Allied paratroops

[RogerJNeilson]

There are a lot of them as we move through the game. I am aware that compared to the focus on paratroops in the Western campaigns there is very little obviously written about their use in the Pacific.

So some questions....

1. What were they used for?
2. What operations did they drop in?
3. What were their limitations on use?
4. Why are they included in the TOE of the Allied forces if they were not used?

This is all occasioned by some discussion on my use of them in a game.... do not want to be at all 'gamey' about their use, as we both like a pretty historical fight.

Roger

[Terminus]

Well, for that last one, they're included in the OOB because they were there. Same as everything else.

[JeffroK]

The 503 Parachute Infantry Regiment performed combat drops at Nadzab and on Corregidor and a reinforcement drop on Noemfoor.

11 US Airborne Division dropped its Parachute Rgt on Tagatay Ridge on Luzon.

The Indian 50 Parachute Bde fought at Sanshak in the Imphal Campaign and a composite Gurkha Bn landed in the campaign to capture Rangoon.

The British/Indian Chindit Bdes are Para capable in the game but are more accurately Glider/Air Landing units.

Japan dropped Paratroopers in their assault on Palembang, at Menando & Koepang in the DEI campaign and made a number of small scale drops during the 44-45 Luzon campaign.

[JeffroK]

I think a limitation in their use was the lack of committed air transport, most squadrons had plenty of work without training for Para drops. In addition the facilities to support an air drop, para packing etc were not available, a number of planned drops in the Phillipines were canceled because of this.

[Andy Mac]

2 Chindit Bdes re para capable as a compromise I don't like it but it seemed the best compromise out of 5 bdes to make two of them air mobile albeit I agree not 100% realisticv

[crsutton]

I would think that there were plans to use them in large drops for the invasion of Japan. There would have been plenty of transports by then. But I do not know the details of the planning for the invasion.

[Terminus]

There were no such plans made. The 11th Airborne Division was meant to be Sixth Army operational reserve and would have been put ashore by sea if need be (same as when it went to the Philippines).

[RogerJNeilson]

Thanks all, we seem to have reached an agreement in the game.

Anyone got a simple explanation of how to calculate plane requirement for a unit to be dropped 'en masse'?

Roger

[Barb]

What about quick and dirty rule of 1 plane = 1 squad ?
For supply drop look for 2000 load cost = 1 supply point. While dropping supplies, there is only a chance that the supply point would be received by the ground unit, so count with reserve.

[CT Grognard]

You can only air-drop non-squad devices with a load cost of 7 or less.

Each aircraft can air-drop 1 squad (or engineer) device, unless the aircraft capacity is greater than 7500 (in which case it is 2 squads).

As pointed out, airdropped supply is aircraft capacity divided by 2000, with a minimum of 1, to get the number of supply points. There is a random factor applied to reduce airdropped supply.

If you are transporting units to an own airfield, the maximum device load cost increases to 9.

[rustysi]

They were also dropped in small numbers in support of operations in New Guinea. Around Buna or Lea IIRC.

[morejeffs]

And they fought (but not were dropped) on Guadalcanal...Battle of Edson`s Ridge if I remember correctly..