AIR INFANTRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 10 April 1937, Page 10

AIR INFANTRY.

TESTS AT ALDERSHOT. The British military mission which attended the Inst Russian army manoeuvres was so impressed by the Soviet “Air Infantry” that the War Office and Air Ministry are contemplating tlio formation of a similar corps in Britain., Tests were recently carried out at Aldershot with Army Co-operation Squadrons and are report « to have been successful. So far as can be ascertained the War Office at present favours the establishment of an Air Iniantry Corps and air trains lor the transport of supplies such as ammunition, petrol, and provisions. Landings so far have been made by the aeroplane, but it is intended to practise the dropping of troops by parachute, since it is realised that on occasion that would have to be done in the absence of suitable landing-places lor the machines.

The strategical and tactical implications involved in this new aid to modern warfare are so important as to make neglect of the air method of transport highly dangerous should Britain again be engaged in a major war. , The uses to which air infantry ooulu conceivably be put include the destruction of railway bridges and ammunition dumps and the raiding ol headquarters. Aerial supply trains would, at times, prove invaluable. The provision ol petrol to armoured fighting vehicles is a problem of the highest importance, and so is the supply of ammunition to the fighting troops generally. it has been proved that reliance cannot always be placed on normal mechanical transport. . . . . Occasionally, too, the air might be the only means of provisioning an isolated post. . In Russia, use is made of the nir arm in moving not only troops, but lorries and light tanks to distant parts of the field of operations, these vehicles are carried under the fuselage of specially-built machines. Ihe use of the parachute in landing light infantry is also practised by the Russians on a considerable scale. In view of these facts and llluminatin„ evidence concerning the successful experiments made by the Italians in Abyssinia in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, the War Office, in co-operation with tlie Air Ministry, has decided to organise further tests.