I know that German troops basically dove out of their transports head first. Did British troops jump like so or did they jump feet first more like U.S. Airborne troops.

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Cheers,
Daniel

feet first, from a side door or hole in the bottom of the fuselage... though the slipstream from hole jumping could often somersault the jumper, not pleasant when static line jumping...

Can email you a copy of my masters on British and German airborne effectiveness if you would like, need people to read it as its the first draft and would like peoples comments...

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

Daniel, take a look at 'A Bridge Too Far' if you can.

There's a great close-up scene of the paratroopers jumping from their C-47s over Arnhem which the film-makers went to great lengths to make as realistic as possible.

They even used men from the modern Parachute Regiment to do it ; for safety reasons the only things not included were the WW2 'drop-bags' containing Brens, 2" mortars and suchlike....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

YES! Even the sounds are real! You can hear the cameraman breathing and straining!

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

Martin very true, the jump was done by Para regs from UK, my big bruv was one of them, there was one refusal to jump for the movie, the usual rule applied no jump and charged etc, in this case the defence was that as it was for a movie and not an operational or training jump then usual rules should not apply. However army still did the poor guy stating refusal to jump is a refusal to jump no matter what the circumstances....

Big bruv always told me the worst jumps were from the balloon and basket at Hullavington in Wiltshire, scarier than aircraft due to short drop time. I did a 2 jump course at army parachute training centre at Netheravon, you doubtless know the history of that place too, two jumps were enough for me, I cant imagine doing it for a living....

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Prepare to repel borders.
William L. McGonagle, MOH, U. S. Navy, Commanding Officer, USS LIBERTY 1967.

Just to add a little more in the very early days at Ringway, the method of jumping was out of the back via the space where the rear turret used to be in Whitley bombers...I believe they faced forwards and pulled the ripcord and let the slipstream do the rest...must have been fun....
Also pre-war the Russians got their paratroopers to climb out of hte fuselgage and go 'wing walking' till they were all out and then they all slid off the wings and pulled their ripcord. I assume this was to try and get a concentrated drop.

Jumping from the rear and bottom of fuselage caused problems with the static line as paras would somersault in the slipstream.

The Germans too jumped from the bottom of aircraft, when jumping from the HE111, it was not liked!

The russians had rails attached to the wings to ease movement along the wings. Whether it allowed better concentration is open to debate. During exercises, pre-war, it seems to have. Little is known of the soviet wartime operation at the Dnieper, apart from the paras being isolated and destroyed by German troops. I am unsure if they used the wing drop method. The soviets mainly used airborne drops to aid partisans... Will see what I have on soviet ops...

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

American paratroopers when jumping shout "Jeronimo". What do British paratroopers say, "Jawaharlal Nehru"? He was an Indian too...

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I believe their battle cry was "WHOA MOHAMED!"

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

Or 'Go To It' for 6th Airborne and 'Up the Ox & Bucks!' for the Ox & Bucks!!!

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

It would be a foolish paratrooper who shouted the words 'Geronimo' or anything else except '1000, 2000, 3000 check canopy.' This takes four seconds which is the time taken for your canopy to deploy, then you can check for twists in rigging lines, other people in the sky and if necessary do any sterring away, release your PEP etc etc......
Whoa Mohammed was a call taken up to identify friendly troops on the ground in the 1st Aiborne Division in North Africa and also used later in Sicily and Arnhem.....

Don't forget the Germans use of the Personen-Abwurf-Gerat. A plywood container with up to three agents and weapons and luggage that could carry agents behide lines and forgo the need for parachute training. Could be dropped from Stukas or other bombers in use.

I still would like to know why the British did not go out the bomb bay. Must have been some techical reason but what ??

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