Billy Mitchell’s Parachute Plan By Phillip S. Meilinger

n April 1940, as part of Hitler’s was startlingly original and clearly at fairgrounds for a century. plan to invade Norway, 24 Ju visionary. The fi rst successful military jump 52 transport , escorted For most of , the Western from an occurred in March by two twin-engine fi ghters, Front was a stagnant and bloody trench 1912, made by a US soldier at Jef- dropped 130 German paratroop- war. Frontal assaults were common ferson Barracks, Mo. During World ersI near Sola airfi eld at Stavanger. because outfl anking maneuvers were War I, soldiers in tethered observation Dropped from an altitude of just 400 impossible—the front stretched in an balloons deployed along the Western feet, the landed and se- unbroken line from the North Sea to Front wore parachutes because the cured the valuable airfi eld in an hour. Switzerland. Generals on both sides balloons came under frequent attacks German reinforcements began fl ooding made numerous attempts to break the from enemy pursuit (fi ghter) aircraft. in by air; Norway fell in days. stalemate, using rolling bar- The operation was the fi rst rages, poison gas, fl amethrowers, new A DEADLY VISE combat paratroop drop in history. Many penetration tactics, tanks, and attack A downed was counted as an would follow, and paratroop forces— aircraft. They hoped to break through aerial victory, and some pilots became quite a bit larger than the relatively the lines and create fl anks, thus restor- aces based on their ability to “fl ame sau- small contingent at Stavanger—came ing mobility to the battlefi eld. sages.” Frank Luke received the Medal to be fi elded by all the great powers These tactics were at best only of Honor for such actions—downing 14 of that war. moderately successful and then only at German balloons in less than three weeks. This new concept—vertical envel- certain times and places. Even the huge When an attack came, it was standard opment—didn’t originate in World infl ux of fresh American infantrymen procedure for winch operators below to War II, however, but in World War in early 1918 made little difference. It rapidly lower the balloon, but not before I. Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, the top appeared the bloodbath would continue. the observer in the basket quickly jumped American air commander of that war, Mitchell thought in the third dimen- out and deployed his parachute. devised a plan for dropping a divi- sion, however, and parachutes came to began spies into sion of American infantrymen behind his mind. enemy territory during the war, and German lines. The war ended before Parachutes weren’t a new idea; they’d the French dropped two-man demoli- the plan could be executed, but it been used by daredevils jumping out of tion crews behind German lines in 58 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2014 Airborne operations were vital in World War II, but Billy Mitchell had devised a credible plan in the late days of World War I.

At left: US paratroopers land in the in 1945. Here: C-47s drop para- troopers into the Netherlands during in 1944. Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell had proposed such attempts at “vertical envelopment” more National Archives photo than two decades earlier. early 1918. Mitchell knew of these In his war memoirs, Mitchell wrote Engineers in New York. This group was activities. He had already employed that he’d suggested to Pershing that the one of the most prestigious organiza- aircraft in mass formations to clear the entire 1st Division be assigned tions of scientists and engineers in the skies of enemy aircraft and to strafe permanently to the Air Service. Persh- country, and Mitchell revealed the idea and enemy troop positions and ing mulled the idea for a few minutes he’d pitched to Pershing fi ve months supply lines. In September 1918, he and then told him to go ahead and previously. Mitchell said, “We had a had commanded more than 1,400 Al- begin planning. He would decide if plan, which we were going to try this lied aircraft, an unprecedented total, the plan looked feasible after he saw spring if the war had not stopped, and during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. more details. it would have worked, too. We were The next month he approached Gen. Delighted, Mitchell hurried back to going to send our men over the German John J. Pershing, commander of the his headquarters at Ligny-en-Barrois lines in and drop them down American Expeditionary Forces, with to lay the idea before his staff. He in parachutes and let them attack the an idea to break the trench stalemate. directed his operations offi cer, Maj. enemy in the rear, while our men were Mitchell proposed using British- Lewis H. Brereton, to begin planning attacking the front.” made Handley Page , as well for a major airborne operation to take He said he planned to use the 1st as Italian-built Capronis, to drop in- place the following spring. In his own Infantry Division—12,000 men—to fantrymen plus medium-size machine memoirs, Brereton wrote that Mitchell be dropped at Metz. His plan was guns behind enemy lines. He argued “dumped plans in my lap” and told him superior to those being drawn for a that such a surprise attack would catch to get busy. major ground offensive against Metz, the Germans manning the trenches in The war ended three weeks later, because that city was guarded by “divi- a deadly vise—Allied infantry would however, so the drop would not go into sion after division of the crack troops attack from the front while the para- action, and planning did not get very of the German army, anticipating our troopers would attack from the rear. far. Nonetheless, Mitchell spoke and move.” Using the ground plan, Metz The Germans would undoubtedly break wrote about the idea after the war would eventually have fallen, Mitchell and fl ee, and mobility would fi nally be was over. argued, but at tremendous cost—yet an- restored to the battlefi eld after nearly In March 1919, Mitchell gave a other bloodbath for which the Western four years of stalemate. speech to the Society of Automobile Front had become infamous. AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2014 59 AP photo

Writing in a May 1926 newspaper tions. The pursuit aircraft would then be expanded, saying, “Almighty God article, Mitchell stated that he’d been join up with the bombers and escort helps those who fi rst help themselves.” promised the use of 60 squadrons of them back to friendly territory. Clearly, Mitchell’s concept for an Handley Page bombers—1,200 air- Mitchell continued that once the airborne operation was visionary, but craft—and that he would also be given paratroopers were on the ground, was it feasible? When he proposed the the services of a top infantry division. the converted bombers would be able idea in October 1918, there were nowhere The Handley Page O/400 was a heavy to resupply them with ammunition, near the 1,200 bombers available that used by the to food, and other supplies with little Mitchell said would be necessary. Yet, strike German positions, airfi elds, and difficulty. orders had been placed for more, and industrial facilities. Mitchell calculated Men would be lost during the drop, it is likely such a number of Handley that each aircraft would be able to carry Mitchell admitted, and those on the Pages and Capronis would have been in 10 fully loaded paratroopers as well as ground would be somewhat vulner- service by the spring of 1919. Would that two medium-size machine guns. able, but he noted that those soldiers many aircraft have been entrusted to a The Handley Page was a big aircraft, would have a potential strength of 2,400 young brigadier general? Some 1,400 but even so, at 10 men per airplane, it machine guns. combat aircraft, consisting of units from would take a huge air fl eet to transport “If we could have only got 10 per- the French and British air arms besides an entire division. By war’s end, the cent in action against the enemy’s rear, the Air Service, had been under his RAF had some 250 Handley Pages we should have been successful. One command at the Meuse-Argonne, so the operational, with another 1,500 on machine gun, properly placed, can notion of Mitchell leading an airborne order. Moreover, the Handley Page hold up a battalion at times,” Mitchell air armada is not far-fetched. V/1500 was also entering production. asserted in the May 1926 article. He The bombers would have needed to This four-engine behemoth would be added that the Germans would have be modifi ed. Although the British and able to carry up to 20 paratroopers. been subjected “to the most withering Italian aircraft would have been large Paratroopers on each aircraft would fi re ever known. ... The pathway would enough to carry 10 to 20 men plus their carry extra bandoliers of ammunition have been thrown open for the American equipment and extra machine guns, the plus machine guns. This mighty air Army to advance into Metz.” airplanes were not designed for such a armada would be escorted by hundreds purpose. In addition, some provision of pursuit and attack airplanes. Three WOULD IT HAVE WORKED? would have had to have been made for the miles from the front lines these escorts By this time, Mitchell had already paratroopers to exit the aircraft—simply would break to the left and right, and “at been court-martialed, found guilty, and jumping out of the observer’s cockpit a predetermined moment, those attack resigned. Undoubtedly he was a bit opening would have been cumber- planes ... were to wheel and make fl ank more exuberant about his plan’s chances some at best. Even so, adding seats or attacks on the enemy’s front-, second-, than was warranted. Indeed, one of benches and providing a side door for and third-line trenches in that sector, his purposes was to complain about the paratroopers to exit would not have turning their machine guns and light the sorry state of American airpower. been diffi cult. cannon on the foot troops.” He made the case that revolutionary Training would have been the critical The converted bombers would then operations should be continually tried factor. An entire infantry division would swoop low and deploy their paratroop- and tested—but were not. have had to go through the training ers. Pursuit aircraft would be orbiting Mitchell further argued that it is the necessary to become paratroopers. This close by to protect the descending duty of planners to prepare for such con- would require even more aircraft and soldiers from enemy fi re. Once the tingencies in peacetime so that they can a great number of parachutes. There troops were on the ground, the pursuit be quickly put into action if war occurs. would have been accidents, and all of and attack airplanes would continue to Alas, “we have no general staff today this would have taken time. attack the enemy positions and prevent and no aerial army.” While he voiced In addition, Mitchell prefaced his plan counterattacks while the paratroopers his hope that God would have mercy on by stressing that a main advantage to assembled and took up defensive posi- America, he insisted the Air must an airdrop operation would be the ele- 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2014 National Library of Scotland photo by Tom Aitken ment of surprise. The Germans would After the war, the Air Service estab- Left: Mitchell (seventh from left), with be dumbfounded to fi nd large numbers lished an offi ce at McCook Field in Ohio air service members from various European nations in Rome in 1922. of enemy troops both in front of and under Maj. E. L. Hoffman to study the Center: German paratroopers at Narvik, behind them. But surely the Germans matter of airborne operations. It was Norway, during the June 1940 occu- would have been aware of the massive this offi ce that developed the Type S pation of the Scandinavian country. training program underway and known of parachute that became standard issue in Above: British Handley Page bombers in World War I. Mitchell proposed using the proposed airdrop. Strategic surprise both the Army and Navy in 1924. the light bombers to drop troops and may not have been possible, but the ex- In October 1929, the Air Corps para- machine guns behind enemy lines. act time and place of such an operation chuted a machine gun crew out of aircraft could perhaps have been kept secret. at in . Within three min- later by dropping troops in Bessarabia It will never be known if these chal- utes of hitting the ground the para troopers during its Romanian campaign. Such lenges could have been overcome by had set up and were in fi ring position. operations would continue throughout the spring of 1919, as Mitchell believed. In 1932, Capt. George C. Kenney (later the war in all theaters. But his vision certainly did not die. He a general and commander of Far East German paratroopers were success- continued to allude to airborne operations Air Forces during World War II) would ful on Crete in May 1941, but suffered in his writing and speeches thereafter. astound his superiors and observers by such high casualties that Hitler was In a tactical manual written in 1922, using a variation of Mitchell’s idea: He loath to use them again afterward. Mitchell expounded on his original air-landed an infantry unit behind “enemy The Allies had no such qualms, and idea: “Daring attempts should be made lines” during Army maneuvers at Fort airborne troops were an integral part to drop personnel by parachute during DuPont in Delaware. During World War of the Normandy . dark nights to actually set fi re to [supply] II, the concept was further augmented by One of the most famous paratroop as- dumps.” He maintained that these troops using gliders, towed over enemy territory, saults carried out by the Allies during the could then be resupplied by air, stating carrying infantrymen who would land war occurred in September 1944 when the that one bombardment group could and unload their troops and equipment. First Allied Airborne Army—consisting transport more than 50 tons of supplies The US Army and its Air Corps were of British and American paratroop divi- in one mission; he suggested these sup- not alone in such experimentation. Italy sions—was dropped into the Netherlands plies also be dropped by parachute, to led the way by establishing small para- during Operation Market Garden. The eliminate the need for nearby airfi elds. chute teams by the late 1920s. Not far operation wasn’t a success, due not The Ordnance Department was already behind was , which began serious to the concept but to intelligence and working on this issue, and he expected development of large-scale paratroop leadership failures. “far superior methods will be devised units by the mid-1930s. Early 1932 saw The commander of the First Allied soon” to airdrop such essentials. (In 1928, the Red Army publish the fi rst doctrine Airborne Army for Market Garden was emergency supplies were parachuted by manual on the employment of airborne Lt. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton—the same Italian aircraft to the crew of a dirigible forces. The Germans followed around man who had had plans “dumped” in his that went down at the North Pole.) the same time, incorporating airborne lap by Billy Mitchell in October 1918. In his book, Winged Defense, Mitchell regiments into the Luftwaffe as early In his memoirs, Brereton recalled argued that paratroopers could be dropped as 1936. By the time war broke out in Mitchell’s idea: “The armistice cut short to hold small pockets of resistance behind Europe in September 1939, nearly all the General Mitchell’s plans. Now, 26 years enemy lines. These units could then be belligerents had formed airborne units. later, we had the same thing in mind.” supplied by air “with everything that is After the German operation at Stavan- As usual, Billy Mitchell was years necessary.” Perhaps reacting to emerging ger, Russia followed up two months ahead of his time. ■ Marine Corps doctrine, he even proposed that paratroopers could be dropped on small Retired Col. Phillip S. Meilinger is a former USAF command pilot with a Ph.D. in islands in the Pacifi c to seize territory. military history. He is a frequent contributor to Air Force Magazine. His most recent These forces could also be resupplied by book is Bomber: The Formation and Early Years of Strategic Air Command. His most air or by submarine, he said. recent article for Air Force Magazine, “Air Interdiction,” appeared in February. AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2014 61