Short History Test Platoon & 502nd PIR
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A Short History of the Parachute and
of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (Chip Cifone USA & Gunter G. Gillot Jr BE)
Paratrooper, Parachute : It seems that the first draw of a parachute look like things was made in China some 2000 years before JC. As the story told us, Shun, the Emperor itself trapped in his burning palace used some large umbrella to jump out of a window and landed relatively safely on the ground. It seems that over here, in Europa, a fellow named Icarus did also some interesting test as well as some interesting crashes. In fact, after Emperor Shun first Airborne test, 3500 years were needed to go further with a equipment to help slowing the fall of a men into the air.
In one of his book published in 1502 under the title, Codice Atlantico, Leornardo da Vinci presented the first draw of an engine that would have slowed down the fall on a men in the air. In 1616, Fausto Veranzio published a book under the title Omo Volans (Flying Man) and reproduce da Vinci’s Parachute with some modifications : in fact a rectangular wooded frame with a piece of canvas fixed to the frame. Let’s hope that no one tried this strange thing to jump from some cliff or so. This engine wasn’t usable to make neither a test jump nor a wind catch but the interesting part of Veranzio’s draw was the way he described to connect the human to the engine with single pieces of rope. In fact Veranzio created the first modern Parachute harness that it still in use today. Newton to got involved in the project. While using da Vinci’s elementary Mathematical rule, he created the first Mathematical rule to be used between the size of the Parachute and the weight of the Paratrooper. In France, Louis Sébastien Lenormand, a French Physicist at the Montpellier Faculty, invented an engine and named it Parachute, for the first time in history : Lenormand is the first human to make a witnessed descent with a parachute and is also credited with coining the term parachute [French parasol][sun shield] and [chute][fall]. On December 26, 1783 Lenormand jumped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory in front of a crowd that included Joseph Montgolfier [One of the Montgolfier bothers], using a 14 foot parachute with a rigid wooden frame. His intended use for the parachute was to help entrapped occupants of a burning building and, or balloon to escape unharmed. Balloon and Parachute : A large crowd gathered outside the walls of the Walnut Street Prison that fronted on what is now Independence Square in Philadelphia at dawn on January 9, 1793. The occasion was not a hanging but a balloon launching, which, if successful, would be the first aerial voyage in the history of the new United States of America and the New World. Jean Pierre Blanchard, noted French aeronaut, had advertised in the Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser for several weeks that he would make a hydrogen-filled gas balloon ascension on that day at 10 in the morning precisely. So, at 9 minutes after 10, Blanchard wrote in his Journal : I affixed to the aerostat my car, laden with ballast, meteorological instruments, and some refreshments with which the anxiety of my friends had provided me. I hastened to take leave of the President, and of Mr. Ternant, Minister Plenipotentiary of France to the United States. This is the way Blanchard used describe the scene : My ascent was perpendicular and so easy that I had even time to enjoy the different impressions which agitated so many sensible and interesting persons who surrounded the place of my departure, and to salute them with my flag, which was ornamented on one side with the armoric bearings of the United States and, on the other, with the three colors so dear to the French nation. Elevated at a certain height over the city, I turned my eyes towards the immense number of people who covered the open places. The roofs of the houses, the steeples, the streets and the roads, over which my flight carried me in the free space of the air. What a sight. On the ground, General John Steele, comptroller of the US Treasury, was astonished at what he saw. In a letter to a friend, he wrote : Seeing the man waving a flag at an immense height from the ground, was the most interesting sight that I ever beheld, and tho I had no acquaintance with him, I could not help trembling for his safety. According to the history, the first real Paratrooper in the history of the Parachute was a small animal that Jean Pierre Blanchard placed a in a small basket attached to a parachute. This was then dropped from an air balloon and the descent was slow enough that the animal survived. Born in Paris on January 31 1769, André-Jacques Garnerin studied physics before joining the French Army. Over the next few years Garnerin became interested in hot air balloons and advocated their use for military purposes. While he was prisoner of war in Hungary Garnerin began experimenting with parachutes. During his three year stay he never reached the stage where he could employ his parachute to escape from the high ramparts of the prison. It was not until 1797 that Garnerin completed his first parachute. It consisted of a white canvas canopy 23 feet in diameter. The parachute had 36 ribs and lines, was semi-rigid, making it look like a very large umbrella and Garnerin made his first successful parachute jump above Paris on October 22 1797. After ascended to an altitude of 3,200 feet (975 m) in an hydrogen balloon he jumped from the basket, the parachute opened correctly but, oscillated wildly in the fall because of lack of an air vent into the canopy. A French Physicist, Jérôme François de Lalande, who was present at the Plaine de Monceau, noticed the oscillations of the device used by Garnerin and proved that the problem was due to the lack of an Air Vent at the top of the canopy. Garnerin allowed de Lalande to modify his parachute and as it worked almost perfectly, decided to adopt the system. In 1799, Garnerin’s wife, Jeanne-Genevieve Labrosse, became the first woman to register a patent for the parachute as well as to be the first woman to make a parachute jump. Garnerin made exhibition jumps all over Europe including one of 8,000 feet (2,438 m) in England. |
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Is is to note that the initial use of the parachute was not saving a man who had to jump out from the basket of an hot air balloon, but saving the entire device, ballon, basket and the astronaut.
During the next century, parachute use was confined to carnivals and daredevil acts. Acrobats would perform stunts on a trapeze bar suspended from a descending parachute. The parachute was released from a hot-air balloon by attaching the top of the parachute to the equator of the balloon with a cord that broke after a person jumped from the basket. Public opinion became very unfavorable towards the use of parachutes when Robert Cocking fell to his death. Cocking spent many years developing his improved parachute, based on Sir George Cayley’s design, which consisted of an inverted cone 107 feet [32.61 m] in circumference connected by three hoops. Cocking approached Charles Green and Edward Spencer, owners of the balloon, the Royal Nassau [formerly the Royal Vauxhall], to allow him an opportunity to test his invention. Despite the fact that Cocking was 61 years old, was not a professional scientist, and had no parachuting experience, the owners of the balloon agreed and advertised the event as the main attraction of a Grand Day Fete at Vauxhall Gardens. On July 24 July 1837 [0735-H], Cocking ascended hanging below the balloon, which was piloted by Green and Spencer. Cocking was in a basket which hung below the parachute which in turn hung below the basket of the balloon. Cocking had hoped to reach 8,000 feet (2,440 m), but the weight of the balloon coupled with that of the parachute and the three men slowed the ascent; at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and with the balloon nearly over Greenwich, Green informed Cocking that he would be unable to rise any higher if the attempt was to be made in daylight. Faced with this information, Cocking released the parachute. A large crowd had gathered to witness the event, but it was immediately obvious that Cocking was in trouble. He had neglected to include the weight of the parachute itself in his calculations and as a result the descent was far too quick. Though rapid, the descent continued evenly for a few seconds, but then the entire apparatus turned inside out and plunged downwards with increasing speed. The parachute broke up before it hit the ground and at about 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 m) off the ground the basket detached from the remains of the canopy. Cocking was killed instantly in the crash; his body was found in a field in Lee. The blame for the failure of the parachute was initially laid at Cayley’s door, but tests later revealed that although Cayley had neglected to mention the additional weight of the parachute in his paper, the cause of the crash had been a combination of the parachute’s weight and its flimsy construction, in particular the weak stitching connecting the fabric to the hoops. Cocking’s parachute weighed 250 lb (113 kg) many times more than modern parachutes. However, tests carried out by John Wise, an American balloonist, showed that Cocking’s design would have been successful if only it had been larger and better constructed. Following Cocking’s death parachuting became unpopular, and was confined to carnival and circus acts until the late 19th century when developments such as the harness and breakaway chutes made it safer. No major contribution to the parachute systems was the development of a harness by the Baldwin brothers, Samuel and Thomas in 1887. The concept of folding or packing the parachute in a knapsak-like container was developed by Käthe Paulus & Hermann Lettemann in 1890 and became the first Remote Automatic Sack. Käthe Paulus also demonstrated an intentional breakaway. After a first parachute inflated, it was released and pulled open a second one. Beside Paulus and Letterman did manage a way to get the canopy folded into a bag fixed to the basket of the balloon, parachutes were still not described as a life saver device. A major improvement had still to be made to disconnect the device from the balloon’s basket. This improvement cames a little later from the USA. Charles Broadwick [Coat Parachute], Leo Stevens [Rip Cord] and Mike Blodgett [Main Pack] worked out a way to get the entire device folded into a bag that could be used as a rucksack. The modern parachute was born and the first jump from an airplane has been claimed by both Grant Morton and Captain Albert Berry in 1911. Morton jumped with a silk parachute folded in his arms which he threw out as he left the plane. Captain Berry had a 36 ft. parachute packed into a metal case beneath the fuselage. The parachute had a trapeze bar for him to hold on to as he jumped and descended to the ground. A patent granted early in 1911 to an Italian inventor named Joseph Pino for a flexible parachute, including a pilot chute, must be considered as one of the major milestones in parachute history, as he claimed in the patent, the jumper using this new device could wear his parachute in a pack like a knapsack. On his head would be a hat-like device fashioned into a leather cap, which would blossom out into a smaller open parachute. During the jump, the small pilot chute would pull off the hat and deploy the larger parachute from the knapsack. Using parachutes for military reasons was an idea first introduced by Col William Mitchell, sometime during World War One. A great deal of planning went forth to try an experimental drop of one Battalion of the AEF 1st Division, behind the German lines but by the time that Mitchell and his staff could overcome the logistical obstacles the war had ended. Over the next ten to twenty years the US Army had basically shelved the idea, although there were some small-scale experiments conducted during this time frame. Gunter’s note : It’s not easy for me to write history in English as I am a French-German-Dutch speaking people and my few words english were learned while visiting and interviewing World War Two Veterans in the USA, France, Belgium, Germany and Luxemburg. So don’t hit on me as I do my best. In the Parachute history lot of major improvements were looks-like automatically forgotten.
In June of 1940 a test platoon was formed at Fort Benning with volunteers from the 29th Regiment. Headquarters Twenty Ninth Infantry (Rifle) Office of the Regimental Commander Fort Benning, Georgia July 1, 1940 Special Orders) N° 127) 1. First Lieutenant John Sammons Bell, 29th Infantry Reserve, having been ordered to active duty for a period of fourteen (14) days, effective June 30 1940, and having joined that date, the verbal orders of June 30, 1940 attaching him to Company A 29th Infantry are hereby confirmed and made of record. Unless sooner relieved by proper authority Lieutenant Bell will stand relieved from this attachment July 13, 1940. 2. Pursuant to authority granted by General Orders N° 101 Headquarters, Fort Benning Georgia, 1922, and under the provisions of Section VIII, Amy Regulations 615-360, April 4, 1935, a Board of Officers is appointed to meet at this station at the call of the senior member thereof for the purpose of investigating, making report, and recommendations as to whether or not such persons as may be properly brought before it should be discharged prior to the expiration of their term of enlistment : Detail for the Board - Captain Frank G. Davis, 29th Infantry 3. Pursuant to authority granted by General Orders N°101, Headquarters , Fort Benning, Georgia, 1922, and under the provisions of Section VIII Army Regulations 615-360, April 4, 1935, a Board of Officers is appointed to meet at this station at the call of the senior member thereof for the purpose of investigating, making report, and recommendations as whether or not such persons as may be properly brought before it should be discharged prior to the expiration of their term of enlistment : Detail for the Board - Captain Richard Chase, 29th Infantry 4. Private John J. Sullivan, 7087204, having enlisted at this station for this regiment, is assigned to Company F, 29th Infantry, and will report to the company commander thereof for duty. S.O. #127, Hq., 29th Infantry,July 1,1940, Contd. 5. Pursuant to authority granted by letter Headquarters The Infantry School, file N°580, subject : Test Platoon for duty with Infantry Board, dated July 1, 1940, the following named officer end enlisted men of the 29th Infantry are detailed on special duty with the Infantry Board, Fort Benning, Georgia, and will report to the president thereof for duty : 001 - First Lieutenant William T. Ryder, 29th Infantry added manually Special Order #127 cont., 6. The following named enlisted men of the 29th Infantry, from companies as indicated opposite their names, are relieved from special duty with Recruit School, 29th Infantry, and will report to their respective company commanders for duty : Sergeant Clarence J. Mathes, 6346954, C Co, 7. At their own request, and with the approval of their respective organization commanders, the following named enlisted men of the 29th Infantry are reduced to the grade of Pvt, without prejudice : Coporal Farrish F. Cornelius, 6399726, KQ Co, (TP) By order of Colonel Griswold (1) : William H. Craig  |
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Many experimental jumps were conducted over the next few months with the test platoon including a mass jump that took place in late August of 1940. Paratroopers equipments were also improved :
These initial experiments where so successful that in mid September of that year the War Department authorized the formation of a First Airborne Battalion, which was designated 501st Parachute Battalion.
just name a few all worked on developing the US airborne doctrine that would be put to significant use over the next 5 years. In 1941, the RKO Pictures, C&C Corps and Movietime did make a movie on on the Paratroopers. The film [Parachute Battalion] as done in Benning and Bragg using the original Test Platoon Members as well as the entire 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion. This movie is - of course - not an history movie but it’s probably the only one ever made using - only - original material. So you will have almost an hour to see the American Airborne Troops at the early stage as well as Paratrooper Equipment from the same period. I have - of course - this movie and here it is for you. (now tell me that I am a great guy ..) The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment history would begin with a bang when the unit jumped twice during the Carolina maneuvers that year. The expansion of the Army Airborne program continued to grow and on January 30, 1942 the 502nd Parachute Battalion became the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and then activated on March 2 1942 under the command of Lt Col George P. Howell. When the unit was formed it had much of the same personal it had when it was activated as battalion back in 1941. It should also be noted that the 502nd Prcht Inf Regt is the only parachute regiment that maintained its identity and personal from its inception as a Battalion. 
His rigorous work effort and will power, which he instilled on his men, would go a long way in forming their future combat record. Later that year, in July 1942, two full Airborne Divisions, the 82nd A/B Divison and the 101st A/B Division was ordered and activated. The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment would become the original parachute infantry regiment of the 101st A/B Division and shortly after the 101st A/B was moved from Fort Benning, Georgia. Through out the rest of 1942 and into 1943 the 502nd Prcht Inf Regt took part in a grueling training program, which consisted of individual, unit, and combined division training. During March of 1942 they took part in division maneuvers in Southern Pines. This was followed by the Camden maneuvers which started on May 23rd of that year. Shortly after the Camden Maneuvers the big Tennessee maneuvers were held. It was during the Tennessee maneuvers that we would get a glimpse of what the 502nd Prcht Inf Regt was made of when men of H Co set a new marching record with a total of 145.5 miles in 57.25 hours in which the first 33 miles were done in 11 hours. (see photos right column) On Sept 4 1943 men of the 502nd boarded the SS Strathnaver bound for their new home in England. The Strathnaver sailed for 6 days before she had to make port on Sept 11 in St Johns Newfoundland for repairs. It was discovered that the ships fresh water tanks had salt water in them. The 502nd was in port from Sept 11 to Sept 26 and during this time in St Johns the men did not get to rest. They took part in road marches, barracks inspections drills and physical conditioning exercises. On Sept 26 the ship headed back out to sea only to return again after striking some rocks in the harbor. On the 27 she made another attempt to leave but returned to port after taking on some 28 inches of water. Here the man stayed stranded, continuing the routine until Oct 4 when the SS John Ericsson picked the men up and set sail for England. Company and battalion size parachute drops where also rehearsed during this period. During the winter a couple of things took place which would affect the deuce. Capt Frank Lillyman CO, I Co departed for a new assignment as the commander of the 101st Pathfinders. Lillyman was replaced by Capt Ivan Hershner who commanded the unit until June 9 1944. The 502nd was also given its call sign or unit code (Kickoff), which it would retain through out the war. In early spring the soldiers of the deuce participated in a number of full-scale exercises. In March it was Exercise Beaver, In April Exercise Tiger and in May, Exercise Eagle, which would be the deuce’s, dress rehearsal for the D-Day Invasion of Fortress Europe. Each time the men rehearsed capturing key bridges leading inland from the shore and the destruction of mock gun positions. It was during Exercise Eagle that ominous misfortune had taken place. Eight of the nine planes carrying men of H Co, dumped their troopers some nine miles from their intended drop zone. They did not know it then but this was a sign of what would take place one month later when they dropped into Normandy. As the days drew closer and closer to the invasion, the men were moved from their base camps to the marshalling areas. Once in the marshalling areas the soldiers were cut off from the rest of the world for security reasons. Here they received the equipment needed for the invasion and waited for their final orders. Those orders came and the men of deuce now understood what the previous months training was all about. The Normandy mission for the 3/502nd was to seize and secure exits 3 and 4 , the two northern exits behind Utah Beach. 1/502nd and 2/502nd of the deuce were to knock out four concrete German 122mm howitzer gun position near exit 4 (St Martin de Varreville), to prevent them from being used against the beach forces that would land that morning. For the next 2 months the men of the 502nd would heal and reflect on their Normandy mission in England. They fell back into a routine of conditioning and training just as they had done before the Normandy Invasion. Many times in August the men were called on alert to prepare for another mission but time after time they were canceled. That all changed on Sept 11, 1944. After Bastogne, the Deuce was sent to the 7th Army front with the rest of the 101st Airborne.There they held a line along the Moder River for over a month. In February the men climbed aboard cattle boxcars to make camp in Mourmelon le Petit, France. The men of the deuce saw action again in April 1945 when they took up position in the |
Improving and testing Parachutes T-4 to get the T-5 out of it while using, as a jump suit, the regular HBT Army Issued overall.
Improving Paratrooper Jump Boots as well and getting these US Fire Forestry Paratrooper Department from Colorado replaced with the new Corcoran Paratrooper Jump Boots
How about the look of these American Test Platoon Paratroopers. Parachute T-4, Balloon Jump Suit and A-2 Flying Helmets (1941)
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Airborne Training 1942 : Pvt Harry S. Collier, Richmond, Va, in action. Note Paratrooper Helmet M-2n HBT Jump Suit, M-1 Carbine, and Vest Life Preserver B-3
Nov 17 1942, Fort Bragg North Carolina. Sgt George H. Presnell, Tallahassee, Fla and Sgt Mike C. Chester, Selma, Alabama are using the new created Patatrooper Jump Demolition Kit
The Paratrooper Demolition kit as presented in 1942. It was used in North Africa, and in Italy. Some were also still used in Normandy in 1944 but this model had to be Combat/Field improved for Holland 1944.
502nd Parachute Battalion : they don’t use the A2 Flying Helmet but the Football Helmet. The T-4 Parachute is also gone since they received the T-5. [Next improvement on parachute ill be the T-5A1, a T-5 modified to have the British Made Quick Release Box and the T-7, the last World War Two Parachute, manufactured in USA with a US Quick Release Box. Note the HBTs Overall and the M-1942 Jump Suits.
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Photos US Army Signal Corps, William T. Ryder, William P. Yarborough, James Gavin, Matthe B. Ridgway and William M. Miley.
Biblio : Airborne ETO & MTO 1940-1945, Gunter G. Gillot Jr, 1988, Collector Academy Press
Web Links
http://usmilitaryring.com/
http://www.parachutehistory.com/eng/drs.html
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10400341
http://www.atthefront.com/
http://flickr.com/photos/andydarbs/2621654550/
Gunter G. Gillot Jr, born 1955 Aachen, Germany, Belgian Citizen, and one of the best in the area : US World War Two Military Photos, Movies, Ammunitions and Militaria. As, Charles B. McDonald, one of America's top Military Historian and World War Two Veteran said once to me : Gunter, now ya gonna tell me how do you managed to know the thing as well as a veteran that fought in the Battle of Bulge ! This is as amazing as incredible.
