Pathfinder history 2010 p1

History 2010 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

60th Wedding Anniversary- A Real Airborne Occasion. George and Hilary Moodie	Korean Special Warfare Center & 707 Special Operations Battalion friendship visit	Visit to the Royal Thai Border Patrol
The Airborne Forces Museum Dakota.	66th anniversary of WELLER 7 SOE drop.	Dutch Basic B wing course ,Teuge April 2010

60th Wedding Anniversary- A Real Airborne Occasion.

George and Hilary Moodie married on Xmas eve 1949 in Oxford, a small ceremony without much of a reception. The family decided to give them the party they never had. Due to weather and the time of year it was decided to have the party on Georges 85th birthday on 20th Feb 2010 at the Balgetty House Hotel in Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland

The whole family were there, along with many friends from the Fife branch of the P.R.A, they received lots of gifts and cards, including a card from HM queen Elizabeth II, one of the special surprise gifts was lifetime memberships and wings from Pathfinder parachute group, 100+ master wings for George for nearly 900 descents, and basic 3 jump wings for Hilary in recognition of her work as a parachute packer

These were presented by Bill Donaldson, ex 1 Para and chairman of Fife branch P.R.A, and Lt ret Bob Adams O.B.E, ex 6th airborne and author, president of Fife branch P.R.A. George and Hilary were both stunned and very moved by the gift from Pathfinder, and very proud of their wings and certificates.

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Korean Special Warfare Center
&
707 Special Operations Battalion
friendship visit

Click here or the picture for the PDF file

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The Airborne Forces Museum Dakota.

One of our pet charities which we hope to do more for this year is our own Airborne Forces Museum. I and our British Airborne members believe our Regimental History is a big part of who we are and what we all try to live up to. I'm sure everyone else who is a former Airborne Soldier feels the same way about their parent regiment no matter what their nationality.

The British MOD sold the land our museum stood on and closed it down before a planned new, state of the art building had been built for it. Another example of the short sighted faceless accountants striking again. At the last count we were still about 2 million pound short of the target figure for the new building and those who have been trying to raise money for the project have been hit with all sorts of problems .It all comes down to money. Although we know what we raise will be a small drop in the ocean it all helps.

Iv asked Nick to put this compilation article on our history pages to show one of the main exhibits that nearly every Paratrooper who has gone through the Aldershot depot since 1969 has had their ugly mugs photo graphed next to.

The Airborne Forces Museum.(Borrowed from the Paradata web site.http://www.paradata.org.uk/content/airborne-forces-museum-aldershot)

    Within 12 months of the end of World War II, on 29th October 1946, a meeting of the Committee of the Parachute Regiment Association chaired by Brigadier Hill DSO MC, established the Museum of the Airborne Forces. Brigadier CHV Pritchard DSO supervised the collection of exhibits and produced a display.

    It was initially placed in a disused officer’s mess at Corruna Barracks Aldershot, where it remained until 1949 when the mess was again required for accommodation. War Office permission was obtained the following year to convert a barrack block in Maida Barracks into the new Airborne Forces Museum. This was not properly housed until 1952, although it was visited by King George VI on 19th July 1950 during the Presentation of the Colours ceremonies.

    The Museum remained at Maida Barracks until it moved with the Depot and Regimental Headquarters of the Parachute Regiment to the Browning Barracks site in 1968. This custom-designed home was regarded as permanent and sponsored by a number of civilian firms and other regiments associated with Airborne Forces.

    For the first time the original briefing models for the airborne operations of the Second Word War – Bruneval, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing – could be displayed. Dioramas were set up to show the capture of the Pegasus Bridge and fighting around the Arnhem Bridge. Vehicles and weapons and equipment of the airborne soldier from 1940 to the present were displayed, including British, American and German.

    Aircraft displays of the nose sections of the Hotspur training and Horsa assault glides were erected, with an original Dakota aircraft, eventually painted in the D-Day colours, set up outside the Museum entrance. It became an iconic and much photographed back-drop to Regimental group photographs and a well known Aldershot landmark. Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamain - then the Colonel Commandant of the Regiment - officially opened the Museum on 23rd March 1969.

The Dakota is formally handed over from the RAF to the Airborne Forces.

    The medal room, designed to exhibit the valour, honour and pageantry of the Regiment and Airborne Forces, housed one of the finest medal collections in the country. Captured Argentinean guns and equipments were brought back after the Falkland Islands conflict and displayed outside.

    Exhibits were rotated and special displays built to commemorate events including the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the formation of Airborne Forces and key battle anniversaries.

    When it was decided the Parachute Regiment, then part of 16th Air Assault Brigade was to move to Colchester, planning and preparation began to find a new home for the Museum.

    In December 2008 the Museum was re-located and re-opened as the Airborne Assault Museum at the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford in Cambridgeshire. (It resides in a small building with a few token exhibits. The rest is in storage)

The Dakota is dismantled ready for the move.

Moving the aircraft caused an uproar in Aldershot where hundreds of retired Paratroopers now live. Here is an extract from a Hampshire newspaper web site.

Historic Para landmark lost

By Pete Castle
March 31, 2009

Another landmark piece of aviation heritage is to be lost to the area.

The Dakota aircraft on Queen’s Avenue, between North Camp and Aldershot, is being dismantled and will be shipped to Colchester. The plane was the focal point of the Airborne Forces Museum, which closed in December, but some members of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) hoped to bring the aircraft to the Farnborough museum.

The focus of the FAST museum, based at Trenchard House on Farnborough Road, is in preserving aviation heritage connected to Farnborough Airfield, but members have expressed their dismay at the aircraft’s loss. David Wilson, FAST project manager of the Cody Flyer project, the replica of Samuel Cody’s first aircraft that flew at Farnborough for the first time 100 years ago, said the Dakota would have drawn a lot of attention to the Farnborough museum. “We would like to have a big collection of aircraft, but we are constrained by the space,” he said.

The wings of the plane have already been removed, danger-ous materials such as asbestos taken out, and it is likely to be taken away for good in five or six weeks. The museum bosses in charge of the move said the aircraft would be shipped to South Wales where RAF engineers will fully strip down and clean the aircraft prior to it being sent to Colchester.

Collection

A plinth outside the main gate of the new barracks in Colchester is being prepared to hold the aircraft. The main collection of the Airborne Forces Museum, which closed in Aldershot in December, is now at the Imp-erial War Museum, Duxford, in Cambridgeshire. Although Aldershot was the home of the Parachute Regiment for 50 years, the main body of Paras left in 2000 and the last airborne forces soldiers left in 2003. Many of the brigades that were in Aldershot have taken up residence in Colchester in Essex.

There are still hundreds of former serving Paras who live in Aldershot and Farnborough, many of whom are upset that the visible reminder of the link with the regiment is to be lost. Pat Sheehan, 86, of Church Lane East, Aldershot, who served with the Paras between 1942 and 1962, said the loss of the aircraft was a blow to the town. He jumped from similar aircraft during airborne raids on Ardennes and the Rhine in 1944. “It is a shame the Airborne Forces have been completely severed from Aldershot,” he said. “Whatever happens, Aldershot will remain the home of the Parachute Regiment.”

Loss

Philip Stallard, a former Para who has overseen the move of the museum to Duxford, understood the loss of the Dakota was “heartbreaking” for the ex-Para community. He said moving the plane would secure its future, preserving it for future generations and showing current soldiers the link with the past. “It is important to preserve it in such a way that it will stay, and it will be right outside the regimental headquarters in Colchester,” he said. “It belongs to the airborne forces and it is staying with the brigade rather than being moved to another museum.” Mr Stallard, who was based in Aldershot several times during a 35-year career in the Army, retiring as a colonel, said he understood the historic links between the area and the Parachute Regiment. “I have a great deal of empathy with the area,” he said. “I have been working with the volunteers at the museum in Aldershot and it has been quite heartbreaking for them in many respects. “It is part of their life and it has been hard for them to see it slowly deteriorate. “But we have done everything we can to preserve the heritage.”

The site currently occupied at Browning Barracks by Queen’s Avenue will eventually be covered with housing as part of the 4,500-home Aldershot Urban Extension.

Short article from FLYPAST aviation magazine.

11 February 2010

Dakota ‘KG374’ has gone on display at the gate of Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex. February 11: After arriving by trailer on January 20, Dakota ‘KG374’ has gone on display at the gate of Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex. The Dakota is actually KP208, a C-47B built in 1946, and had been on display at the Airborne Forces Museum at Browning Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire until the museum closed in December 2007. KP208 represents KG374, a D-Day veteran that was shot down during Operation ‘Market Garden’ at Arnhem on September 19, 1944. The pilot, Flt Lt David Lord, won a posthumous Victoria Cross - KG374 was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire with one engine on fire. Lord managed to drop most of his supplies on the drop run, but two containers remained. Despite the damage to his aircraft, Lord made a second run before ordering his crew to bale out. A few seconds later the Dakota crashed before Lord could escape.

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Story by Pawel Moszner, LT2 r. Special Forces Airborne
IC Pathfinder Poland
2000 plus jumps and skydives.

MAY 2 2010
PATHFINDER POLAND JUMPED AND DROPPED
CONTAINERS at 66th anniversary of Polish SOE officers
parachute jumps into occupied Poland

HISTORY

WWII SOE OPERATION “WELLER 7”, POLA*D 8/9 April 1944

SOE operation “WELLER 7” took place at night 8/9 of April 1944.
Liberator took off from Brindisi Italy with 4 SOE officers and a few drop
containers for Polish home army called AK ( Armia Krajowa AK – the
largest home/partisan army in the world organized in divisions, which did
many regular battles with nazi German army ! ). After hours of flight
Liberator reached secret drop zone between two small villages Lekawica
and Paprotnia near Pilica river. AK platoon was waiting for the drop. After
signals were recognized Liberator crew started to drop officers. Every
officer was dropped in a separate turn. Liberator had to make four circles
around the DZ to drop all four officers. During a fifth circle all drop
containers were dropped. SOE officers and equipment landed safely and
AK took care for all jumpers and containers. Another AK operation was
conducted to put German forces attention to another place many kilometres
away from a secret DZ. It was one of the largest SOE personnel drop in
Poland during the war. All 4 jumpers survived war but one of them was
murdered by communists during Stalin regime.

OUR JUMP OPERATION AND RE-ENACTING
PERFORMANCE

We had an honour to jump at the same place where SOE officers landed at
night 8/9 April 1944 (but we jumped at May 2 2010). Veterans and guests
were observing our drop and a short re-enacting performance. This time we
were able to jump with our MC1 chutes. Last year we had to jump with
squares because of a very strong wind. This time we used copies of SOE
jump suits and jump caps made for a movie called “Time of honour

Author’s collection, Przemek Roth

We showed the history. We can not change the history… But many thing
has changed in Europe since 1944. This is why we jumped together with
German friend Jorgen Freiberg from Berlin, LT1 r. Paratroops, second
from the right.

ANE2 played Liberator. Our drop containers were made by the rigger, he
quipped heavy duty military bags with round reserve canopies. Plastic
canisters' with water were put into bags instead of weapons and explosive
it was easy for redactors to pour water out of the canisters and carry bags ).

Author’s collection, Przemek Roth ( all )

Drop altitude for our drop containers was 150 meters ( about 500 feet ).
Our jump altitude was 300 meters ( about 1000 feet ). All four jumpers had
skills and documents that allowed us to jump low. The jumper with the
lowest experience had over 800 jumps. Everything was OK with the law.

A few of our photographs look better in black and white.

Fot. Michal Szewczyk Fot. Michal Szewczyk

Fot. Michal Szewczyk

Re-enactors ( AK partisans ) were waiting for us at the same place like in
1944. We landed safely and were welcomed by AK platoon with all security
procedures like during the war time.

Fot. Michal Szewczyk

We tried to show everything like it was in 1944, as close as possible.
Parachute jumps were not the most serious challenge for organizers...
The real challenge was finding the old looking cart and a pair of horses.
It took over two weeks to find one ! The carts were used by partisans in
1944 to take SOE jumpers and containers to the closest forest track when
the other means of transport were ready.

Fot. Michal Szewczyk

It was unbelievable how many people came to see our commemoration
jumps and the re-enacting performance. Security services said there were
over 2500 people and over 600 cars !

Fot. Michal Szewczyk Fot. Michal Szewczy

Looking from our jump plane, many people and cars.

Author’s collection, Przemek Roth

We have organized a few other events together with parachute jumps.
Local school was a place where the lecture about parachute jumps was
given.

Fot. Jorgen Freiberg

We organized an exhibition of WWII weapons at the school too.

Author’s collection ( all )

SOE dropped 316 officers to Poland during the war, 112 of them gave their
life. 9 died during flight and jump, 94 died during fight or were murdered
by Gestapo, 9 were murdered by communists after the war.
After the war, the Republic of Poland and all the nation were sold by Allies
to the cruel dictator J. Stalin. Nobody cared for millions of people sold to
communists for so many years.

Monument at the nearest village Grabow on Pilica and our poster for the
66th anniversary of WELLER 7 SOE drop.

Author’s collection Author’s collection

Pawel Moszner, LT2 r. Special Forces Airborne

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Visit to the Royal Thai Border Patrol

PDF file-may take a little time to load

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Dutch Basic B wing course ,Teuge April 2010

The course built steadily on the Sunday with the jumpers arriving from Ireland, Holland Germany and the United Kingdom (Oh! and Wales has to get a special mention). With our local jumpers making up the numbers there were over thirty Pathfinder Europe members at the centre. Ian had been unable to attend as our instructor for this course. His wife being an air hostess was stuck overseas due to the ash clouds grounding airlines and he had been unable to arrange a babysitter.

Jason Snailham had kindley stepped in to help teach the course but wouldn't arrive until the Monday evening. The ground training was left down to yours truly and so the course got off to a shaky start as I started to teach subjects I was completely familiar with but hadn't taught to a course for a while. It has taught me that I must practice my teaching skills more often. There was a good assortment of experienced jumpers and novices so the lessons picked up a pace, I regained my confidence and it went pretty smoothly. Baston one of the centres instructors sat in on the course. With over 1500 square jumps to his credit he wanted to improve his knowledge by attending a basic course. He had despatched our jumpers many times but didn't know that much about round chutes. It is a different skill set to what is generally taught to today's Square jumpers.

Monday was a miserable day with rain and low cloud. As it was mostly the classroom lessons I wasnt too worried as long as the weather was going to be good on Tuesday. I cracked on with the basic introduction and some ground training and the students seemed to pick up the information thrown at them easily so I must have been doing something right.

Baz Cox and Herve sorted out the chutes and made life very easy for me. The course turned into a team effort with Jason arriving in time to take the final lessons, confirm the courses knowledge and despatch them on their first jumps.

The course was eventful with a couple of ditch landings and at least one near miss tree landing.

Michiel Nelis will now forever be known as 'Swampy' due to a landing in a deep water filled ditch. He consequently received a reprimand for illegal fishing and swimming. Rumour has it he spent several hours in the local shops looking for an underarm deodorant that would kill the smell.


Having Cees turn up with a veteran for the wings presentation was the icing on the cake for the jumpers.The jumpers now tell their own stories which of course in true airborne fashion all start with the phrase. "No shit, there I was". " I though I was going to die."

Instructors.

Roy Mobsby................................................................Pathfinder UK

Jason Snailham...........................................................Pathfinder UK

Lance Owens..............................................................Pathfinder UK.

Assistant instructor.

Herve Stiemer.............................................................Pathfinder France

Course Manifest.

Maj Thomas Le Bouche...............................................Pathfinder UK

Sekander Raisani........................................................Pathfinder Netherlands

Michiel Nelis...............................................................Pathfinder Netherlands

Paul Morris.................................................................Pathfinder UK

Richard Davies............................................................Pathfinder UK

Richard Shouls...........................................................Pathfinder UK

Eryk Rawicz- Lipinski..................................................Pathfinder Poland/Ireland

Antaine Mac Coscair...................................................Pathfinder Ireland

Chris Hopkinson.........................................................Pathfinder UK

Thomas Moloney........................................................Pathfinder Ireland

John Gilcrest...............................................................Pathfinder Ireland

Doug Moodie...............................................................Pathfinder UK

Tony Preston...............................................................Pathfinder UK

Basten Oud Maijer.......................................................Pathfinder Netherlands

Stephane Goutenoir.....................................................Pathfinder France

Pathfinder members in attendance.

Paddy Rehill................................................................Pathfinder UK

Ian Pope......................................................................Pathfinder UK

Baz Cox......................................................................Pathfinder UK

Owen Fanning..............................................................Pathfinder Ireland

Paul Corcoran..............................................................Pathfinder UK

Pete Dahl....................................................................Pathfinder Belgium

Sean Deacon...............................................................Pathfinder UK

Henry Moroney............................................................Pathfinder Ireland

Stewart Fitzell.............................................................Pathfinder Ireland

Jurgen Sachse............................................................Pathfinder Germany

Manfred Schmitz.........................................................Pathfinder Germany

Robert Hopkinson........................................................Pathfinder UK

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