Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The first American to envision air-landed troops was Benjamin Franklin inspired by the sight of hot- air balloons in France in 1784. In 1918 airpower prophet Billy Mitchell hatched a plan for the vertical envelopment of the German fortress at Metz in early 1919; the scheme faded away with the Armistice. It was not until April 1939 that the U.S. Army looked into “Air Infantry” as a tool for the mobile defense of Panama Alaska and the Philippines. This quest discovered the sizable German Soviet Italian and French efforts. In early 1940 the project was given to a bright and diligent staff officer Major William C. Lee. Lee was to become “The Father of the American Airborne.” Working with the Infan- try Board at Fort Benning he gave up on the idea of air-landing troops in transport aircraft against lit- tle or no opposition and instead worked to use para- chutes and gliders to insert units under fire. Lee and Benning worked to bring togethly the Air Corps and the Infantry. By small steps opera- tional theories and materiel were tested. Once speci- mens of the new T-4 troop parachute – meant to carry a fully-equipped infantryman unlike smaller- canopy “aircrew escape” types were in hand orders were passed to the Infantry School’s “demon- stration unit” the 29th Infantry Regiment to detach men for temporary duty in a Parachute Test Platoon. On 26 June 1940 a call for one lieutenant and 39 enlisted men was made. Even with stiff criteria applicants numbered 17 and over 200 respectively.