Evening star., 1940-05-12
BY BEN H. PEARSE,

BY BEN II. PEARSE.
Wars newest technique, the drop
ping Of fully equipped troops behind
enemy lines by parachute, is strictly
IN American invention.
If the present war in Europe Is
distinguished by military historians
for the use Of parachute troops, as
the World War was for the first use
Of airplanes, gas and tanks, 1t will
- because Of the foresight Of an
Army master sergeant who more
than 10 years ago demonstrated this
new" technique at Brooks Field,
Tex.
Press dispatches first from Fin
land, later from Norway, and now
from Holland and Belgium are filled
with reports of troops, arms and
ammunition dropped from the skies
like men from Mars, suicide squads"
employed on a wide scale to prepare
the advance for the main forces
striking with lightning swiftness.
All this was foreseen more than a
decade ago by the late Master Sergt.
Erwin H. Nichols, q. S. Army Air
Corps, the Atmy's first parachute
instructor and inventor of an "ar-
ticle carrier" adapted to hold ma
chine guns and the like" which it is
desired shall reach the earth ex-
peditiously and with safety"
Their Function.
Terrified Dutch burghers and sur
prised Dutch troops saw little bands
OF German soldiers drop out Of the
clouds just at dawn Friday in a
sudden, carefully planned attack on
widely separated points designed
to seize and hold, If even only tenn
porarily, strategic air1elds, commu-
snications centers, truck and rail
lines.
Their purpose was not primarily
to conquer enemy territory. That
. was for the main force, II and
when 1t arrived. Their mission was
to distract, confuse, disorganize the
Dutch resistance. disperse the Dutch
troops by setting up a score, a
hundred isolated centers of resis-
tance, each of which would have to
be "mopped up" in turn. The sum
total OF these separate efforts would
be major operation, and going
behind its lines would lend an air
OF uncertainty to the situation likely
to react favorably to the Germans.
1t is part of the war of nerves."
Last weeks parachute Invasion
was the first use of the new"
technique on large scale, but it
had been used experimentally and
with considerable success, accord
Ing to military advices here, in
Norway and also during the Fin
nish campaign by Soviet troops.
Discount Parachute Losses.
Military observers who take
foreign army communicates with a
grain OF salt, no matter from which
side they come, are inclined to
discount claims that parachute
troops have been picked of like
clay pigeons" from the ground.
They have noted also an improve
ment in method designed to mini
mize likelihood of losses.
apparently the Russians, who
were the first to use parachute
troops in actual warfare, started
out by releasing their men at too
high an altitude" one officer
guessed. THE vertical rate of des-
cent Of man in an opened para
chute Is about 18 feet per second,
not too fast to make a good target.
THE Germans last week appar-
emily had proflted by the lessons
learned in Finland and were drop
ping their men from less than 500
feet altitude, allowing just enough
time for the parachutes to open
and break their fall before they
landed"
Army officers here were watching
the development of the parachute
attack with eager interest. The sub
ject has been widely discussed since
Sergt. Nichols gave his first official
demonstration before a class Of
students at the Primary Flying
School at Brooks Field in October,
1929. At the Command and General
Staff School at Fort Leavenworth,
Kans.. his method has been dubbed
the vertical envelopement."
Tested in TEXAS,
Without making any impressive
display, 1t has been tested out in
various maneuvers and two years
; ago was given an exhaustive test in
the cavalrv maneuvers in Texas,
which are Strikin.4y pertinent in the
light Of the latest dispatches from
Europe. For several days, an isolated
cavalry detachment was supplied
with food, ammunition and supplies
entirely by air and fought OF q
much larger force of the enemy.
Military observers familiar with the
'problefn" recalled Nsrvik, where q
German force is now repeating the
exercise under actual war conditions,
cut OIL from all contact with the
main German forces except by air.
In the latest reports from abroad,
they were still holding out.
To understand thoroughly the
situation in Holland and Belgium
today, it will be helpful to 60 back
more than 10 years, the morning of
October II, 1929, when Sergt. Nichols
plan for dropping machine gun
squad behind enemy lines first came
to ofncial notice. A native of Lorain,
Ohio, he enlisted in the Army during
the World War and continued In the
service, specializing in parachutes.
He was the Army's first parachute
instructor and with Master Sergt.