page_title: Airborne forces
section_title: New Guinea
hierarchical_section_title: Airborne forces / World War II / Allied operations / Pacific Theater / New Guinea
caption_attribution_description: English: Dwarfed by and silhouetted against clouds of smoke (created to provide cover), C-47 transport planes from the US Army Air Forces drop a battalion of the U.S. 503rd Parachute Regiment at Nadzab. A battalion dropped minutes earlier is landing in the foreground. General Vasey was in the plane from which the photograph was taken
context_page_description: Airborne forces are military units moved by aircraft and "dropped" into battle, typically by parachute, almost anywhere with little warning. Formations are limited only by the number and size of their aircraft; a huge force can appear "out of nowhere" behind enemy lines in minutes, an action known as vertical envelopment.
  On the other hand, airborne forces typically lack supplies for prolonged combat; they are much better equipped for an airhead than for long-term occupation. Airborne operations are particularly sensitive to weather. Advances in helicopter technology since World War II have brought increased flexibility, and air assaults have largely replaced parachutists.
context_section_description: In September 1943, in New Guinea, the U.S. Army's 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment and elements of the Australian Army's 2/4th Field Regiment made a highly successful, unopposed landing at Nadzab, during the Salamaua-Lae campaign. This was the first Allied airborne assault in the Pacific Theater.
  In July 1944, the 503rd jumped again, onto Noemfoor Island, off Dutch New Guinea, in the Battle of Noemfoor.
caption: September 5, 1943. C-47 transport planes, silhouetted against clouds of smoke created to provide cover, drop a battalion of the U.S. 503d Parachute Regiment and elements of the Australian Army's 2/4th Field Regiment at Nadzab, New Guinea, during the Battle of Lae. A battalion dropped minutes earlier is landing in the foreground.
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