1948 - 1955
16th Parachute Brigade Group is formed after the disbandment of 6th Airborne Division with three battalions of the Parachute Regiment and serves primarily in Europe, Iraq and the Canal Zone in Egypt.
Events
Malaya
Read moreThe ‘Emergency’ was the unofficial war conducted against Communist infiltration into Malaya between 1948 and 1956. Jungle areas were dominated by Communist Terrorists ‘CTs’ who press-ganged the local Aboriginal tribes for labour. 22 SAS sought to operate in deep jungle considered safe by CTs, destroy their cleared cultivations areas or ‘Ladangs’ for food supplies, ambush gangs and assist abused native tribes.
Canal Zone Egypt
Read moreThis had followed tension in Persia after British alarm at the nationalisation of its oil industry and fears for the safety of British nationals. The Brigade deployed to Cyprus in June aboard the Aircraft Carriers HMS Triumph and Warrior, the situation proving to be a false alarm.
This time the three Parachute Battalions joined over 70,000 British troops stationed in the Canal Zone, taking over responsibility for the docks. The 33rd Parachute Field Regiment RA took over the security of the Ordnance Depot at Geneifa.
Articles
Direct Enlistment
In order to maintain continuity of airborne service and regularise anomalies existing since the Second World War, direct enlistment into the Parachute Regiment for other ranks was introduced in 1953. This was a notable change of status and terms of service for soldiers and later officers in the Parachute Regiment.
Read MoreEOKA Cyprus
Extremists supporting ‘Enosis’ Union with Greece on the island of Cyprus in 1955 formed a terrorist organization called EOKA (The National Union of Cypriot Combatants), between 1954-5. Colonel Grivas, a Greek Army officer during the Second World War led it and opened a campaign of terror in late 1955.
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