Parachute Brigades begin operating with battalion-size parachute assaults and operations in North Africa in 1942 that are expanded to division size efforts in Sicily and Italy in 1943.
Preparations for the operation began in August 1943 with proposals to drop large numbers of men from 2 SAS Regt into Italy to disrupt German forces and sever supply lines. However, other competing priorities and a shortage of transpo...
The Italians had capitulated while the force was still at sea. The sinking of HMS Abdiel by a mine in the harbour, however, resulted in the loss of 130 soldiers from 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion including their Commanding Officer. Des...
Speed was essential to prevent the consolidation of Italian and German defences facing a rapid pincer movement launched from the west and south east immediately after the amphibious landings. Key bridges and ports were to be captured by airborne assault...
Quite early in the war the Germans were known to be working towards the production of an atomic bomb; it was thought they had made considerable progress in the production of Heavy Water, an essential component. Attacks were planned in 1942 to delay prod...
A large number of Allied service personnel managed to escape, against Army orders, into the neighbouring hills and countryside before the Germans had time to move in and reassert control over the camps. An operation to rescue and evacuate person...
On 12 November the 3rd Parachute Battalion (3 Para Bn) jumped onto and seized the vital airfield at Bone between Algiers and Tunis, arriving barely before German paratroopers deployed for the same mission. Four days later 1 Para Bn dropped and occupied ...
Airborne Assault Museum