50th Indian Parachute Brigade

The 50th (Indian) Parachute Brigade was formed at Dehli in October 1941 under command of Brig WHG Gough.

It had been the brainchild of the Commander-In-Chief of India, Robert Cassels. On December 2, 1940, he authorised the raising of a quote "nucleus of trained parachutists from which a mixed brigade of British, Indian and Gurkha parachute troops could be formed". But the British War Office was resistant to the idea, arguing that the planes and parachuting equipment were needed in England instead. However, when General Claude Auchinleck took control in India he was not to be denied, and on May 15, 1941 he decided to proceed with the Brigade's formation. The War Office agreed, but only on the condition that one Battalion was British. In the end, the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade contained one battalion of British troops (151), one of Indians (152), and one of Gurkhas (153) at its inception. It was to contain 2,500 men, which was not too much to ask considering that at that time 50,000 men were being raised in India every month. In October 1941, the Brigade headquarters were set up in Delhi with its first Air Landing School being formed at Willingdon Airport.

The Brigade consisted of the 151 (British) Parachute Battalion commanded by Lt Col MA Lindsay and was made up of volunteers from 23 British infantry battalions serving in India. In October 1942, the 151 Battalion was transferred to the 4th Parachute Brigade forming in the middle east and re-designated 156 Parachute Battalion. 152 (Indian) Parachute Battalion formed from volunteers from 19 Indian infantry regiments and was commanded by Lt Col BE Abbott. The 153 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion was made up of volunteers from 10 Gurkha regiments under Lt Col FJ Loftus-Tottenham. Because of the loss of the 151 Battalion, the 50th Brigade recruited a new battalion of Gurkhas in December 1942. This eventually became known as 154 Gurkha Parachute Battalion. It was initially commanded by Lt-Col CHW Bonds.

However, in the beginning there was a severe lack of equipment, rations and planes. This was exacerbated by the blocking of the Mediterranean, which meant boats from Britain had to sail around Africa to reach India. It was so bad that the instructors at the training school were ordered to bring their parachutes with them from England with the prescient observation “you never know if they might not come in handy”. When they turned up, the 14 chutes they had brought with them were the only ones available. Meanwhile, the only planes there were two Vickers Valentias. These were biplanes which could not exceed 90 miles an hour and which were known to the troops as ‘flying pigs’. In the first jump of the training school on October 15, 1941, three officers dropped from the Valentia by accident on to a tarmacked concrete runway. All of them were injured, with Major Hopkinson breaking his back; he was forced to wear a "plaster waistcoat" for 5 months. But the cheerful Hopkinson would jump again later in the war.

Indian manufacturers soon started making parachutes, but by March 1942 none of them had passed the required tests. Meanwhile, only 200 out of the required 2200 chutes had been sent from the UK. Moreover, the Brigade had actually lost the Valentias - the only two planes it did have - as they were being used to evacuate refugees following Japan's invasion of Burma. The Valentias returned in April but were promptly damaged by bad weather. On June 14, 1942, Commander-in-Chief Wavell angrily wrote, "my parachute Brigade has been starved of help and equipment from the United Kingdom and much effort will be required if it is to play the very valuable part it might". (Praval, p.23)

Fortunately, things had already started to improve. Leslie Irvin, the famous parachute maker, arrived from the Ministry of Supply to set up an Indian parachute factory in the city of Kanpur. On April 11, Willingdon's Airlanding School received its first Hudson for use in jump training. By June 1942, the supply of parachutes to the Brigade began to improve, with 300 a month rising to 1750 by October. Indians and Gurkhas finally began their jump training only requiring five jumps to qualify at that time. Jumping initially took place over a racecourse which was next to Willingdon airport in Delhi. Unfortunately, an officer recalled how “on one occasion one of the company commanders landed on the top tier of the grandstand and bumped slowly down to the bottom”. On October 14, 1942, the training school was moved owing to the poor drop zones and lack of security; its new home was in Chaklala in modern-day Pakistan. The Brigade headquarters also moved to Campbellpur in Pakistan, 50 miles west of Chaklala. Simultaneously, 151 Battalion was secretly moved to the Middle East and renamed to 156 battalion.

A few small-scale airborne operations were undertaken prior to Sangshak. Troops were dropped from ancient Valentia bi-planes near Hyderabad Sind in July 1942, to operate against dissident Hur tribesmen, who had been de-railing trains. On July 3, 1942 Operation Puddle was launched, which involved just seven Gurkhas and four Brits from 153 Battalion led by Captain Jimmy Roberts. They were to drop from a Lockheed Lodestar over Myitkyina in Burma, to gather intelligence on airstrips and airfields in Northern Burma. After dropping, they had to march 150 miles north to reach and reoccupy an abandoned Fort called Fort Hertz. The Operation was a complete success. 

During March 1944 the brigade fought an epic and costly ground battle at Sangshak, blunting the advance of two Japanese divisions as reinforcements were gathered to defeat the offensives at Kohima and Imphal.

The final airborne operation undertaken by the Brigade was a successful parachute assault mounted on the 1st May 1945 by a composite Gurkha parachute battalion on Japanese defensive positions at Elephant point, at the mouth of the Rangoon River.

By the summer of 1945 the 50th Parachute Brigade had been expanded to form the 44th (Indian) Airborne Division. At the same time, the Indian Parachute Regiment was formed and new cap badges issued. The 152, 153 and 154 Battalions were all renamed. 

Attached units:                                                                                 

Brigade Headquarters - Brig MRJ Hope-Thompson

411 (Royal Bombay) Parachute Squadron, Royal Indian Engineers - Capt MJJ Rolt

50th Indian Parachute Brigade Signals Section - Capt EJ Buirski

80 Parachute Field Ambulance - Lt-Col RB Davis

50th Independent Parachute Platoon (Pathfinders) - Lt E B Hill

MMG Company - Maj J E Ball

Compiled with information from:

India's Paratroopers, A History of the Parachute Regiment of India (London, 1975), K.C. Praval 

Airborne Assault Archive

Article rewritten by Alex Walker 30.05.2024