This page contains historical summaries and articles of interest to students, Airborne historians, and researchers. Only a partial list of Airborne combat jumps is provided. The contents of this page will change periodically to highlight key historical events, personalities, units, and concepts of significance to the development of the U.S. Airborne.

This page was last updated 2.23.2002.

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Airborne Combat Jumps in World War II:

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On the night of Saturday, November 7th, 1942, just eleven months to the day, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 556 paratroopers of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edson Duncan Raff, took off from England to jump into French Northwest Africa in the initial step to liberate Europe from German occupation. The battalion's mission was to seize two French airfields at Tafaraoui and LaSenia to deny their use by enemy fighters. Operation Torch, as the amphibious landing in North Africa was codenamed, was an unusually complex military operation. Without any secure bases in the operational area, Allied forces had to deploy from bases in England and travel a great distance to the landing areas. In the Airborne plan of Operation Torch, the 39 C-47 aircraft of the Paratroop Task Force, commanded by Colonel William C. Bentley, flew 1500 miles over the mountains of Spain, across the western Mediterranean Sea, to arrive badly scattered over the North African coast west of Oran, Algeria, at dawn on November 8th. Nearly out of gas, several aircraft landed in the desert without dropping their paratroopers, several aircraft were shot down by enemy fighters, several planeloads jumped early and were captured in Spanish Morrocco, while the main force with Lieutenant Colonel Raff also jumped early some 35 miles east of the objective airfields. Although he broke several ribs in a hard landing, Lieutenant Colonel Raff continued to lead his paratroopers toward their objectives. After a full day and a night forced march, a company of weary paratroopers reached the airfield at Tafaraoui on the morning of November 9th. Both airfields had already been captured by Allied amphibious forces. Thus ended the first and rather disappointing American Airborne combat operation in history.

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At 9:30 a.m. on November 15, 1942, 350 paratroopers from the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion jumped onto the enemy occupied airfield at Youks Les Bains in Algeria for the battalion's second combat mission in just seven days. In spite of the injuries sustained on his earlier jump, Lieutenant Colonel Raff, the 509th Battalion Commander, led this mission as well. The paratroops landed on a cleared area adjacent to the runway. Within twenty minutes the paratroops had assembled, secured the airfield, and accepted the surrender of the French Third Zouaves Regiment, which defended the airfield. Lieutenant Colonel Raff ordered his Company D to dig in around the airfield and dispatched his Company E on foot to secure another airfield at Tebessa, fifteen kilometers away. Soon after the paratroopers secured the second airfield at Tebessa, again without opposition, a German JU-88 transport attempted to land there but was shot down. After a week, the paratroopers of the 509th Parachute Infantry were reinforced by an American tank destroyer company and some British engineers. With this added force, Lieutenant Colonel Raff's paratroopers began conducting sorties across the border into Tunisia to attack German paratroop and Italian forces around Gafsa. The aggressive actions of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion from Tebessa southward to Gafsa succeeded in protecting the Allied flank during the drive eastward towards Tunis.

At dawn on February 3rd, 1945, the 511th Parachute Infantry of the 11th Airborne Division parachuted onto Tagaytay Ridge on Luzon Island in the Philippines to join in the fight to liberate Manila. The first 915 paratroopers were flown in forty-eight Douglas C-47s of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. The first serial of eighteen aircraft dropped their troops, including Colonel Rock Haugen, the Regimental Commander, with pinpoint accuracy on the selected drop zone. The second serial of thirty aircraft dropped its planeloads early five miles from the drop zone. At noon that same day, the mistake was repeated again as another serial of fifty-one planeloads of paratroopers jumped early onto the same spot five miles short of the drop zone. In spite of the confused parachute drop, the paratroopers managed to successfully link-up at 1500 hours that afternoon with the 187th and 188th Glider Regiments of the 11th Airborne Division attacking north toward Manila. At 0800 hours on the following morning, the last of the 511th Parachute Regiment dropped onto Tagaytay Ridge to join the fight. The airborne troops continued the fight to liberate Manila until February 21st when organized Japanese resistance collapsed. In the fighting, the 11th Airborne Division lost 900 troopers killed, wounded, or missing in action, including Colonel Haugen, the 511th Regimental Commander and Colonel Irvin Schimmelpfenning, the division Chief of Staff, who were killed.

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On February 22d, 1967, paratroopers of the 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade, parachuted into a wide clearing in the jungle of War Zone C as part of Operation Junction City. Their mission was to form a blocking force near the crossroads hamlet of Katum, South Vietnam, to support a large-scale cordon and search by U.S. forces. The 780-man airborne task force was delivered in two sorties of aircraft from Bien Hoa Airbase. The personnel drop of thirteen C-130 Hercules aircraft arrived over Drop Zone Charlie at 9:00 a.m. General Jack Deane, Commander of the 173d Airborne Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sigholtz, Commander of the 2-503d Task Force, and Sergeant Major Harold Proffitt led the jump from the first aircraft. A total of 778 troopers hit the silk in two passes over the small drop zone, settled to the earth, and began assembling without any enemy opposition. Thirty minutes later, ten heavy drop C-130s arrived and dropped six 105mm howitzers, four 4.2 inch mortars, six 81mm mortars, four 3/4-ton trucks, five jeeps, six M274 "Mule" vehicles, one trailer, and 3900 rounds of artillery and mortar ammunition. By 10:00 a.m. all men and equipment were deployed into blocking positions and the command post and artillery firebase were established. As units from the U.S. 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the 173d Airborne Brigade began closing the horseshoe around suspected Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) positions, Operation Junction City became a series of small unit firefights for the paratroopers. On February 28th, the "Sky Soldiers" of the 173d overran the Vietcong Central Information Office, a key enemy propaganda facility. As the multi-divisional attack continued through mid-May, major battles raged around the horseshoe with three Vietcong regiments and one regiment of NVA regulars. Operation Junction City succeeded in driving major enemy forces from War Zone C across the border into sanctuaries in Cambodia. The operation was terminated on May 14, 1967.

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