The Man Who Tested Parachutes - John Neil, Andrew Colley

By 1940 the Allies had fallen behind the Axis powers in parachute design and research. Other than as a means of escape from a doomed aircraft, the British regarded parachuting as of little military value. All that changed when the Germans used paratroops, the Fallschirmjager, to devastating effect in the invasion of the Low Countries, and Churchill demanded immediate action. The call went out for men who would be prepared to risk their lives testing parachutes, jumping and landing techniques. Charles Agate was a 34-year-old schoolteacher with a taste for adventure when he joined a pioneering group of mavericks at RAF Ringway in Manchester. The breath-taking risks they took alongside the essential work of the women of the WAAF changed the course of the war and the face of airborne warfare. Their work though often came at a terrible cost. Between 1941 and 1945 Agate and his fellow Parachute Jump Instructors (PJIs) completed thousands of jumps, often from low altitude or using prototype parachutes. They jumped carrying heavy kit bags, had sandbags strapped to their legs, and landed in deep freezing water. They also trained thousands of raw recruits for the key airborne operations of the war, as well as over 600 Special Operation Executive agents for dropping into enemy territory, frequently accompanying them as dispatchers on these hazardous flights. They were proud of the knowledge they were acquiring and imparting at Ringway, but, as the authors reveal, this led to dispute
více informací