Re: [MV] dropping jeeps

JOHN SEIDTS (john@astory.com)
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 11:17:17 -0000

In WWII, Gliders were the primary means of delivering heavy equipment for
the initial airborne assault. The whole idea was to get enough personnel
and equipment into an area to take it over for a short time and wait for
the ground forces to link up with the airborne. This was the idea. It
fell short in practice, like in D-day, when ground forces were not able to
get to the airborne forces rally points in time. If you remember, St Lo
was supposed to be reached by the 8th day of the invasion and was not
actually reached until the 45th day. Ground forces didn't reach the
closest drop zones until after the eighth day. After the terrible losses
during the airborne assaults in Italy, France, and Holland, the technical
wizards went more in the direction of getting heavier equipment onto the
ground, to make paratroopers more heavily armed. The Airborne Test Board
spent most of its time in late 1944 and 1945 developing ways to get heavier
items like howitzers, trucks, and jeeps to land by parachute in order to
bolster the fighting power of airborne forces. Some of these techniques
were used in the drop of the 17th ABN division near Weisel (SP?) in 1945.

These dropping procedures were the ones used almost exclusively until the
mid-50's when the LAPES system began (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction
System) to be used and refined. LAPES is the 'yank it out of the plane'
system. And of course, the helicopter has replaced the parachute as the
main means of delivering troops accurately into denied or lightly defended
areas along with most of their heavy equipment.

john@astory.com
http://www.astory.com

----------
> From: JStinson90@aol.com
> To: rgreen@mail.datasys.net
> Cc: Mil-Veh@skylee.com
> Subject: Re: [MV] dropping jeeps
> Date: Tuesday, August 11, 1998 5:25 AM
>
> At Ft. Bragg I've seen the M151's, M998's, M551's air dropped. Man is it
> awesome when they hit the ground. It makes you wounder how this stuff
can
> survive.!!!!!! But, then again some time it didn't.!!!!!
> Now, back to the original question, I think it was about WWII, "Were
there
> any jeeps air dropped????????" We know that they were air dropped in the
60's
> to present.
>
>
> Your "JEEP" nut !!!!!!!
> Jeff
> MVPA Member # 18907
> 62 M151
> 67 M151A1w/M4 pedistal&Cradle,M60(dummy)AN/VRC-47(radio)heater,fording
kit
> 71 M151A2 made of GALVANIZED STEEL(replacement body) w/ROPS,&heater
> 67 M416 trailer
>
> ===
> To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
> UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.

===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.