U.S. PARATROOPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 227, 26 September 1942, Page 5

U.S. PARATROOPS

TRAINING IN ENGLAND (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) London, Sept. 24. United States parachute troops are now training in England, co-operating with British airborne troops. They are highly trained, efficient, eager, and ready to be dropped down in Europe when the time arrives. Their average age is 23 or 24. They are still in training, pooling ideas with the British. The men work in squads of 12 and carry out set drill. Before jumping they have two parachutes and as they jump they call out “One thousand, two thousand, three thousand.” If the parachute has not opened by then, the jumper pulls the rip-cord of the reserve parachute. That has happened only once, when a Mexican corporal pulled the rip-cord when he was only 100 feet from the ground. He landed safely. During training in America the men of the battalion conformed with the United States Air Corps regulation that they must not jump at lower than 800 feet, but they were permitted a lower level after arriving in England.