Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Brieana E. Bolfing
Massive descent. This is how the U.S. Air Force (USAF) calls this sight of a large number of paratroopers falling from the sky in one of the largest exercises of its kind held in recent times.
Paratroopers are a special breed of soldiers, trained to drop from aircraft behind enemy lines or in hard-to-reach areas, giving the main armies an edge against the opposing force. They were born, or should we say established themselves as an elite unit, in the years of the Second World War, despite the fact Benjamin Franklin was dreaming about soldiers dropping from balloons as far back as the 1700.
The Second World War saw the largest deployment of such units, with almost all involved parties using them. Germany started the paratrooper craziness in the 1930s and then moved to actually using them in the 1940s against the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.
The Brits followed, then the Americans, and some of the battles of the war saw tens of thousands of people falling from the sky, attached to parachutes, to wage war – the largest such mission took place in September 1944, when over 34,000 allied troops were deployed this way in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden.
Since the war, the use of such troops in combat has decreased, but paratroopers are not extinct. In fact, they still train in large numbers, as we’ve seen back in August 2021 in Guam, or now over the Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji in Japan.
It is from there this photo comes from, and it shows an impossible-to-count number of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force paratroopers, deployed with the 1st Airborne Brigade, falling from the bowels of an American C-130J Super Hercules.
The drop took place in late January, and called for the paratroopers to perform a static-line jump from a number of 13 Super Hercules airplanes, “showcasing the strategic importance of engaging in bilateral operations.”
The Second World War saw the largest deployment of such units, with almost all involved parties using them. Germany started the paratrooper craziness in the 1930s and then moved to actually using them in the 1940s against the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.
The Brits followed, then the Americans, and some of the battles of the war saw tens of thousands of people falling from the sky, attached to parachutes, to wage war – the largest such mission took place in September 1944, when over 34,000 allied troops were deployed this way in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden.
Since the war, the use of such troops in combat has decreased, but paratroopers are not extinct. In fact, they still train in large numbers, as we’ve seen back in August 2021 in Guam, or now over the Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji in Japan.
It is from there this photo comes from, and it shows an impossible-to-count number of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force paratroopers, deployed with the 1st Airborne Brigade, falling from the bowels of an American C-130J Super Hercules.
The drop took place in late January, and called for the paratroopers to perform a static-line jump from a number of 13 Super Hercules airplanes, “showcasing the strategic importance of engaging in bilateral operations.”
Google News