The 2nd Parachute Battalion formed at Hardwick in Derbyshire from volunteers across the Army in September 1941 under Lt Col Flavell.
C Company under Major JD Frost conducted the second British parachute raid of the war on 27th February 1942 against a German radar installation at Bruneval on the Channel coast in France. Vital radar components and German technicians were captured and the group successfully taken off by the Royal Navy. This was the first battle honour awarded to the newly formed Parachute Regiment and reaffirmed Prime Minister Churchill’s belief in the future of airborne forces.
The Battalion departed for North Africa with the 1st Parachute Brigade and dropped at Depienne on 29th November 1942. Frost was the Battalion Commander this time and the objective was Oudna, nine miles from Tunis. This was briefly achieved but unexpectedly heavy German resistance prevented the link up with the advancing 1st Army and the 2nd Battalion was isolated 56 miles behind enemy lines. Attacked by German air and armour Frost conducted a fighting withdrawal to regain the Allied lines, losing 16 officers and 250 men en route. During the next five months to April 1943 the battalion fought through the winter as line infantry. Oudna became a Parachute Regiment battle honour.
The 2nd Battalion dropped with the 1st Parachute Brigade during the hard fought costly attempt to secure the Primosole Bridge in Sicily on 13th July 1943; it also participated in the later sea landings and fighting around Taranto in Italy the following September. In November the battalion returned to the UK with the 1st Airborne Division.
During Operation MARKET-GARDEN the 2nd Battalion dropped at Arnhem on 17th September 1944 and with Recce and Airborne Engineers and some 3rd Battalion soldiers, captured the road bridge. The force was soon cut off but held its ground against incessant German tank and infantry attacks for three days and four nights. The division objective was to hold for 48 hours before being relieved by the advancing XXX Corps, which never arrived. By dusk on 20th September Lt Col Frost was wounded and his Battalion reduced to a few survivors ordered to break out. Lt John Grayburn with A Company was awarded a posthumous VC.
After the war the under-strength 2nd Battalion deployed to Palestine was amalgamated on 13 December 1947 with the 3rd Battalion to form the 2nd/3rd Parachute Battalion, which was disbanded the following year. A new 2 PARA was formed in July 1948 from the 5th (Scottish) Parachute Battalion.
The battalion deployed for internal security operations with the 16th Parachute Brigade to the Canal Zone in Egypt during 1951-4. In July 1956 2 PARA was conducting anti-terrorist operations against EOKA in Cyprus and in November it participated in the sea-borne landings at Port Said during the Suez Crisis. Then in July 1958 it flew into Amman Jordan as part of the 16th Parachute Brigade intervention force.
Once again in June 1961 2 PARA formed part of a strategic reserve ‘fire-brigade’ deployment, this time to Kuwait to deter an Iraqi invasion threat. Alongside other British reinforcements the battalion occupied the Matla Ridge astride the main Iraqi tank route to Kuwait City. Subsequent deployments to the island of Bahrain followed in 1963, 64 and 67. D Company Group was stood by during the Communist uprising in Zanzibar but was never employed.
In early 1965 the Battalion was flown to Singapore for jungle training and established jungle bases on the border against Indonesia during its confrontation with the newly established Federal Malaysia. C Company converted to a special patrols company operating in the jungle on SAS lines. An Indonesian Javanese battalion attacked the B Company base at Plaman Mapu on 27th April and was repelled, suffering 50 casualties at a cost of two paratroopers killed and seven wounded; the biggest battle of the confrontation.
In 1968 2 PARA deployed to Hong Kong after jungle training for a six month tour to counter illegal immigration from the People’s Republic of China. Another unexpected tour to the Island of Anguilla occurred in 1969 to quell political unrest over federation with other Caribbean states. A successful ‘hearts and minds’ operation resulted in the award of the Wilkinson Sword of Peace ‘for acts of humanity and kindness overseas’.
The first Northern Ireland tour started in February 1970 when the Battalion was deployed to the Shankhill Road district of Belfast. 2 PARA was to spend 114 months in Northern Ireland across 16 tours conducted between 1970 to 2002, longer than any other Parachute Battalion. It also suffered the greatest single loss of life during a double PIRA ambush at Warrenpoint on 27th August 1979, when a company commander and 15 soldiers were killed in one incident.
New colours were presented to the Battalion with the other regular battalions and 4 PARA in 1974. Between 1977-9, 2 PARA was posted to Berlin, followed by a two- year residential tour in Ballykinler in 1979-81.
The Battalion embarked for the Falkland Islands conflict on 26th April 1982 aboard the North-Sea car ferry MV Norland and was ashore on Sussex Mountain by 22nd May, securing the southern part of the 3 Commando Brigade bridge-head. On 28th May 2 PARA attacked the Argentinean strategic reserve and airfield on the Darwin/Goose Green Peninsular. Over 1,250 prisoners were taken and 50 Argentineans killed during this bloody battle that cost the Battalion 15 dead, including its Commanding Officer Lt Col ‘H’ Jones, who was awarded a posthumous VC. Bluff Cove and Fitzroy were captured by the Battalion which fought its final battle at Wireless Ridge during the night of 13/14th June. 2 PARA was among the first troops to enter Port Stanley following the Argentinean surrender.
In 1983 the battalion served a six month tour in Belize, to deter a threatened Guatemalan invasion and came back in 1987-8. The barracks at Tern Hill were bombed by the PIRA in 1989 and the Battalion was committed to five Op BANNER and residential Northern Ireland tours in the 1990s.
2 PARA was the first battalion to move to Colchester to co-locate with the newly formed 16th Air Assault Brigade and completed two more Northern Ireland tours between 2000 and 2002. This was followed by two Operation TELIC tours - 3 and 7 - in Iraq in 2005 and 2007.
In the Spring of 2008 2 PARA formed the nucleus of a 16th Air Assault Brigade 1,150 strong all-arms Battle Group in Helmand Province Southern Afghanistan, during Op HERRICK VIII, returning in the Autumn.
In late September 2010, 500 men of 2 PARA returned to Afghanistan as part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade force for HERRICK 13.
Northern Ireland Tours:
Op BANNER Feb-Jun 70 4 Months
Op BANNER Apr-Aug 71 4 Months
Op BANNER Feb-Jun 72 4 Months
Op BANNER Jul-Oct 72 4 Months
Op BANNER Mar-Jul 73 4 Months
Op BANNER May-Sep 75 4 Months
Op BANNER Nov 76-May 77 6 Months
Residential Jul 79-Mar 81 20 Months
Op BANNER Oct 84-Mar 85 5 Months
Op BANNER Mar-Jun 90 4 Months
Op BANNER Jun-Oct 92 4 Months
Residential Jul 93-aug 95 25 Months
Op BANNER Sep 96-Mar 97 6 Months
Op BANNER Dec 98-Jun 99 6 Months
Op BANNER (NIBAT) Dec 2000- Jun 01 6 Months
NIBAT 1 Sep 02-May 03 8 Months
Commanding Officers:
2nd Parachute Battalion:
1942 Lt Col GP Gofton-Salmond, OBE
1942-4 Lt Col JD Frost, DSO, MC
1944-5 Lt Col JWB Marshall
1945-6 Lt Col JD Frost, DSO, MC
1946-7 Lt Col DRW Webber
Amalgamated with 3rd Bn to form 2nd/3rd Parachute Bn
1947-8 Lt Col TH Birbeck, DSO
Disbanded Jul 48
2 PARA formed Jul 48 from 5th (Scottish) Para Bn.
1948 Lt Col PS Sandilands, DSO
1948-52 Lt Col GW White, MBE
1952-5 Lt Col HB Coxen, DSO, MC
1955 Lt Col RCC Langrishe
1956-8 Lt Col HEN Bredin, DSO, MC
1958-60 Lt Col DA Beckett, DSO, OBE
1960-2 Lt Col FD King, MBE
1962-4 Lt Col NF Gordon-Wilson, MBE
1964-6 Lt Col CE Eberhardie, MBE, MC
1966-8 Lt Col JMH Roberts, OBE
1968-71 Lt Col RW Dawnay, OBE
1971-3 Lt Col GHW Howlett, OBE, MC
1973-5 Lt Col CJ Bowden, MBE
1975-8 Lt Col DWF Taylor
1978-81 Lt Col CG Thomson, OBE
1981-2 Lt Col H Jones VC, OBE
1982 Major CPB Keeble DSO (Temp Command)
1982-4 Lt Col DR Chaundler, OBE
1984-7 Lt Col D Parker
1987-9 Lt Col PE Dennison, MBE
1989-92 Lt Col CF Hicks, OBE
1992-94 Lt Col AR Freer
1994-7 Lt Col DG Benest, MBE
1997-9 Lt Col JD Shaw
1999-2001 Lt Col C Chapman
2001-4 Lt Col JI Bashall, OBE
2004-6 Lt Col JR Chiswell, MC
2006 Lt Col JSS O’Sullivan
2010 Lt Col A Harrison
Sergeant William A Stothart 
Brigadier James B Emson , CBE 
Sergeant Thomas H Hill 
With grateful thanks to an ex Royal Marine, for the following excellent 2 PARA anecdote:
After completing his recruit training, my source was sent to 40 Commando in the Summer of 1972, then on tour in Northern Ireland. In the early 70s the RM recruit syllabus did not include the use and operation of the Carl Gustav 84 mm Recoilless Anti-Tank Rifle. To remedy this, his section corporal decided to do a training demonstration in one of the accommodation huts of their barracks and ordered one of the marines to go and get a drill round. Said marine duly brought back a round, which was loaded. Unnoticed by the corporal, or anybody else in the section for that matter, they had actually loaded a practice round, rather than a drill round. On the command ‘FIRE’ there was a loud ‘whoooosh’ within the confines of the hut. The backblast deafened the two marines standing behind the Charlie G, as the round went on its merry way down the length of the accommodation, through some poor sod’s bed, out of the hut and into the next one, where it lodged itself inside the Sgt Major’s secure locker in his office. (Bet he wasn’t amused!).
Within a short time of the explosion, 2 PARA, who were on tour at the same time in Northern Ireland, rang up the RM Duty Sergeant wanting to book the indoor anti-tank missile range!