Well, that makes sense.
It also makes sense that once the bergan hits the ground, the load on your chute is lessened and you can touch down that much slower.
I understand completely. I simply assumed you were American military, trained many years ago and things had changed. I didn’t realize you were in the British military. I should have caught that. Especially from the word “bergan”, which I’ve never heard before.
FWIW, I am an American paratrooper. I also have German wings. I’m currently in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (which explains my reaction to AmunRa’s post!
The original Norwegian Bergan rucksack looked something like this http://www.whatpriceglory.com/pic/bergen_os.jpg with a triangular frame (very old-fashioned now). Despite the disappearance of this type, all such large pack/rucksack things get called a ‘bergen’ in the Army.
Yup - as **muldoonthief **explained it’s well documented in Band of Brothers (both book and TV series), and most books focusing on the pre D-Day jumps mention it at least in passing as well. I may have the specifics wrong though.
The American chute of the period had no deployment bag, and pulled the canopy and rigging lines all out in one, so you went from near flying speed to zero like that. The opening shock was very great and combined with a too high dropping speed ripped off canteens, musette bags and anything else not strongly fastened on.
The British type leg bag looked like this http://www.militaryimages.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/3159/cat/all/what/allfields Here’s another series of images of a model showing how you held it http://www.newburyscalemodelclub.org.uk/2010/06/07/amp-miniatures/ It was strapped to the leg and after everything had settled down you pulled the release pin and, grasping the rope firmly through the friction sleeve, slowly payed the rope out to its full extent. Letting it fall invariably resulted in a broken rope. Paying it out too fast resulted in friction burns, forcing the user to let the rope go, with the same result. After the war a newer type came out where you just pulled the release and let it go. As the BoB book relates, none of the Americans had seen this device before the night, so not surprisingly they didn’t know how to use it properly.
Hoooooorah!