World War II - Red Devils

I am just about done with November and the World War I and World War II theme.  I am still finding documentaries to talk about when it comes to World War I and World War II.  When I started, it was a challenge to find World War I documentaries, however I am happy to be finding more and more documentaries on World War I.  In fact, I did more documentaries on World War I this month than I did on World War II.  That said I am glad to be building up both World War I and World War II sections in the YouTube drop down menu.  Today, I am looking at a documentary on World War II and the 1st Airborne.  This documentary has a run time of 50:30.

It was a unit known as the Red Devils.   The First Airborne was an elite fighting force in World War II.  There was a similar unit in the German military that inspired its creation.  These were paratroopers for the British military.  They were known to be physically fit and were going to be an elite regiment.  The First Airborne would become one of the bravest units of World War II. 

The First Airborne was inspired by a German military parachute unit.  Winston Churchill saw this unit and wanted the same for the British Military.  Tony Hibbert was one of the first men to volunteer for this regiment.  He had been evacuated from Dunkirk.  Eventually they were sent to Italy and were effective.  Eventually more and more paratroopers were recruited and trained to jump behind enemy lines.  Men had to be both physically fit and mentally fit.  They had to be of good character as well. 

Jim Knox joined the First Airborne and recalls the training.  It was rigorous and recruits had to run everywhere and not walk.  Knox thought his training officers were trying to kill him.  However this strictness of the training was to help craft an elite soldier.  Stephen Morgan recalls parachute training.  The men had to be able to work their parachutes in even the toughest of conditions.  They had to learn how to jump from an airplane.  The biggest challenge was “do you jump?”  The First Airborne recruits would have to jump seven times from two different types of airplanes. John Frost was a recruit to the parachute brigade.  He was an experienced officer.  Caroline Frost tells the story of her father.  He would become the commanding officer of the second battalion of the First Airborne.

The First Airborne’s mission was to jump behind enemy lines and capture a radar station.  Bad weather would delay the initial raid.  When the weather cleared, the men fly for France.  Unfortunately the British planes would come under fire.  That said, none of the airplanes were hit.  The attack was on and destroyed the radar station.  As they retreated to the beach, they took casualties.  However, the danger was not over.  Communication was poor; however the paratroopers would eventually be brought back to England.  Six men were wounded, six men were captured, and two men were dead.  This raid was a big morale boost to the English.  Parachute regiments were here to stay.  This raid was the first parachute regiment’s battle honor.

First World War I veterans Frederick Boy-Browning would lead the regiment and he wanted to give this regiment a distinguished look.  Maroon and Cambridge Blue were to be with regiment’s color, these colors were also Boy-Browning’s regiment colors.  The Pegasus was the mascot.  These colors and mascot were a sign that the man who wore them was someone they could trust, someone that they could go to war with.  To learn more about the First Airborne and their exploits continue to watch the rest of this episode.

This unit was mentioned in the series Band of Brothers, and it’s squadron leader was played by John Light who plays Flambeau on Father Brown.  Easy Company help get a company of First Airborne out from behind enemy lines.  It was nice to see a documentary on this division.  The story of Frost was interesting and I found it funny that he would use his horn to rally his troops.  Anyway this was a good documentary and one I would show to a history class and would recommend it to an independent study student.