It’s like a car crash... then silence: Paras drop into ‘battle’ near Russia border
Britain is leading a force of more than 2,300 toops, sailors and aviators in response drill in Estonia
“YOU follow the man in front of you – your training takes over. I just shut my eyes and hoped for the best.”
Corporal Thomas Keld was up at 1am yesterday to begin his final checks for a low-altitude parachute jump into “battle”, not far from the Russian border.
Seven hours later, alongside approximately 141 other British and American airborne troops, he hurled himself into space from a C-17 Globemaster, barely a thousand feet above the ground, trusting in nothing more than the Parachute Regiment’s meticulous standards of preparation to save his life.
Once the canopies opened and the soldiers began their short descent, it swiftly became obvious how dangerous their line of work can be.
There was a fierce Baltic wind barreling in from the north and it scattered the jumping troops across the drop zone like “rag dolls”.
Even on the ground, it wasn’t over – many were dragged large distances across the hard Estonian earth as they struggled to get their parachutes under control.
One of them collided with a telegraph pole upon landing.
Luckily – this time – it was the inanimate object that came off worse.
“It’s like being in a little car crash, it’s pretty rough,” said 35-year-old
Cpl Keld, a section commander in 3 Para Battlegroup, part of the Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade, which could be mobilised within a couple of days in the event of a Russian invasion. “It’s quite violent because [with a static line parachute] you are connected to the plane. I’m quite sore in places,” Cpl Keld added.
Britain has not parachuted soldiers into battle since the Suez crisis of 1956.
During the long campaign in Afghanistan, for example, they were typically dropped at their forward operating bases in Helmand Province by Chinook helicopter, or driven overland.
However, commanders are convinced that the capability is worth preserving – now more than ever, given the Russian threat.
Yesterday, the troops belonging to the 3 Para Battlegroup jumped from three aircraft of the US 8th Air Wing, alongside American soldiers of 82nd Airborne as well as a small detachment of combat engineers who work for the US navy. In doing so, they even used the American TIC parachute in order to qualify for their “US wings”, a useful accreditation given the intense integration that defines the Nato stance in Eastern Europe. Flying at approximately 130 knots, the C17s have, at most, a 20-second window over the drop zone.
One of the hallmarks of a gold-standard drop, achieved yesterday, is the ability to drop groups of soldiers – which are referred to as “sticks” – from both port and starboard doors at the same time. However, unlike this drill – part of Nato’s massive Swift Response exercise – the transport aircraft would be likely to approach a real battle wingtip to wingtip, rather than one after the other, in order to get all the troops on the ground as quickly as possible.
Had the soldiers been using British parachutes, they could have jumped even lower than 1,000 feet, because they are quicker to open than the American model.
At a real push, the troops could jump from 500 feet, according to Squadron Leader Si Huntley, who was helping to coordinate the exercise.
“I don’t like jumping really,” said Cpl Keld, who has completed almost 20 jumps.
“The build-up’s the worst – hours of planning and putting on the kit and getting checked.
“But when the doors come open and you get hooked up and the lights come on, it’s your time.
“Everyone’s hyped up; there’s a nice energy in the plane; the atmosphere changes.”
These non-steerable parachutes – in truth not radically different from those used at Arnhem in 1944 – can safely support about 160 kg.
It means that the lighter paratroopers tend to get lumbered with heavy equipment such as mortars and machine guns when they jump.
Bombardier Ryan Shaver, of 7 Para Royal Horse Artillery, jumped alongside his infantry colleagues.
Bombardier Shaver is responsible for coordinating with fast jets and attack helicopters once on the ground and has to show the same physical and mental stamina as the Paras.
Describing the jump, he said: “You have this washing machine effect when you leave the aircraft and then everything goes completely silent.
“Then you’re looking around, seeing who you’re closest to and trying to get the best landing you can possibly get.”
The 29-year-old added: “I got twisted around a bit today. I felt like a rag doll.”
“Once on the ground you spend about five seconds thinking, ‘Am I ok?’. “Then you think, ‘OK, what next?’.” While it has always been an elite skill in which they were fiercely proud, the reality is that for generations of paratroopers, particularly those involved in counter-insurgency warfare, jumping has had little relevance to their operational lives.
But with escalating tensions in Europe, the focus is changing.
“I wouldn’t say it will never happen, because we don’t know what will happen,” said Bombardier Shaver.
“But with a conventional operation, there’s every opportunity that it could.”
‘You have this washing machine effect when you leave the aircraft and then everything goes silent’