Heard that thing about the USSR, in the thirties (and possibly also during WW2) practicing pseudo paradrops, but without parachutes.
That is they would unload troops from planes, while flying low, by having the soldiers jump from the plane without parachute, aiming for “suitable soft ground” like swamps, water, or lumps of soft snow. Is that true? And if it is, was it done while they were having, in other units, proper paratroopers with chutes, or was it an early experiment before they could be suitably equipped?
Also, did it happen during WW2?
And, finally, one of the things I’ve seen (but absolutely unreliable source) mentions that the first Soviet paratroopers were making jumps with matresses instead of chutes (sounds like one of those things you think is so fucking whacky, it’s on the edge of totally unbelievable, and believable for the Red Army). Any truth to that?
US paratroopers practice by using towers and ropes at first with no chutes. Once they learn that they move on to planes and real parachutes. I figured the Soviets used a similar system.
“Later in 1939 on 30 November, Soviet paratroopers had the distinction of making the first combat jump in history when they dropped at Petsamo and other points behind the Finnish lines during the Soviet invasion of Finland. Due to poor navigation on the part of pilots and quick action on the part of Finnish snipers who picked off many as they landed, few of these paratroopers actually made it into combat. Those who did fought with courage, and many had even jumped without parachutes into deep snow drifts.”
Bullseye dolphinboy. I had read about that thing years ago in the Panzer General manual. And recently I was trying to check if it was pure bullshit, but couldnt recall the circumstances exactly.
Soviet Invasion of Finland sounds about right. And it was that bit that had caught my attention too “and many had even jumped without parachutes into deep snow drifts”. So, ok, I’ll check more about those parachuteless paras, thanks for giving me the proper ref.
As a resident of Minnesota, I can attest that snow drifts are by no means necessarily soft and fluffy. I for one would not want to have to jump even from a low-altitude low-airspeed plane into snow.