In the end, the paratroopers must quickly regroup before carrying on with their mission, but the defenders must first determine how many have landed, where they’ve landed, what their objective might be, and what troops are available to counter the attack. “It is a unique characteristic of airborne operations,” insisted one German commander, “that the moment of greatest weakness of the attacker and of the defender occur simultaneously. The issue is decided by three factors: who has better nerves, who takes the initiative first, and who acts with the greatest determination.”

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These limitations and strengths define the distinct airborne battlefield. Clearly, the challenges are great. The paratrooper’s struggle starts long before he closes with the enemy. Airborne soldiers normally arrive tired and exhausted. They have endured the process of dressing and waiting fully kitted for long periods. It was not uncommon for individuals to be weighed down with a hundred pounds of equipment, not including their parachute assembly. Air crewman Martin Wolfe recalled pushing paratroopers with up to 125 pounds of gear into his aircraft. “With our gear,” asserted Colonel Ivan Hershner, “the average man weighed about three hundred pounds that night [June 6, 1944].”

That exhausting burden could have an enormous impact on the actual jump. “I got a good opening, tore a few sections in my chute, which was not unusual when you were loaded up with equipment,” recalled Edward J. Cole of his drop onto Tagaytay Ridge in February 1945. “[I] reached up to grab my risers and hit the ground,” he explained. “I didn’t have a chance to release my jump rope…we had jumped at about four hundred fifty feet with full equipment.” With the enormous weight and low jump altitude, his descent was rather quick, and his experience was common.

Once on the ground, the paratrooper had to ignore exhaustion as well as numerous abrasions and bruises, if not more serious injuries such as sprains or fractures. The battle on the ground now began, and ordinarily the paratrooper was the first to fight. His mission behind enemy lines often placed him in direct contact with the enemy before he was fully prepared. The airborne insertion of the Poles at Arnhem in September 1944 placed them directly into a raging battle. As a result, both sides fired on them.

As the drone of the aircraft engines faded away, paratroopers were normally on their own. They had no rear, no sanctuary they could return to, no pipeline connected to ships or friendly lines. There are “very special dangers that are a combat paratrooper’s particular lot,” said General Matthew B. Ridgway, wartime commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. “The quick leap out of the plane into the buffeting prop wash, the slow float down, hanging helpless in the harness, the drop into the darkness where armed enemies wait behind every bush and tree.” Similarly, Brig. Gen. Richard Gale, founder of the British 1st Parachute Brigade, insisted that the paratrooper “is aware, too that once on the ground his future lies in his own skill. The gun that he carried down in his drop and the small supply of ammunition on his person are his only weapons for support in either attack or defense. His water and food are what he can carry when he jumps. His sense of direction, his field-craft and in map reading and his physical strength must all be of a high order. He may be alone for hours, he may be injured, and he may be dazed from his fall. But it is his battle and he knows it.”

“A parachutist fights a lonely battle,” British Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Gray stressed. “He has no real front or rear, he often feels he is fighting the battle on his own.”

Drops were widely dispersed and scattered, and units were faced with the task of completing their missions understrength and lacking important equipment. Within this devil’s cauldron, it is not surprising that airborne soldiers suffered a higher ratio of casualties than other combat troops. “Jumping out of airplanes was romantic as hell,” critiqued one detractor, “but also dangerous and wasteful of lives; what it did was put a very high premium on bravery of a certain kind.”

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