Army Air Despatch Veterans Over Normandy

By Roy Mobsby

Foreword

This article was provided to Hermes by retired Sergeant Roy Mobsby who writes touchingly about bringing a special project — and a promise to a dead comrade — to fruition and the personal reasons that motivated him. The article also provides interesting background information and an overview of the role of Army Air Despatch from an historical perspective.

During his twenty-two year British Army career, Roy served with 1 PARA, 10 PARA and as an Army Air Despatcher with 47 Air Despatch Squadron, RCT. Roy was also a member of the Royal Logistic Corps’  Silver Stars Army Parachute Display Team, whose formation in 1963 predated that of The Red Devils.

Since leaving the military, Roy has been providing static-line military-style round canopy training in Holland, under the Dutch NATO B Wing system, and organising parachuting demonstration drops from wartime Dakota C47 aircraft at commemorative events. He is a familiar figure at such events in France and Holland.

Mark Briggs CMIOSH — Technical Editor

Normandy80 — Honouring Army Air Despatchers

A few years ago, I was reunited with my old friend Geordie Alderson. We had gone through basic Air Despatch training together at 55 AD Sqn, Royal Corps of Transport at RAF Thorney Island, which formed part of 14 Air Despatch Regiment RCT, then based at RAF Upavon. Geordie and I were initially posted to 47 Air Despatch Squadron RCT at RAF Lyneham but after a few years, having reached the rank of Corporal, Despatch Crew Commander (DCC), our careers went in different directions and, as so often happens, we lost touch with one another.

Although I say so myself, our parachuting club’s website includes quite a good account of the history and evolution of 47 Air Despatch Squadron RCT. During their eighty-plus years of existence, the British Army’s Air Despatch units have retained their competence and capability in terms of the in-house training of air despatch crews in all aspects of the aerial delivery of combat and operational supplies and stores to our troops on the ground, be they Airborne Forces or otherwise. Air Despatch also completes assignments at the Test and Evaluation Unit where new ideas and equipment go through trials and development.

During the twelve-week Basic Air Despatch course, Army personnel are taught the principles of aerial delivery, including air safety, supply drop equipment, loading and unloading of fixed wing and rotary aircraft and air despatch drills. Once qualified in various systems and Air Despatch, trainees progress to the Class 2 course which includes Drop Zone Non-Commissioned Officer (DZNCO) and other specialist aspects of the role such as under-slung loads, boat dropping, helicopter abseiling and fast-roping. The Class 1 Air Despatch course includes the safe running of drop zones, supervising the rigging of stores and equipment ready to be dropped and the loading of aircraft out on the flight line.

For the soldiers who qualify as Air Dispatchers and earn the AD Badge or ‘Wings’, they remain on a continuous learning curve. Air Dispatchers are trained in all types of airdrop loads such as SEAC packs, Jungle lines, free drops, Air Sea Rescue, SPAG (Submarine escape missions), 1-ton containers and multiple configurations of loads, as helicopter handlers and instructors. Then there is heavy drop training as Rig Checkers and Installation Checkers, DZ layout and receiving of loads. Many Air Despatchers are also parachute-trained and jump with the LPBG or leading PARA battalion group to recover air-dropped equipment for future use. The list goes on and is endless. If you want it delivered by air, then these are the people for the job.

A couple of years ago, out of the blue, Geordie got in touch with me via social media. He was travelling over from the Isle of Wight to Southampton on the Red Funnel ferry to visit family and as I was in Southampton, we arranged to meet. He hadn’t changed much. It was good to shake hands, grab a coffee each and catch up on almost a lifetime. He only had a couple of hours to spare but we managed to update each other in that short time. His career had been similar to mine; we had both worked in the Middle East, Geordie on unarmed logistics missions and myself on armed — and slightly more exciting — operations but in the same sphere.

While we were talking, Geordie became interested in my post-military commemorative parachuting activities and the idea of a special project began to take shape in our minds. I and my club — Pathfinder UK — parachute each year into Normandy and Holland as part of the D-Day and Operation Market Garden anniversary commemorations. Undoubtedly, it is an expensive undertaking without any form of financial support or sponsorship. All of the jumpers, many of whom are ex-Airborne Forces from Britain and friendly countries, are self-funding. There are therefore no places for non-paying passengers.

Geordie remarked that it was a terrible shame that we did not commemorate all the Air Dispatchers who had lost their lives resupplying ground troops, including Airborne units. There had been a lot of them. I agreed. I also knew that the Jump Masters from my club and the Pegasus Display Team often dropped door bundles containing the D-Bags, as Parachute Deployment Bags are known, after dispatching their sticks of parachutists. So, it was certainly feasible. I needed to sell the idea to ‘The Corporals Club’, as the management of the Pegasus Display Team is known. Nothing could be more simple, or so I fondly imagined.  However, before continuing, I should explain the history of Air Despatch in the British Army.

In 1940, as any old British paratrooper knows, Winston Churchill, impressed by German Blitzkrieg tactics and the German use of parachute and glider troops, instructed the War Office that “we ought to have a Corps of at least five thousand parachute troops.”. The Central Landing School was subsequently established at RAF Ringway, near Manchester, where the city’s airport would later be built. The CLS was originally conceived as, primarily, a parachute training school and experimentation centre but quickly evolved to include the training of assault glider pilots.

The Americans, on the other hand, adopted a less convoluted, more logical approach than our ‘taxi driver’ concept with its inherent weaknesses and inefficiencies. It probably helped that the American Air Force was part of the US Army at the time whereas our Air Force had been independent of the British Army since the closing days of the First World War.

Like most post-WW2 NATO and allied forces, the US Army retained responsibility for — and control over — all aspects of parachute training, equipment, delivery and resupply capabilities, delegating these responsibilities to the soldiers best-placed to manage airborne insertion operations — experienced paratroopers rather than non-combatant airmen and their commanders.

After the early success of small air assault operations, the larger scale drops into Sicily in 1943 were more problematic. One can say that they were a mixed success and many of the senior Allied military commanders concluded that the airborne experiment was a failure. Indeed, Adolf Hitler had banned large-scale airborne operations after the pyrrhic victory of the Fallschirmjäger in Crete in May 1941. Once again, it took the intervention of the more visionary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, looking ahead to the potential needs of Operation Overlord and the battle for Europe, to continue the development of British airborne capabilities and resources.

The British Army deviated from the previously described ‘taxi driver’ model in March 1944 in forming the Air Despatch Companies of the Royal Army Service Corps or RASC in order to make full use of the advantages and flexibilities that resupply by air by specialised British Army units could bring to the British Army’s airborne operations. This was in readiness for the invasion and reconquest of north-western Europe. The Air Despatch Companies came into their own during the airborne operations in northern and southern France —Operations Overlord and Dragoon — in the summer of 1944 and, of course, in Holland during Operation Market Garden in September of that year. They also served with distinction in the Far East and the Forgotten War in Burma.

Notwithstanding the clear success of the Army’s Air Despatch Companies, the War Office — the forerunner of today’s Ministry of Defence — decided in 1945 to dispense with Army Parachute Jump Instructors, most of whom had by then been reassigned to combat duties with The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces. A new badge modelled on the Royal Air Force half-wing brevet worn by aircrew replaced the Army-style trade or specialisation Parachute Jump Instructor badge worn by Army and RAF PJIs alike. The history of the PJI badge is covered in this Hermes article on Army PJIs.

Despite the wealth of hard-earned, ‘bloody’ experience of parachute insertion operations gained by Airborne Forces, including The Parachute Regiment and Special Air Service, it was decided that the responsibility for parachute equipment and training would be better-managed by the non-combatant ground personnel of the RAF rather than by specialist paratroopers with on-the-ground experience. This differs from the approach adopted by the US Army and other NATO Forces.

The solution to the subsequent and longstanding problems caused by this rather bizarre strategic decision seems simple and obvious but the MoD appears very reluctant to discuss any change to the status quo. One very senior insider source, who commented in exchange for anonymity, remarked: “Defence Chiefs are likely to be in an embarrassing position regarding the RAF usurping the Army in the early 1940s, and they thus have inherited a situation in which the RAF continually refuse to relinquish a role that is not of their [the RAF’s] concern and are probably far from being the best placed Service to deliver.”.

There may be other factors in play, upon which Ian Marshall touched in his article Army Parachute Jump Instructors — Part 2. The RAF obviously defends its position fiercely but is very reluctant to explain precisely how the £50 million it receives each year from the Army budget to train paratroopers is spent. Some insider sources allege that as much as £15 to £20 million might be spent on the RAF’s Falcons parachuting display team. According to simple calculations, if the RAF spent the £50 million on just putting Army soldiers through Basic Parachuting Courses, British Airborne Forces would be receiving significantly north of a thousand trained paratroopers per year, even at the exorbitant rates charged by the RAF.

I can say from personal experience that I can put parachutists through the five-jump NATO-approved Dutch B Wings course for less than a tenth of the price charged by the RAF for the current four-jump, clean fatigue BPC. Could this explain why the Civil Aviation Authority, whose senior management includes retired RAF top brass, has made it so hard for civilian and veterans military-style — known to some as ‘round canopy’ — parachuting clubs and teams to operate in the UK? Is it about vested interests? But I digress…

Sadly, before Geordie Alderson and I could take our plan further, Geordie died on the operating table during open heart surgery. To have just renewed our friendship and to lose him so suddenly like that hit me hard, and I know it hit his family even harder, to lose him so unexpectedly. But it made me more determined than ever to bring our plan to fruition.

My initial thinking involved liaising with 47 Air Despatch Squadron, now under the Royal Logistics Corps, but on second thoughts, it struck me as more appropriate, given the commemorative aspect of our activities and the high number of airborne veterans who jump with us, to have veteran Air Dispatchers aboard the Dakota C37 aircraft from which we jump.

I needed to get the plan approved by Ian Marshall — former 2 PARA, Pathfinder Platoon and Red Devils — and Mark Briggs — former 3 PARA and Airborne Forces — both of whom are qualified Jumpmasters who work not just with Pathfinder UK but also with their own 100% airborne veterans’ association, the Pegasus Display Team. Mark, who is a chartered Health and Safety practitioner and consultant, is also the Technical Editor of the PRA’s journal Hermes. The opportunity presented itself during an annual refresher and ground training weekend at a MAB location earlier this year.

Arranging anniversary commemorative jumps is usually fraught with problems of various kinds and this year was certainly no exception. The Normandy80 organisers were far more focused on the various visiting VIPs  and the more lucrative events help in the American sector. As usual, the British participation in D-Day was treated as an also-ran. Consequently, the aircraft operators. including Briton Keith Perkins’ Aero Legends firm, focused on maximising financial gain from events and thus prioritised jumps onto the American wartime drop zones and other DZs around Cherbourg. The British sector, including DZ-K near Sannerville, was completely ignored by the French and by the US Army officials responsible for coordination, to the point of initially excluding the British Army’s 16^th Air Assault Brigade from their planning meetings.

I pitched the idea to Briggs and Marshall and was met by blank stares and an occasionally raised eyebrow. After a few moments of silence, Ian spoke: “What a brilliant idea! Well done!”. Mark remained silent and thoughtful before adding: “Maximum four hundred feet drop… Hmmm. Looks like you just won yourself another job.”. Thank you very much, I thought. Yes, I had won myself yet more work but the plan was good to go if Ian and Mark were happy with the idea and now I could blame them if it all went horribly wrong.

Two places on one of the Dakota C47 sorties were made available for the Air Dispatchers as the main purpose of the event was to conduct commemorative parachute drops onto the old British DZ by Sannerville by airborne veterans dressed like the British paratroopers who had landed there eighty years before. The AD veterans would be taking places from jumpers. I was now worried that nobody would be willing to pay jump slot rates in order to despatch a SEAC. As previously noted, we are self-funding, receiving no financial support or sponsorship. It was an expensive homage but so what?

As it turned out, two of the planned commemorative jumps were cancelled, including the Pegasus Display Team drop with guest jumpers from the American news channel CBS , who were going to jump alongside 16^th Air Assault Brigade on June 5^th. Allegedly, none of the several aircraft on station in Normandy could be spared. Eventually, and with obvious reluctance, Placid Lassie — a Dakota C47 with impeccable WW2 provenance flown over from the United States — was allocated for parachute-dropping operations in the British sector on June 8^th.

It is well-documented in the press that the planned 16 Air Assault Brigade drops on DZ-K at Sannerville were impacted by a lack of available RAF aircraft and the Secretary of State for Defence had to intervene after the humiliating cancellation of the commemorative jumps planned for 5^th June, which was the actual eightieth anniversary of the first British D-Day airborne operations. Unavailability of RAF aircraft is nothing new as those of you who remember the German offer to fly British paratroopers to the Arnhem commemorative drop one year will recall. The Normandy80 fiasco was a a very public, national embarrassment at a time when NATO members need to show strength and cohesion.

Consequently, we needed to organise and carry out five sorties in one day. This would be no mean feat. Five serving British Army PJIs including their OC from the Parachute Training Support Unit at RAF Brize Norton would also be jumping with the Pegasus Display Team. Everyone was going to have to work together to ensure parachutes were packed between drops in order to get all this crammed in and also to include mine and Geordie’s pet project.

The NOTAM was from 0800 hours to 2000 hours local time, and fortunately included clearances for ‘cargo drops’, as requested. The Air Dispatchers would be putting out the SEAC packed full of D-bags and a few other special items. This would allow for the repacking of parachutes on the landing area immediately after the drops, thus saving more than an hour’s round trip to the airfield in order to recover the equipment.

I proposed the opportunity to retired Lieutenant Colonel Chris Stuart who leapt at the chance to despatch from a C47 Dakota. Chris then suggested former WO1 Pete Edge for the other slot. Chris is a former OC of 47 Air Despatch Squadron who went on to be CO of 13 Air Assault Regiment, which now includes 47 AD Sqn. Pete was the longest-ever serving Air Despatcher after completing forty years in the trade and this would be his 850^th and final airdrop sortie. I had served with Pete as a Lance Corporal before he was posted to JATE.

Lt Col Stuart and RSM Edge were excellent choices to represent the Air Despatch and its veterans. Chris suggested a few more names but it had already been decided to go with just two dispatchers because of the £3500 per flying hour costs. Ian Marshall, Senior Jump Master, would still have overall command, but between the three of them they would have to recover and strip off twenty-four static lines and D-bags, stow the equipment in the SEAC, attach a parachute system and then static line drop the SEAC over the DZ, all in record time as every minute of flying time was billable. We would be flying on a stopwatch.

So, Chalk 2, Third Pass, out came the ‘cargo drop’ right in the centre of the Sannerville DZ. From a simple conversation over a cup of coffee to a perfect drop on a historic British D-Day DZ, from a WW2 aircraft to commemorate all the Air Dispatchers killed or wounded while resupplying the ground troops. Well done, Chris and Pete, and everyone in Pathfinder and Pegasus who made it happen. I like to imagine that Geordie Alderson was looking down on us and saw the whole thing come to fruition.