In U.S. Army basic training in the Vietnam Era the elite status of paratroopers was drilled into us with several marching cadences. The effect was to ensure that all POGs (personnel other than grunts) would feel less than manly if you weren’t headed to Ft. Benning for jump school after your AIT training, preferably 11B or rifleman. Even straight leg riflemen were meant to feel demeaned below the lofty status of the paratrooper.
The advent of military aviation created new avenues of military theory. The airplane introduced ways of scouting the enemy, blasting the enemy with bombs and moving infantrymen around rapidly.
Military theorists dreamed of dropping battalions of infantrymen behind enemy lines, or on the enemy’s flank, unhinging defensive positions and creating disorder and confusion. Paratroops seemed to make wasteful frontal assaults unnecessary. The legend of the lethal paratrooper, an elite warrior skilled in close infantry combat was created as divisions were built up during World War II. The 101st, or Screaming Eagles, and the 82nd All-America Division have become part of U.S. military lore.
There is no doubt that paratroopers consider themselves above land-bound infantry units, and there is no doubt that paratroopers are highly trained and can rightfully claim elite status. But the usefulness of paratroop tactics appears to be a thing of the past.
It’s also true that there have been very few, if any, truly successful paratroop operations in the history of warfare. Of course there have been successfully executed combat jumps, but there operational effect has been limited.
As recently as the Iraq War the 173rd Airborne Brigade made a daring and successful combat jump to secure an airfield in northern Iraq. The airfield however was undefended.
Adolf Hitler’s Luftwaffe was one of the first organizations to develop an airborne infantry capability. The island of Crete was invaded and taken by Luftwaffe paratroopers in 1941 before the invasion of the Soviet Union. Nazi propaganda created exciting newsreel footage of paratroopers leaping out of lumbering Junkers transport airplanes to occupy the Greek Island. The island was well-defended by experienced British and Greek infantry who put up a spirited fight.
The Germans took heavy casualties but the paratroopers succeeded in taking an airfield that was used to bring in reinforcements. Ironically, Hitler considered the relatively successful assault as somewhat of a failure because of the casualties, which is odd coming from a man who considered heavy casualties as a sign of glory. The only other instance of the Luftwaffe attempting a paratroop operation was during the 1944 Winter Offensive or the Battle of the Bulge. Heavy winds prevented any of the Luftwaffe troopers being dropped anywhere near allied troops and they played virtually no part in the fighting.
The Allies attempted several times to make operational use of paratroops. Notably the 101st and the 82nd started the invasion of France on June 5, 1944. Waves of C-47 airplanes attempted to drop the troopers in several locations the day before the main allied forces were to land on Normandy beaches. Poor visibility and strong winds made the drop almost a complete failure. Some of the troopers were able to perform somewhat useful operations but few landed anywhere near their intended locations. Gliders were also used and proved to be more dangerous and deadly to the allied troopers than to the Germans.
The allies tried again with Operation Market Garden, the airborne operation to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine River in Holland. The British 1st Airborne Division and the U.S. 101st and 82nd airborne divisions were employed. The British division was dropped near Arnhem in Holland and secured a bridge across the Rhine River. However the 10th Waffen SS armored division, Frundsberg, was refitting near Arnhem. Made up mostly of conscripts and having been mauled at Normandy, Frundsberg was no Leibstandarte or Das Reich, but it managed to retake the Rhine bridge despite an incredibly valiant effort by the British troopers to hold it. The U.S. divisions did their part but also took heavy casualties and the operation was a failure.
Ironically enough the 101st and the 82nd proved their worth as leg infantry during the Ardennes fighting in December of 1944. After being deployed by truck to reinforce Bastogne, 101st paratroopers beat off repeated attacks by German grenadiers and helped hold hold the important crossroads town in Belgium. The hard-core paratroopers dug in and battled the German grenadiers in freezing conditions with few provisions, taking terrible casualties. There is little doubt that Bastogne would have fallen without the valiant efforts of the 101st troopers wearing the screaming eagle patch on their left sleeves.
In Vietnam the 101st again took part in some terrible fighting, most notably the taking of Hill 937 during 1969 in the Ashau Valley near the Laotian border. In one of the war’s most infamous battles, two battalions of 101st troopers fought their way up the slopes of what became known as Hamburger Hill. The casualties were heavy and the fighting was fierce, but the 101st troopers got the job done and drove the dogged NVA defenders off the hill.
Technology has made the use of airborne infantry nearly obsolete in today’s U.S. Army doctrine. But silver jump wings are still a nice adornment to a Class A uniform and the valorous exploits of U.S. paratroopers lives on in U.S. Army legend.
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