The Paratrooper Training Pocket Manual 1939–45

Casemate

NEW HARDBACK BOOK\nAirborne assault was one of the great innovations of the 1930s and 1940s, adding a new \u2018vertical\u2019 dimension to infantry warfare. By the onset of World War II in 1939, Germany, Italy, and Russia were already advanced in their development of paratrooper units. Germany in particular demonstrated the tactical shock of paratroopers in Western Europe in 1940 and, most spectacularly, in Crete in 1941, galvanizing the UK and the United States to expand and train their own airborne forces, which they unleashed in 1943\u201345. The Allied paratrooper drops on D-Day (6 June 1944) and those of Operation Market Garden (17\u201325 September 1944) were the stuff of legend, huge in scale and ambition, but both Allied and Axis paratroopers were deployed in numerous other actions, including special forces raids.\n\nIt quickly became apparent that the physical and tactical demands placed upon paratroopers required men of exceptional stamina, courage and intelligence. To cre.