The Parachute Regiment Regimental Stories

The British Army. To an outsider,

it looks like one single fighting force.

In reality, it's divided into more than 40 independent regiments,

each with its own culture and traditions.

And if you want to understand the British Army,

these regiments are the best place to start.

In this programme, we meet the regiment

who spearheaded the liberation of Europe in World War II.

The colonel shouts, "Get in, get in!"

And that was when the lid blew off the kettle.

They're trained to jump into combat.

We class ourselves as the elite of the British Army Infantry.

I chose it because it was THE toughest thing that you could do.

Their mascot, a Shetland pony called Pegasus.

He can be unpredictable, cheeky, tries to get his own way

and do stuff, which most people would expect from a paratrooper.

They pride themselves on being the army's fittest regiment.

Remember! This is not about how hard you can punch,

it's about how hard you can take a hit.

What's the bayonet for?

-ALL:

-Kill! Kill! Kill!

This is the British Army's Airborne Infantry. The Parachute Regiment.

A jump, that's very difficult. You're strapped with

over 120lbs worth of equipment,

not including your parachute or reserve,

so you're looking at over 200lbs.

The door will open,

you'll all be stood there, the wind will be 120 knots,

and you have to step out into the unknown.

Once that door opens

and you feel the blast of the air, then you know it's game on.

That red light comes on, then the green light, then we're off.

Every man out the door.

Before you do the jump, the nerves kind of build up,

but once you're at that door and you jump out of the plane, then...

It's a view which you won't see in your car, anyway.

Once you're in, you're in, there's no going back.

It is expected that you'll be fighting initially against the odds,

you're expecting to encounter the unknown.

A parachute has no reverse gear.

The Parachute Regiment.

-1,600 soldiers...

-Can you ensure your brother moves left a bit?

..And 128 officers, divided into three regular battalions...

Stand by for rapid!

..And a fourth made up of territorial army reserves.

1 PARA is based in Wales

and works with Special Forces on secret operations.

2 and 3 PARA are based in Colchester.

The regiment has built its reputation on

rapid deployment with minimal support and equipment.

They've recently returned from Afghanistan.

Their motto - ready for anything.

-Corridor!

-16!

-20!

-21!

The Regiment prides itself on selecting

some of the army's brightest recruits.

At Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire,

they must pass one of the army's toughest selection courses.

P Company. Short for Pegasus.

Less than half will succeed.

BLEEP

Get up! Get out!

P Company is the crucible which forms that self belief

that failure is not an option and a firm refusal to give up, ever.

Our nickname for other regiments is "crap hats".

It's been passed on from generation to generation.

At the end of the day, we know we've hand picked our soldiers,

reared them to be the best soldiers in the whole military, to be honest.

The Trainasium.

A 60ft high aerial assault course,

designed to test their head for heights.

It's been part of their training

since the Paras were formed nearly 70 years ago.

In World War II, Hitler's 20,000-strong force of paratroopers

were at the forefront of the Nazi invasion of Europe.

Churchill was impressed.

In June 1940, he ordered the creation

of a British unit of 5,000 paratroopers.

He hoped they would one day spearhead Europe's liberation.

Major Tony Hibbert was one of the first recruits.

When we started, we were totally without discipline.

Life was enormous fun, but we were an absolute shower.

For training, they were given 1,000 parachutes

and six old Whitley bombers.

The Whitleys were converted by simply cutting a hole in the floor.

You had to jump through a tunnel

six foot deep

and if you pushed yourself a little bit too far to the front,

you caught your nose on the end of the tunnel

and you broke your nose.

I saw one person very nearly with it cut off

and that was called ringing the bell.

The unit was named 11th Special Air Service Battalion.

Commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Down,

set high standards.

By God, at the end of the six months,

the battalion was absolutely unbeatable.

And it was entirely discipline and fitness,

and he ran them absolutely... into the ground.

OK, All arms course, listen in.

Event three of test week, the log race.

This simulates the movement forward of ammunition.

When heavy stores and ammunition are pushed off the back of a plane,

we then have to go and retrieve them as quick as we can.

The race is two miles. I need to see maximum determination,

aggression and motivation throughout. Work hard.

Go, go, go!

On the log race, you need to keep going.

The logs start with between seven to nine men,

and hopefully the logs will finish with a similar number.

BLEEP

The moment you let go the log, you're out of that particular event,

you're off the race and you won't score any points.

It's seen as a key team event. If people can't perform on the log race,

can we trust them on the battlefield?

BLEEP

Your arm wants to drop off, your body's telling you to stop,

you simply have to tell your mind to shut up, keep going forward.

All the way! Incoming!

And walk!

Shut up!

Shut up!

In February 1942, 116 men set off

on the Paras' first large-scale mission -

a night time raid behind enemy lines in Bruneval, on the French coast.

Their objective - to capture a sophisticated new German radar.

They parachuted in darkness and quickly captured it.

But getting out proved more difficult.

They had to fight their way down to the beach

to rendezvous with the Royal Navy. By the time the boats came,

two were dead, six were wounded

and six missing.

This film was shot by the Paras after the war.

It's a re-creation of their first battle honour.

We were all immensely proud

that they'd had this very considerable success.

That really was the first real moment

that we could be proud to be Paras.

The success of this mission established the Paras' reputation

for courage and determination.

Thousands of new volunteers came forward

and, in August 1942, the Battalion became the Parachute Regiment.

Listen in! As I pass you, you will come together toe to toe,

nose to nose, eyeball to eyeball. Do you understand?

-ALL:

-Yes, Sir!

Recruits are being psyched up for one of P Company's toughest tests,

a form of boxing unique to the Paras. They call it milling.

Remember, this is not about how hard you can punch,

it's about how hard you can take a hit,

and continue to move forward.

That man in front of you is the enemy.

One minute for your life, you will stand toe to toe

and engage in hand to hand combat. Stand by!

-What's the bayonet for? ALL:

-Kill!

-What's the bayonet for? ALL:

-Kill!

-What's the bayonet for? ALL:

-Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

The recruits are instructed not to defend themselves.

They win points only for the determination, courage

and aggression of their attack.

Pin your ears back, then all arms.

OK? Boxer's stance,

target area, OK? The face, that is where we're punching.

-Do you understand me?

-ALL: Yes, sir!

One minute of controlled aggression and determination.

Centre!

Faster.

Gloves up. Mill!

Milling is very much a test of individual courage,

simulating the situation where someone is required

to look out of an aircraft door at night

and throw themselves on order into the unknown.

You have to suppress your natural fears

and have the confidence in your own ability,

the determination and frankly the courage to do what's required of you.

Stop!

-Shirt's the winner.

-CHEERING

If someone can't have their head up and look where the enemy is, they're no use to us in battle

so it's the same in the milling room. Courage in the face of adversity and looking the enemy in the eye.

BELL RINGS

-Well fought, you two. Draw!

-CHEERING

If the recruits pass P Company,

they'll earn the right to wear the regiment's maroon beret.

Right, what we're going to do now is I'll teach you how to shape your beret, should you be successful.

Before the final day, they learn how to shape their berets,

though some will never get the chance to wear them.

What I want you to do is, when I say,

dip the beret into the hot water, which is this side

and the cold water, then back into the hot water.

The maroon beret was introduced in November 1942

by Major General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning,

known as Boy.

He wanted to create a special sense of regimental pride.

Now pull the excess over to the right hand side.

The beret's maroon colour was chosen by Browning's wife,

the novelist Daphne Du Maurier.

Good. And take out your cap badge.

She picked it from one of the colours he used for his race horses.

Place it so that the centre of the cap badge

is in between the centre and the left corner of his left eye.

The maroon beret is everything we strive to achieve,

it's become part of the airborne club, as it were.

It's a dream I've had for a long time now

and it's a proud thing to belong to.

In 1944, the Paras spearheaded the liberation of occupied Europe.

D-Day.

They were part of a newly created division, the 6th Airborne.

Its name was designed to fool the Germans.

Rather than six divisions, in fact, there were only two.

The British would drop more than 7,000 men from the skies.

The men sling their explosives and weapons around them,

get into their parachutes and their planes.

With their equipment and camouflaged faces,

look like strange creatures from another world.

The Paratroopers were to land behind enemy lines in Normandy.

Their role was to attack and hold bridges

and artillery positions, to prevent the Germans

from attacking Allied forces as they landed on the beaches.

This is Private Banowicz of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

Today he's wearing what a paratrooper would have worn during World War II.

Round his neck is a Celanese scarf.

When the re-supply come in, they would link these together

to form some kind of flag to attract the aircraft

so they could drop the supplies on to you down below on the ground.

Back in World War II, there was no reserve parachute if the canopy failed to open.

..Because it's a bit of a heave, to get it to fit.

Going into action, he had to carry his equipment.

He'd pack all the equipment itself into a leg bag.

It's fitted on the right leg,

then this system here would close round his leg,

you've got hand grenades, mines, Gammon bombs, extra ammunition,

everything for the task in hand.

Weighing sometimes up to 80-100lbs of equipment, in this bag.

The rifle, placed over the paratrooper's head.

When he jumped, he'd bring the weapon round, and hold the weapon system close to his chest.

It's very hot, very uncomfortable, very tight round the waist,

not comfortable kit at all, to be honest with you.

We're now inside the fuselage of a Dakota aircraft,

an iconic aircraft, used by the airborne forces during World War II up until the mid-50s.

How many paratroopers with kit would you be able to fit onto a Dakota?

A configuration could take 28 men all-up.

Normally slightly less than that, but 28 maximum.

How long would it take for the 28 blokes to get out of the plane?

I'd say 20 seconds and less.

28 blokes fully kitted, you're going to feel pretty sick.

And, er, now there's planes catching fire,

you'd be looking out the window seeing planes going down,

you got to keep your head strong, be a paratrooper and jump out the door.

In the small hours of 6th June, the Parachute Regiment took off.

19-year-old Jock Moodie was on his first mission.

Going over, once it had crossed the French coast, and you get ready

to stand up and hook up,

and you think, "How did I get here? What am I doing here?

"What have I got myself into?"

It's then that, the sooner you can get out, the better, you know?

NEWSREEL: 'One minute, 30 seconds, red light, green light, and out!

'Get out! Get out! Out into the air over France.'

One of the Paras' objectives was to capture and destroy

a heavily-defended German battery near the village of Merville.

The mission was meticulously planned

by 29 year-old Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway.

For a month, he trained 750 men

to cross a minefield and knock out the battery's guns.

At 12.50am, his paratroopers dropped.

But they were widely scattered.

Only 150 men made it to the rendezvous point.

Otway ordered the mission to continue.

Sergeant Len Daniels remembers the attack.

The colonel,

close up to the wire, shouts "Get in, get in!"

And, er, that was when the lid blew off the kettle.

MACHINE GUN FIRE

The Boche started to open up, plenty of muck flying about,

tracer, incendiary, mortar bombs, you name it, that was thrown at us.

It was chaos, chaos.

We were fighting, it was hand to hand, you know?

Nearly half the Paras were killed or injured but, against the odds,

they captured the battery and disabled the German guns.

It's unbelievable.

How the hell we come through. It was a bit of a frightener.

I dare say I killed one.

And that's about all I can remember.

Yeah, I did kill one, I know that.

But it didn't, I'd no...

I had no regrets about that. I was doing a job I'd been trained for.

Despite the huge casualties, they took the objective,

they adapted and they drove on, against ridiculous odds,

and its that sort of inspiration,

of overcoming adversity in extreme ways which, to us,

epitomises everything about the regiment, really,

and everything about airborne forces.

LAST POST PLAYS

D-Day came at a price.

Of the 7,000 men who dropped into Normandy,

1,623 were wounded, over 1,000 killed or missing.

When I come back here I'm very, very proud,

and I come back and pay my respects to a lot of young men,

like myself, who weren't lucky enough to come back.

At the Remembrance service parades,

the regiment will be represented by their mascot, Pegasus.

Shetlands, for their size, are the strongest of all horse breeds,

sort of short, stocky,

which most people would expect from a paratrooper.

He can be unpredictable, he's cheeky, tries to get his own way,

and do stuff, which you could also say a lot of the blokes do as well.

So they go hand in hand, really.

This is his ceremonial dress.

Basically it's got all the battle honours all over it.

Quite weighty, but this then defines him as Pegasus when he's on parade.

When he puts his regalia on, it's as if he knows he's got a job to do.

His temperament changes.

He stops being, I was going to say an arsehole, but you can't, can you?

He then sort of tends to behave,

except if he runs away from you, like he did last year.

But nine times out of ten he's OK.

BAGPIPES PLAY

In the months after D-Day,

the Paras continued the fight to liberate Europe.

Field Marshal Montgomery came up with a plan

to end the war by Christmas.

30,000 Allied troops would be deployed to capture seven bridges behind enemy lines in Holland.

This would pave the way for Allied tanks to roll into Germany.

On 17th September, 10,000 British soldiers from 1st Airborne took off.

Their mission, to take and hold a road bridge on the Rhine at Arnhem.

The Paras would later re-enact the events of that day

in the film, Theirs Is The Glory,

a mixture of drama and documentary.

EXPLOSIONS

It shows how the Paras captured the north end of the bridge.

They then found themselves surrounded

by two heavily-armoured German Panzer divisions.

'Everybody expected it to be a doddle,

'but those people who had been in action before knew different.'

When the Germans' backs were up against the wall,

they are pretty resilient.

'Everyone thought the Germans were on the run,'

but they can turn on a sixpence.

And they did.

People were being cut down left, right and centre.

There was bodies lying all over the place.

The First Battalion had run out, virtually run out, of ammunition,

the grenades were gone.

There's just no defence against

a tank firing at point-blank range through the windows of a house.

The Paras had orders to hold the bridge for 48 hours until ground troops arrived.

But the ground troops never reached this bridge.

It has gone down in history as the legendary "Bridge Too Far".

The Paras managed to hold out for three days and four nights.

Then the ammunition ran out and they were overwhelmed by the Germans.

As we got smaller and smaller, we left people

who must be dead and dying, in the bits we had to get out of.

'Yes, it was not...'

Not the happiest day of my life.

No, no, it was bad.

Of the 10,000 men who went to Arnhem, only 2,163 made it back.

The battle of Arnhem's the typical Parachute Regiment ethos.

It embodies everything we hold dear.

The guys fought together till the last man.

They were surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned.

And still at the end of the day, they managed to hold out for days.

Arnhem is extremely significant to the Parachute Regiment.

They were jumping in to the relative unknown with enemy positions

and kept taking the fight forward to the enemy with aggression, motivation and determination -

the qualities we aspire to have today.

Going to ask you some questions now about regimental history.

Learning regimental history is an essential part of being a modern paratrooper.

What was the operational name for Arnhem?

Market Garden, Sir.

Yes. What was the name of the conflict in the Falkland Islands?

-Operation Corporate, Sir.

-Exactly.

The history does motivate you on tour,

because we've got a reputation to live up to.

The things and people that have gone before us

and what they accomplished against the odds.

And it does get them geed up and ready.

OK listen in.

Stand at ease!

Once he shouts out your P Company number, you have to shout out "Sir."

He'll then tell you if you've passed or failed.

In Catterick, it's the final day of P Company.

If you passed, stay where you are, if you fail,

turn to the right, salute and march off to the rear

where Corporal Minchell will wait for you there.

-Number 2.

-Sir!

-Pass.

-Sir!

-Number 3.

-Sir!

-Pass.

-Sir.

-Number 14.

-Sir!

-Pass.

-Sir!

-Number 16.

-Sir!

-Fail.

105 started. 59 passed.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you, Sir.

-Mr Ratcliff. Congratulations.

-Thank you, Sir.

-Welcome to the Parachute Regiment.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

When I put the beret on it was total relief, pride.

You can feel adrenalin pumping through your body.

It's something you've wanted for a long time.

Now I honestly feel the best I've ever felt.

It's the proudest moment of my life,

come off the beret parade and received the maroon beret.

Now we are actually part of the Parachute Regiment

and we can wear the maroon beret with pride.

Left, right, left, right...

Since World War II, the Paras have been one of the most active

regiments in the British Army.

From Suez, to the Falkland Islands.

From Kosovo to Sierra Leone.

They've been deployed in nearly every British military conflict.

At Merville Barracks in Colchester the men are receiving

campaign medals for their latest battle honour - Afghanistan.

Here to congratulate them,

the Regiment's colonel in chief, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

The regiment's Veterans are also present at the parade.

We come here to support the lads from the regiment,

cos we've all been through what they've been through before.

You're never an ex-Para, you're always a Para.

And when I joined the Paras it changed my life,

it made me realise I was somebody.

I'd become a member of the elite and I owe a tremendous

debt of gratitude to this beret and this cap badge.

In 1950, just ten years after they were formed,

Field Marshal Montgomery

celebrated the Parachute Regiment's special place in the British Army.

"What manner of men are these who wear the maroon red beret?"

"They are firstly all volunteers,

"and are then toughened by hard physical training".

"They have jumped from the air.

"And by doing so have conquered fear".

"They have shown themselves to be as tenacious

"and determined in defence as they are courageous in attack".

"They are, in fact, men apart... Every man an Emperor".

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]