Parachute Battalion

I just watched PB on TCM. It was made at Fort Benning a few months before Pearl Harbor and seems designed to publicize the new 501st Parachute Battalion, the first airborne unit of the American military. The storyline focuses on new recruits training to become paratroopers.

The main trainer is MSGT Thunderhead Richards (Harry Carey), a pioneer army parachutist. The two main trainees in the film are football hero and ladies man Don Morse (Robert Preston), and Bill Burke (Edmond O'Brien). Bill's father, Colonel Burke, happens to be the commander of the new Parachute battalion. Don and Bill compete for the attentions of Thunderhead's daughter, Kit (Nancy Kelly). Other characters are Tex (Paul Kelly), hillbilly Jeff Hollis (Buddy Ebsen), and Spence (Richard Cromwell).

The 75 minutes goes by quickly, with a lot of attention to detail in the training, including how to pack a parachute, and how to use a reserve chute. The actual jump scenes were performed by real members of the 501st, and the founder of the American airborne and commander of the 501st, General William C. Lee, served as Robert Preston's double in several scenes.

The ending of PB is one that could only be dreamed up by Hollywood writers, but it's still a fun way to spend 75 minutes. The full movie is available on YouTube so check it out if you can.

Just before the US entered WWII, quite a few patriotic films were made by Hollywood showcasing the various duties of its armed forces. Some (such as "Caught in the Draft" and "Buck Privates") were comedies others were not ("Dive Bomber" and "I wanted Wings"). But all were films with a message--it's patriotic and important to become part of these fighting units. "Parachute Battalion" is such a film and it debuted several months before Pearl Harbor.

The film is about a small group of men who volunteer for the paratroopers. Not surprisingly, it's a scary proposition jumping out of airplanes and the film shows their progress through this school. There are four fellows in particular that they showcase: a brash All-American football player (Robert Preston), the son of the base commander who is keeping his identity secret from his follow soldiers (Edmond O'Brien), comic relief (Buddy Ebsen) and a guy scared out of his wits (Richard Cromwell). All must prove themselves as they progress through camp.

So why did I score such a routine with a very high score of 8? One reason is that the men are NOT uniformly perfect--one clearly cracks up and another is close. Such fallibility probably would have NOT been in the film had it been made once the US was in the war--and it adds to the realism. But the biggest reason I liked the film is that little stock footage was used and what was used fit seamlessly into the movie. All too often, crappy, grainy footage is shoved into such films--but here you actually see the actors doing much of the work. Overall, it is an interesting little film--and a nice chance to see a young Edmond O'Brien in an early starring role.

Although it gives a light-hearted treatment to the rigor of paratrooper training, this film has considerable value and interest especially for military and airborne history and development. The light-heartedness may be accounted for because of the newness of the paratroops in 1941, the need to educate the public and military about airborne training, and intentional efforts not to scare recruits away. The paratroops are all volunteers. And "Parachute Battalion" doesn't show the rigorous physical training they need for long-distance sustained combat.

As a former paratrooper (from the Cold War years of early 1960s in Germany), I found the easy-go-lucky atmosphere in this film either fictional or grossly exaggerated. Indeed, all written accounts of the first test platoon and early parachute units highlight the rigors of training and discipline.

The big difference from then until now, is that airborne volunteer enlistees were then going right into training to be paratroopers. Thus, boot camp, infantry training and jump school were all rolled into one. Men who volunteered from within the Army already had that training. So, this film skips showing the basic training the men first had with weapons, hand-to-hand combat, map reading, first aid, survival, etc.

Since WWII, paratroopers have first had to complete 8 weeks of regular basic training (boot camp), then go to their specialty school for 8 weeks or more (infantry, artillery, communications, medical, etc.), and finally spend 3 to 6 weeks in jump school at Ft. Benning, GA. The latter depends on passing the very rigorous physical fitness test. One has three tries (weeks) to make it. If on the first try, jump school then is three weeks. One other note: the Army Airborne school also trains men and women who go into some other specialty fields and from other branches of the service (Special Forces, Long Range Recon Patrol, Navy Seals, Air Force forward observers, etc.).

Some scenes that other viewers may find strange or questionable are important to have been included because they show reality. In my airborne training and service, and that of two brothers and other paratroopers I've met over the years, there have been instances of men gripped by fear. Two examples in this film were of men "freezing" in the door and not being able to jump; and of a jump master giving a jumper a boost or shove out the door.

The gun scene was overboard. I doubt it has ever happened. But the film shows the natural butterflies any sane person feels about going out the door the first few times up. And, the "yahoo" reaction shown by two or three of the troopers after they have "hit the silk" is a real portrayal of the elation many feel suspended in the air and slowly floating to the ground. It's interesting how clearly one can hear another person's voice 1,500 feet above the ground with no ground noise and only the distant fading drone of an airplane.

Some of the training from the earliest days (packing of one's own chutes, and individual jumps), as well as equipment, had changed by the late 1950s and early 1960s. Likewise, the aircraft used for jumping have changed over the years -- from C-47s, to C-119 Flying Boxcars during most of WWII, to C- 130s, to C-124 Globe Trotters, to the Jet transports of modern times. My training jumps were from C-119s, but then I jumped from C-130s, small planes, helicopters and a C-124 in Europe. Also, the jump chute design and parachute landing fall (plf) was soon changed from what was shown in the film -- to a roll, to prevent broken legs from stiff-legged landings. The 250-foot towers as well as shorter jump training towers with cables are in use today.

All in all, though, this was a very good film. I'm sure it brings a smile to any veteran's face - of any branch of service - to think that a recruit in boot camp or initial training would get a pass, or be able to go on a date with or visit a training NCO or officer's daughter. But that's part of Hollywood's license for fiction, supposedly to boost the entertainment value and/or box office take. For the historical and educational value, with a cast of good acting and lots of jumping, I give this film 9 stars.

I add the following information since I first wrote the above review more than a decade ago. My dad was in an Army reserve company from the mid-1930s. He was a SSgt Drill Instructor who trained the first men to go overseas. When the 5th Army was formed in 1943, he went with it to serve in the Mediterranean and Italy until near the end of the war.

Paratrooper forces have been portrayed in a number of war films. The best films with good scenes of parachute drops are "The Longest Day" of 1962 and "A Bridge Too Far" of 1977. "Paratrooper" of 1953 is a story about the early British Airborne units. The best movie that shows a jump, action, stamina and the rigors of paratrooper combat is the 1945 film, "Operation Burma."

This curious movie, which seems to be part documentary and part drama, tells of three individuals who have signed up for a parachute battalion. This film almost gives the VIEWER a heads up on what it takes to train to drop your parachute. Everything from Jumping exercises to height practice to even detailed instruction on how to pack a parachute! Oh yeah, two of the squad have a bit of a spat over a girl, but the main plot is about the training. What's so curious is that the film was made with the National Paratroopers Batallion in America, but shows some curious habits of the paratroopers that almost put them in a bad light. I'm talking of course of the captain pushing off a scared paratrooper off a plane for his solo flight, and another scene where another scared paratrooper pulls a gun on the plane (!!) and tells them HE'S NOT JUMPING!! Anyways, that's all forgotten of course, because any film that has Buddy Ebsen dancing and doing comedy is fine by me J

RKO gave the movie going public of the fall of 1941 Parachute Batallion about this new creation of the US Army the paratrooper. This film follows the training and rivalry of three paratrooper trainees Robert Preston, Edmond O'Brien and Buddy Ebsen.

Buddy Ebsen plays a hillbilly type around for comic relief. But O'Brien and Preston are in serious heat over Nancy Kelly, daughter of Harry Carey a legend in the ranks of those who were pioneering the art of jumping out an airplane. Preston is a former All American with notches on his belt over the various women he's conquered. O'Brien unbeknownst to all is the son of the base commander Robert Barrat and on a drunken dare enlists to see if he has the right stuff.

If you think you've seen this before you have. Strip away the musical numbers of the Andrews Sisters and the comedy of Abbott&Costello you've got Buck Privates. Parachute Batallion comes down to pretty much the same thing, the only question is who will get Nancy Kelly.

Richard Cromwell has an interesting part, something not in Buck Privates, a wise guy who looses his nerve. He and Edmond O'Brien have a great scene when he calms down Cromwell in an airplane.

Nicely done, but dated wartime flag waver.