's faculties for the rest of his life. The remote control statis- ticians, who occupied the seats of higher authority, were content to think that everything was fine so long as men didn't get killed during training, but we were closer to our pupils than that and we didn't like them to get hurt if we could prevent it. Apart from the fact that it was the responsibility of the Royal Air Force to give the soldiers the best possible train- ing, everyone on the P.T.S. staff was personally anxious to contribute what he, or she, could to lighten the anxieties and hazards to which the pupils were subjected during the time they were at the School. It was true that the injury rate had been very greatly reduced from what it had been in the early days, but we were a long way from being satisfied. We knew, too, that the injury rate rose sharply after our men had joined their units and took part in exercises where they lacked the com- forting presence of the "nursemaids in blue," as Eric Down ironically but nevertheless affectionately, referred to the R.A.F. instructors. And so it was that during the glorious July days, while existing methods of parachuting? I thought not. The technique which we taught had been strongly influenced by the insistence of the pre-war professionals that landings must be made with the parachutist facing in the same direction as that in which he was drifting. That method may have been all right for an expert descending from several thousand feet on a fine day, with plenty of time at his disposal, and nothing else to think about. For a soldier dropping from a few hundred feet, possibly at night, and certainly laden with equipment, the method just wasn't practicable. I decided to re-examine the whole problem in the light of the experience gained during the past two years and see if a simpler, and more satisfactory, technique for controlling the parachute could be devised. Dick Richards was deputizing for Kilkenny during his absence, so I explained my ideas to him and the senior instructors. I impressed upon them that parachuting had become a really important factor in planning future mili- tary operations, not only in Europe but in distant parts of the world. General Gale had been appointed to raise and train' the 6th Airborne Division in readiness for the opening of the '' Second Front'' in Europe when the appropriate time arrived. Increasing numbers of men would require to be taught parachuting, and it was the responsibility of the P.T.S. to ensure that the methods were the best The author with Major-Gen. Crawford who was the first officer of General's rank to take a course of parachute training. His first drop was made into a lake.
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