Flying Infantry

U. S. inventors contributed the sub marine, machine gun, airplane, caterpillar treads (for tanks), a deadly gas (Lewisite) to modern warfare. All except Lewisite have been brought to their highest stages of tactical efficiency by the professionalized, warlike armies and navies of Europe. Similarly parachute troops were invented by the U. S. Army.

First ground soldiers ever dropped from an airplane with infantry arms were men who in 1929 parachuted from Army planes at Brooks Field, Tex. Two machine gun crews landed and put their guns into action. The experiment had worked so noth ing more was done about it. Russia picked up the new tactic, trained parachuters by the thousands, used some in bungled operations in Finland. Germany used them astutely and successfully in the Low Countries. Last week the U. S. Army announced that it had gone in for parachute infantry again, would base its future development on training now being given to a picked platoon of 48 enlisted men and two young officers.

Drawn from a long list of volunteers from the 29th Infantry (regulars) the Army's first parachuters last week left their home station at Fort Benning, Ga. went into new quarters at Fort Dix, N. J. Close by, at Hightstown are the gaunt jumping towers of the Safe Parachute Jumps Co., operators of the parachute jump at the New York World's Fair. There Benning's flying foot soldiers, after three weeks of acrobatics, tumbling and other hardening exercises, last week made their first jumps, the kind that cost 40-c- apiece at the Fair.

From jumping in a chute controlled by wires, the Army's parachuters will go on to sterner stuff. On the program is a jump with an opened chute from the 250-foot tower to a landing wherever the wind decrees. After that, to school the men to jump from low altitudes, will come drops from the tower with pack parachutes which they must open on the way down. Last stage will be jumping from low-flying airplanes with combat equipment--automatic rifle, grenade, "iron" rations, etc. The Army is also experimenting dropping heavy machine guns, mortars, ammunition, explosives by parachute. Said the official announcement of the War Department: "These tests are purely experimental. No speculation will be made by Army officers as to future training or trends of parachute jumpers."

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