PARACHUTE JUMP

BOARD

Parachuting has been a specialist capability utilised throughout military history as an effective means of distributing troops to an area of operation. In mass military parachuting operations, troops are deployed at low altitudes using a static line parachute, in which the parachutist attaches a static line to a cable in the aircraft in order to allow his or her parachute to deploy on exiting the plane.

In the early 90s ‘A’ Field Battery supported the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) with airborne parachuting operations. It was primarily the Forward Observer (FO) and Battery Commander (BC) callsigns that parachuted with their supported 3 RAR elements. However, as the parachute capability further developed, the Gun Line and Command Posts (CP) did maintain its own airborne parachute and equipment delivery Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). On a number of key training activities, the Gun Line and CPs did conduct parachuting insertions as part of their capability currency.

During the early stages of the Battery’s parachute capability development, it was difficult to maintain a members parachute qualification currency, and therefore it was a very fierce competition within the ‘A’ Field Battery ranks to participate in parachute jumps. The ‘Jump Board’ indicates those within the Battery that had completed 50 Jumps and then 100 Jumps, a select bunch it was.

In 2011 the Battery was relocated to the 1st Regiment, The Royal Australian Artillery, based in Brisbane and took delivery of the 155mm M777 Howitzer. Additionally, as part of the RAA change in Regimental naming conventions was renamed as ‘A’ Battery, as the RAA no longer maintained field guns. Due to the Australian Defence Force parachute capability being transferred to Special Forces Group, ‘A’ Battery was no longer required to maintain a parachute capability  requirement within the 1st Regiment and 7th Brigade construct.

‘A’ Parachute History.

‘A’ Battery are the only Australian unit to operationally parachute into a war zone. In World War Two ‘A’ Field Battery parachuted two QF 25-pounder Short guns into Nadzab, Papua New Guinea. The QF 25-pounder Short incorporated a number of design features which sought to increase its mobility. The gun could be broken down into 13 or 14 parts in under two minutes, allowing it to be air-dropped from aircraft or packed into Willy Jeeps.

The guns were used in action by the 7th Division during the landing at Nadzab, when a 32-man detachment of the 2/4th Field Regiment was dropped by parachute from five C-47 transports with two guns. One gun was assembled and ready to fire within an hour, but the buffer and recuperator of the other took two days to locate in the long grass. The QF 25-pounder Short continued to be used by some Australian artillery units in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Borneo until the end of the war, and was declared obsolete in 1946.

https://anzacday.org.au/jumping-into-history

https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media-releases/australian-army-commemorates-historic-1943-nadzab-parachute-landing