Formation and Early Airborne Forces

Drag training teaches trainee parachutists to release themselves from being dragged by parachute on the ground.

Supply containers being dropped by parachute from a Hastings aircraft.

Men sit nervously inside a cramped aircraft waiting to drop, New Delhi, India, 1941.

Having just exited during a training flight in India, the first parachute is about to open.

Vickers Valencia aircraft on the ground, Willingdon Airport, New Delhi, 1941.

Wooden ground training equipment replicating exit door of aircraft over sandpit for landing.

Vickers Valencia after dropping parachutists. The empty bags will be pulled inside by the air dispatcher.

Parachute jumping instructors recently arrived from Ringway in tropical helmets that were soon disregarded by all troops.

Men standing on wooden swing harness used for teaching parachute control.

Indian airborne troops are talked through ground training apparatus.

156 Parachute Battalion march past. Air Landing School, New Delhi.

Men from No. 1 Indian Air Company squat on the floor outdoors and pack parachutes.

Men from No. 1 Indian Air Company squat on the floor outdoors and pack parachutes.

Men from No.1 Indian Air Company squat on the floor outdoors and pack loads for dropping.

Men from No.1 Indian Air Company pack loads for dropping.

Sikh airborne officer kneels on the ground and packs loads for dropping.

Recruit pulling in a parachute container after dropping, Ringway.

Parachute training using a barrage balloon at Ringway. This method of training was still used into the 1990s.

Shot of a parachute training descent with container immediately on exiting the aircraft over Tatton Park.

Trainee adopting the parachute position on landing, poss RAF Netheravon.

The Viceroy of India Lord Linlithgow inspects parachute with Sqn Ldr Brereton at New Delhi, 1941.

Parachutes drying at Tatton Park prior to being repacked.

A Parachute course stick photographed during the early parachute training days with their harnesses and headwear on.

Stone commemorating the formation of the Parachute Regiment at Ringway.

Tablet commemorating No. 1 Parachute Training School.

Stone commemorating the formation of the Glider Pilot Regiment.

Glider Pilot Memorial, Manchester Airport

Recruits learn how to drop on ground training equipment at Ringway.

Recruit is just about to jump from a swing harness in a training building at Ringway.

A recruit jumps from a fan trainer which simulates actual parachute landing speeds.

Very early shot of an instructor demonstrating the parachute roll to recruits at Ringway.

A recruit lies in a harness ready to be pulled in drag training.

A Ringway recruit learns what action to take on striking a tree.

Recruits in a Whitley practise static drills for simulated aircraft exit. One is ready to drop.

Controlled descent from the parachute tower possibly at Hardwick Hall.

Wooden indoor ground training apparatus at Ringway.

Indoor trainer at Ringway. Note the parachute related graffiti on the walls.

View from inside a parachute training hangar.

Recruit preparing to jump from a swing-style flight trainer at Ringway in 1943.

Shot of a parachute training hangar filled with swing harnesses and other equipment.

Wooden structure in hangar used to practise landing at various heights.

Instructor teaches three recruits the parachute roll on a soft surface.

A recruit learns to steer a parachute in a flight trainer made of wood and rope.

Recruit at Hardwick Hall dropping through mock fuselage to practise exit and landing.

Several white parachutes in the drying hangar at Ringway.

WAAF members packing parachutes.

Two female parachute packers at work.

Women packing parachutes on long tables.

Course students are shown the parachute packing process, Ringway.

Possibly the first training fatality from a parachute failing to open (centre left).

An acrobatic exit from a Whitley aircraft during a training jump.

Early photo showing No 2 Commando inside Whitley bomber on a training jump.

Balloon training to practise exiting through the floor.

Winston Churchill's motorcade passes lines of soldiers on his visit to Ringway, April 1941.

Recruit collapses his parachute after landing at Tatton Park.

Recruit in training lands in parachute position.

Visit to Ringway from Queen Elizabeth and King George VI.

Recruit about to jump from a parachute tower possibly at Ringway.

Equipped troops are briefed prior to training jumps from a Whitley aircraft.

Troops emplaning for air familiarisation training before jumping.

Men receive their parachute wings in a presentation on successful completion of their jump training.

Recruits emplaning prior to a training jump at Ringway. Note number two is carrying his parachute container.

Men of 1st Parachute Battalion line up to emplane an aircraft.

Posed photo of troops practising rallying on the drop zone.

Posed photo of paratroopers ready for action after discarded their parachutes.

Brigadier Gale, King George VI and Major Dobie inspect troops at Ringway.

Members of an early parachute course assemble prior to an aircraft descent.

Posed shot of two equiped paratroopers ready to emplane.

Early paratrooper wearing a specially constructed helmet.

Early paratrooper looks at the camera prior to a training exercise.

Line of paratroops showing the early parachute smock and experimental head protection.

Photo shows an early weapons container which holds the stick's guns during the drop.

Three paratroopers wearing early experimental head protection.

Four paratroopers carry a container to their aircraft ready for load in.

Early paratroopers wearing the locally manufactured rubber "Flash Gordon" helmet, c1940.

RAF jump instructor makes final checks of parachute harnesses prior to emplaning.

A parachute course assembles prior to a final descent which is done en masse.

A later parachute course parade at Ringway. Notice the Wellington aircraft on the right.

Paratroops recruits emplane for the first time.

Early shot of men emplaning prior to parachute descent.

Details of the drop zone are briefed to troops with a map on an aircraft wing.

Paratroopers emplaning for a training exercise.

Numbering off of sticks prior to emplaning Whitley aircraft. Aircraft crew look on.

A stick of parachutists march in a line to emplane a Whitley aircraft.

Parachute trainees climb into a balloon cage prior to a training jump.

Shot from a raised balloon cage for training jumps. A parachute stick wait on the ground.

Early paratrooper adopts correct jumping position on exiting the aircraft over Tatton Park.

Paratrooper has just exited the aircraft. He holds a container and is attached to the plane by his release strop.

Cartoon of parachuting instructors and staff at Ringway, February 1944.

Privates Healy, Collins and Bowman crouch by a fire and make their cap badges at time of their introduction.

Brigadier Gale inspects the troops at Ringway, 1940

Men of No 2 Commando in unarmed combat training at Ringway

Lt Col Down conducting a Briefing

Parachute training drop, Tatton Park

Injured personnel from Ringway exercising, Southport.

Injured personnel from Ringway exercising, Southport.

Parachutists descend to land on a DZ at Tatton Park, after exiting Whitley bombers

Thompson Machine carbine

Parachute Regiment Monument at manchester Airport

Parachute instructor lands and starts to collapse his parachute, Tatton Park, 1940-1

Stick from No 2 Commando emplaning to a Whitley, late 1940

Stick from No 2 Commando prior to emplaning, 1940

General Sir John Dill inspects a parachute with 11 SAS at Tatton Park December 1940

Paratroopers in leather RAF B Type helmets, being inspected by General Sir John Dill, c1940.

A parachute stick from the fledgling 151 Battalion await order to emplane, Airlanding School India, 1941

Indian paratrooper adopts the landing position prior to landing, New Dehli, India, 1941

Paratroopers descend from Whitley aircraft, possibly Tatton Park, Manchester, 1941-43.

Stick from 151 Battalion jumping from a Valencia, 1941

Parachute Jump Instructor conducting training at Ringway, 1941

Parachute troops in air after a training jump, Tatton Park, 9 Jan 1941

Photograph taken for the Chicago Tribune, probably RAF Ringway, 22 May 1941

John Waddy jumping from a Vickers Valencia aircraft. Delhi, India, 5 Dec 1941.

Parachute training, RAF Kabrit, 1942

Final checks by jumping instructors prior to training jumps from a Valencia, RAF Chaklala, India, 1942

A complete stick of training Indian parachutists having exited a Valencia, New Dehli, 1941

David Dobie with Sqn Ldr Meade at RAF Dishforth, Jan 1942

David Dobie (left) with Sqn Ldr Meade (centre) and Captain Crichton (right) at RAF Dishforth, Jan 1942

David Dobie ( Left) and Captain Crichton (Right), RAF Dishforth, Jan 1942

Major Geoff Rothery wearing a Step-in Smock circa 1941

Men emplaning onto a Wellington for their first jumps, India, November 1942.

Airborne Divisional Signallers on exercise, Bulford, 24 November 1942.

Airborne Divisional Signallers on exercise, Bulford, 24 November 1942.

Inspection of Border Regiment by King George VI on Salisbury Plain, 1943.

Jim Lund under instruction at Ringway, 1943

Corporal Nicks sits on a rock with a Parachute Regiment cap badge, Italy, undated.

Parachute training descent with kitbags at Tatton Park, April 1944

Men from a parachute course in 1945 pose for the camera with their girlfriend's names written on their hats.

Driver Ralph Evans' Headstone, St Mary's Church, Walton on Thames, 2012.

St Mary's Church, Walton on Thames, 2012.

Driver Ralph Evans' Headstone, St Mary's Church, Walton on Thames, 2012.