No. 3 Parachute Training School India 1941-1947
AIRLANDING SCHOOL NEW DELHI (RAF)
On 1st October 1941 Air Headquarters authorised the formation of an Air Landing School at Willingdon Airport New Delhi, to train the newly formed 50th Indian Parachute Brigade.
The School, later called No 3 Parachute Training School trained parachutists and glider-borne troops as well as conducting experiments on their specialised equipments.
The only aircraft available were five Valentias, obsolete and unsuitable for parachuting. Training for the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade, which was also set up in October, began in earnest.
Courses lasted 14 days for 30 parachutists per course until April 1943 when it doubled to 60. There was a shortage of aircraft, parachute instructors and parachutes.
The first instructors arrived from Ringway with 14 static parachute assemblies or ‘Statichutes’ in their personal baggage and set up their primitive equipment in two aircraft hangars.
The first Commanding Officer was Wing Commander JHD Chapple, who was replaced by the nominated commander Wing Commander Benito in March 1942.
The staff consisted of eight RAF officers, five army officers, four RAF fabric workers from Ringway, who also acted as Parachute Jump Instructors (PJIs) and a number of Ringway trained army NCOs.
In October 1942 overcrowding at Willingdon air base necessitated a change of the school’s location to Chaklala, near Rawlpindi in the Punjab.
(PARADATA) PJIs Willingdon 1941
Ken Fritchley, Stephen Smith, Raye Schofield, Allen Harden, Len Shepherd, Peter Sales.
See preceding photograph
A Course Parade
CHAKLALA 1942
A Punjabi Mohammedan
Dakota Chaklala 1942
Course Chaklala August 1945
Course Number148 November 1945. Instructors with garlands: Smith, Stanley, Rhoden, Calvert, Ryder
1945 – Instructors kneeling Bill Jones and Andy Young
French Artillerie Coloniale. PJI Wilf Finbow. Undated Standing: Wilf
Finbow, Young, Tommy Jones, Frankie Maddock. Front row: Ron Mason, F.S. Scully, George Taylor, “Ging” Gooding. Undated
Pre-jump brief undated
Emplane for air experience Chaklala 11942coccc
Tawhai assault DZ
Elephant Point assault
Enemy casualties Elephant Point
Sgt. Ben Cass logbook extract, posted to Chaklala October 1944. Courtesy Bernard Cass.
“Brevet” 2014 (Bibliography)
Ben Cass brevet award December 1945. Note old PJI badge above chevrons.
Photo courtesy Irene Cass
Flt. Lt. Monty Zeff brevet award by AOC- in- C. See below
Contemporary Press cutting
Lord Louis Mountbatten inspection Chaklala undated Instructors
dinner Rawalpindi 11 Feb 1947
No. 3 PTS Staff July 1947
Rawalpindi station March 1946. En route to Bombay for U.K. repat.
