The 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion was an
airborne
Airborne or Airborn may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis
* ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film
* ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
of the
Parachute Regiment, formed by the
British Army during the Second World War
At the start of 1939, the British Army was, as it traditionally always had been, a small volunteer professional army. At the beginning of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, the British Army was small in comparison with those of its enem ...
. The battalion was raised in November 1942 by the conversion of the 10th Battalion,
Somerset Light Infantry
The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Som ...
to parachute duties. It was initially assigned to the
3rd Parachute Brigade, part of
1st Airborne Division, but moved to the
5th Parachute Brigade, alongside the
12th
12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...
and
13th Parachute battalions, of the
6th Airborne Division
The 6th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. Despite its name, the 6th was actually the second of two airborne divisions raised by the British Army during the war, the other being t ...
soon afterwards.
The battalion saw combat on
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
in
Operation Tonga
Operation Tonga was the codename given to the airborne operation undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division between 5 June and 7 June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings during World War II.
The paratroopers and ...
on 6 June 1944, the
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...
in December and the
River Rhine crossing in March 1945. After the war ended in Europe, the battalion, with the 5th Parachute Brigade, was sent to the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
to undertake operations against the
Japanese Empire
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...
. However, the war ended just after the men had started
jungle training. Moving by sea, the battalion took part in the reoccupation of
Malaya and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. Problems in
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
resulted in the battalion being sent to
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
(Jakarta) to control the unrest, until relieved by a Dutch force.
The battalion then rejoined the
6th Airborne Division in Palestine. Post war army reductions saw the battalion amalgamated with the
17th Parachute Battalion, but still remaining the 7th Parachute Battalion. But further reductions eventually saw the battalion disbanded.
Formation
Impressed by the success of German airborne operations during the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
, the
British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...
,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, directed the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
to investigate the possibility of creating a
corps
Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...
of 5,000 parachute troops. On 22 June 1940,
No. 2 Commando
No. 2 Commando was a battalion-sized British Commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The first No.2 Commando was formed on 22 June 1940 for a parachuting role at Cambrai Barracks, Perham Down, near Tidworth, Hants. The unit ...
was turned over to parachute duties and, on 21 November, redesignated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, with a parachute and glider wing. It was these men who took part in the first British airborne operation,
Operation Colossus
Operation Colossus was the codename given to the first airborne forces, airborne operation undertaken by the British military, which occurred on 10 February 1941 during World War II. The British airborne establishment was formed in June 1940 by ...
, on 10 February 1941.
[Guard, p. 218] The battalion was later redesignated as the
1st Parachute Battalion. The success of the raid prompted the War Office to expand the existing airborne force, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
in April 1942, and creating the
Parachute Regiment as well as converting a number of infantry battalions into airborne battalions in August 1942.
![British parachute training 1942](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/British_parachute_training_1942.jpg)
The 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion was formed, in November 1942, by the conversion of the 10th Battalion,
Somerset Light Infantry
The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Som ...
, a war service battalion created two years earlier, to parachute duties. The battalion was assigned to the
3rd Parachute Brigade, originally part of the
1st Airborne Division but later transferred to the
6th Airborne Division
The 6th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. Despite its name, the 6th was actually the second of two airborne divisions raised by the British Army during the war, the other being t ...
. When the
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was an Airborne forces, airborne infantry battalion of the Canadian Army formed in July 1942 during the World War II, Second World War; it served in Western Front (World War II)#1944–45: The Second Front, Nort ...
arrived in Britain, it was assigned to the 3rd Parachute Brigade and the 7th Parachute Battalion was transferred to the
5th Parachute Brigade, which was also a part of the 6th Airborne Division.
In 1942, a parachute battalion had an establishment of 556 men in three
companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
(three
platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...
s each) supported by a
3 inch mortar platoon and a
Vickers machine gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...
platoon. By 1944, a support company was added to command the battalion's heavy weapons. It comprised three platoons: a Mortar Platoon with eight 3-inch mortars, a Machine Gun Platoon with four Vickers machine guns and an Anti-tank Platoon with ten
PIAT
The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT) Mk I was a British man-portable anti-tank weapon developed during the Second World War. The PIAT was designed in 1942 in response to the British Army's need for a more effective infantry anti-tank weapon ...
(Projecter, Infantry, Anti-Tank) anti-tank projectors.
[Guard, p. 37]
Normandy
On 6 June 1944, the 7th Parachute Battalion landed in Normandy. Many men of the battalion were scattered or landed on the wrong
drop zone
A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land under parachutes. In ...
. So badly scattered were they that, by 03:00,
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
Pine-Coffin in command had only around forty percent of the battalion at the forming up point, although men continued to appear throughout the day. Relatively few of their supply containers had been found, meaning that they possessed few heavy weapons or radio sets. However, the battalion managed to rendezvous with the coup-de-main forces of the 2nd Battalion,
Ox and Bucks Light Infantry at the Caen and Orne bridges. They then set up a defensive perimeter against German counter-attacks. The first German assault on the bridges came between 05:00 and 07:00 and consisted of isolated and often uncoordinated attacks by tanks, armoured cars and infantry, which grew in intensity throughout the day. The
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
attempted to destroy the Caen bridge with a bomb, which failed to detonate, and two German Navy coastal craft, which attempted to attack the bridge, were also repelled.
[Otway, p. 178] Despite the ferocity of the attacks, the battalion and the coup-de-main forces were able to hold the bridges until 19:00, when leading elements of the
3rd British Infantry Division arrived and began to relieve the battalion.
By midnight, the battalion was being held in reserve behind the
12th Parachute Battalion occupying Le Bas de Ranville and the
13th Parachute Battalion holding
Ranville
Ranville () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.
Ranville was the first French village liberated on D-Day. The village was liberated by the British 13th Parachute Battalion, commanded by Lieute ...
.
Ardennes
The 6th Airborne Division was called to intervene in the German offensive through the Ardennes on 20 December 1944. On the 29th of that month, they attacked the tip of the German thrust and the 3rd Parachute Brigade was given responsibility for the Rochefort sector, which they took after meeting stiff resistance. After several months of heavy patrolling, in Belgium and, in February, the Netherlands, the Division was withdrawn to England.
Germany
Post Second World War
With the war in Europe over, the battalion moved to the Far East with the 5th Parachute Brigade between 1945 and 1946. Thereafter, it returned to the
6th Airborne Division in Palestine and was incorporated into the
17th Parachute Battalion in July 1946 while retaining its name. After the 5th Parachute Brigade was disbanded, the men of the battalion were reallocated among the remainder of the division and the unit re-designated
3rd Parachute Battalion at
Itzehoe
Itzehoe (; nds, Itzhoe) is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24  ...
in July 1948.
Commanding officers
Notes
References
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External links
Six Days Adrift in Normandy, June 1944, Personal account of a 7th Parachute Battalion soldier
{{British parachute units of the Second World War
Military units and formations established in 1942
Military units and formations disestablished in 1948
British Parachute Regiment Battalions
Airborne units and formations of the United Kingdom