Timeline

1940 - 1941

Formation of airborne forces

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1940 - 1941

On 22 June 1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote a minute to the British Chiefs of Staff directing the setting up of a Corps of Parachute soldiers. Number 2 Commando began parachute training at Ringway near Manchester the following month.

Events

  • Formation and Early Airborne Forces

    On the 22nd June 1940, Winston Churchill sent a letter to General Ismay requesting a corps of at least 5000 troops.

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Articles

  • Churchill's Letter

    Following Churchill's wishes for "a corps of at least 5,000 parachute troops, suitably organised and equipped" a Parachute Training School was established at Ringway Airport near Manchester, and No 2 Commando was chosen for the first training in parachute duties; the regiment quickly growing into the 11th Special Air Service Battalion and ultimately, on the 1st August 1942, the Parachute Regiment. By the end of World War Two, the Regiment comprised 17 battalions.Churchill’s letter to General Ismay dated June 22nd 1940:

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  • Early Parachuting and Airborne Forces

    The concept of human flight is a relatively new art, while a safe descent from the air has followed closely behind. One of the earliest conceptions of a version of paragliding came in a detailed sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci. Pioneering theorists experimented with descents from clifftops and high buildings, although with limited success. In the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, several circus acts in Britain, Europe and the United States experimented with 'exotic' parachute descents, occasionally by women, from hot-air balloons.

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