WORLD IN ACTION: PARATROOPS COMMANDOS FROM THE SKY

As early as the 16th century in Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was sketching and designing parachutes. The first successful parachute descent was made in France 150 years ago, and the first jump from a plane was 30 years ago in America. But, it's only about 10 years since the Russians began to take the parachute seriously as a weapon of attack. And the world grew familiar with pictures from Moscow showing hundreds of parachutes dotting the clouds. Today, the armies of the United Nations are taking to the skies. And the Allied Parachute Corps include Poles and Fighting French, Russians and Americans, British and Canadians. These men are the new hard-hitting spearhead of the Allied armies. They can leap over sea barriers and fortifications to seize aerodromes, hamper enemy communications, and prepare the way for for combined assault by sea, land, and air. They are hand-picked volunteers, keen, intelligent, determined. And they go through some of the toughest training any soldier ever had to face. Physically fit to start with, they learn to tumble so as not to injure themselves when they land, but to be ready for action without a moment's delay. They study and become experts in the tricks of unarmed combat. All troops need to know how to defend themselves without arms, but paratroops must be especially skilled in case they're attacked before they can reach their weapons. When they practice tumbling, they try it from the back of a lorry as these British paratroops are doing in Egypt, rushing to collect their equipment which is thrown off into containers at the same time. The paratrooper has all the basic instruction of the soldier with a special training of his own on top of it. His favorite weapons are the automatic type like the Tommy gun and the Bren, weapons he can bring rapidly into action. The paratrooper must be tough and so must his parachute for on it his life depends. Parachutes are made from the finest silk and nylon. This is where all the silk nylon stockings have gone. And when the parachute is finished, it's tested with a dummy figure of the right weight to make sure it's perfect before a man's life is entrusted to it. The paratrooper still has much to learn before he's ready to jump from a plane. Intensive ground training prepares him thoroughly so that when he jumps for the first time, he'll know exactly what to do. On the jump tower, he learns to land with a forward motion, turning his body to prevent landing with his back to the wind. With the help of a wind machine, he practices springing to his feet while being dragged head first along the ground, just as he'll have to do when he lands. It's not as easy as it looks, for a parachute in the wind is an awkward thing to manage. When he struggles to his feet, he races to get between his parachute and the wind, collapses the chute, and unbuckles the harness. Speed is vital. The enemy may have seen him, and on the speed with which he frees himself from the chute depends his chance of beating off an attacker. On the tower again, he learns to know the jerk of the opening parachute. He's hoisted up the tower wearing a regular parachute harness with 15 ft of risers. On a signal from the instructor, he pulls a rip cord, falls free for 15 ft, and is jerked upright by his harness. In his left hand, he holds a tiny rubber ball, and if he keeps hold of that, it shows he has control of his nerves. The tower at Fort Benning, where Canadian paratroopers have been training alongside their American comrades, is modeled on the tower that stood in the amusement park at the New York World's Fair. After mastering the controlled jump, the paratrooper makes his first descent from the free arm of the tower. His parachute opens automatically and he floats down 250 ft to the ground. Next to the jump from a plane, this is pretty well the real thing. In England, a different system is used. The men make their preliminary jumps from a captive balloon, dropping out through a hole in the floor. Then they're ready for their first jump from a plane. The harness is tested and they're off. All their training has been building up to this. Now they're going to put themselves to the test. They've had intensive instruction on the ground and on the towers. They've become familiar with their shoots and have gained confidence by learning to pack them themselves. Now they're keyed up for the real jump. Somehow the ground doesn't look quite the same now. It seems a very long way down. But they've been well trained and know what to do. Some are cheerful, others perhaps a little apprehensive. The pilot spots plane above the dropping zone and the warning light goes on. And now they're in the air. Their parachutes are opening. They feel with relief the rough jerk of the opening shoot and then they're taking it easy, gliding down at 18 ft a second towards the ground. Their equipment drops at the same time, packed in containers carried by parachutes of a different color. This part is easy. But the landing is more of a problem and an instructor is standing by to give them last minute instructions as they reach the ground. At tactical exercises overseas, paratroops get the feel of actual battle. Battle inoculation, they call it. First come the fighters and light bombers softening up the enemy positions with cannon fire and bombs. Then other planes lay a smoke screen and circling the area where the paratroops are to land deep within the enemy's defense. The paratroops are ready. They drop from their planes and descend concentrated in force in the spot where they can do the most damage. Quickly they rid themselves of their parachutes and harness and within a few seconds they are a compact fighting force. Orders are issued. The signal is given to attack. And almost before the planes have passed overhead, they are are their objective, ready to paralyze communications and defenses, to spread havoc and destruction within the enemy's lines. Today, parachute detachments are to be seen training in the snow-clad mountains of the north, preparing for possible action in Alaska, Russia, or Norway. Out of the skies they come, equipped with skis for traveling on the soft snow beneath. Quickly they seize their weapons, dropped in containers at the same time as themselves, and are soon on their way. Their objective may be to blow up the ice of a river behind the enemy's line, to prevent his supply columns from using the ice as a bridge. Stealthily they advance, covering the work of the demolition squad with their Bren guns. But their sudden and unexpected descent takes the enemy by surprise, and before he can muster any opposition, the job is done. From the snows of the north to the desert heat of Libya and Egypt, Allied paratroops are busy training for the offensive. Below them as the plane speeds over the desert, they see the clouds of sand from Axis supply trucks. Using American-built planes, they leap from the door, reaching the desert in rapid succession, close together, ready for anything. Of greatest interest to Canadians is the graduation of officers and men of their own army at Fort Benning. Here in the sunny skies of Georgia, a detachment of specially selected Canadians has been training with the American parachute forces. Before they leave Fort Benning, they receive their qualifying badge from General Howell commanding the school. The first batch of men have completed their training at Fort Benning and are ready in their turn to start training hundreds of fellow Canadians to form a strong, hard-hitting Canadian parachute corps. These men are the first of Canada's paratroopers. They'll be in the van of the attack when the day for the offensive arrives. But behind them will come more and more paratroops, well-trained and well-equipped and thirsting for action. Soon many young Canadians will follow these pioneers, trained to strike the Axis with the newest weapon of attack, the parachute.