The best-selling author and historian’s latest book chronicles the origins and major operations of Britain’s airborne divisions
Saul David tells the story of the legendar y British airborne troops in his latest book, Sky Warriors: British Airborne Forces in the Second World War. Nicknamed the ‘Red Devils’, they began as a parachute battalion with just 500 men in June 1940. However, with Winston Churchill’s backing, the Airborne grew to three 10,000-strong divisions.
These men, who were dropped onto the battlefield from flimsy gliders, using temperamental parachutes, played a vital role in some of the war’s most impor tant operations. Sky Warriors covers in forensic detail a range of nail-biting and enthralling missions, from the Airborne’s first outing at Operation Colossus to the capture of Pegasus Bridge and beyond. David unlocks these stories with a vast array of archival materials, memoirs and unpublished letters and diaries.
David spoke with History of War about how the airborne developed from a small band of “gung-ho misfits” into one of the British Army’s most significant tactical assets. He also reflects on their role on D-Day – Operation Market Garden and Operation Varsity – arguing that they far surpassed Churchill’s expectations when he first requested 5,000 paratroopers in June 1940.
What motivated Britain and Winston Churchill to build an airborne capability?
The context is important. Britain was left with no allies at the start of the Second World War after France’s fall in the blitzkrieg campaign by Germany. In the dark days of June 1940, the Dunkirk evacuation had just taken place and Churchill was looking for a way to strike back against the Germans. He was initially thinking of coastal raiding, which is why he developed the Commando Force, but he also thought that using airborne forces was another way of getting behind enemy lines and taking them by surprise. That’s probably why one of the Commandos had parachute capability.
Churchill specifically asked on 5 June 1940 for 5,000 paratroopers, but it took a long time to get to that number, which was mainly a question of resources. Everyone fought for supplies in wartime and the RAF, which had to deliver airborne soldiers to the target, intended to use aircraft for strategic bombing. The other issue was that the British didn’t have any kit designed for use with airborne forces. They hadn’t developed airborne capabilities in the 1930s like Germany, Italy and Russia, so we were starting from scratch. But for Churchill’s determination to keep the ‘Airborne Experiment’, as it was known in the early years, on track, it may well have withered on the vine.
