1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
Group headquarters and the 71st Fighter Squadron were based at RAF Goxhill, near Kingston upon Hull, and the 94th FS at Kirton in Lindsey. The 27th flew to England on 27 August after the group had moved south to Ibsley, and was based at High Ercall. During the late summer of 1942, the 1st FG flew training, escort and fighter sweeps over German-occupied France. The group experienced its first combat loss on 2 October 1942, when a P-38F escorting B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on a mission to Méaulte, France, was shot down by a German fighter of JG 26 near Calais, and 2nd Lt. William H. Young was killed in action.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
The fighter and bomber groups initially deployed to England (97th and 301st Bomb Groups, and 1st, 14th, 31st, and 52nd Fighter Groups) were reassigned to support Operation Torch and redeployed to North Africa. While in transit, two 94th FS Lightnings were forced by mechanical difficulties to land in neutral Portugal, where the aircraft were confiscated and the pilots interned. However 1st Lt . Jack Ilfrey escaped, returned to the group, and became one of its leading aces. 1st Lt


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
. Robert N. Chenoweth was killed when his P-38, on a ferry flight from the UK to North Africa, crashed into a mountain at Ortigueira, Corunna, Spain, on 15 November 1942. By 13 November 1942, the group completed the move to Algeria, where they provided close air support and fighter protection against the Afrika Korps.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
On 29 November 1942, the 94th Fighter Squadron flew the group's first combat sorties in the Mediterranean theater, strafing a German airfield and recording several aerial victories. However, as the year came to a close, the group's morale sagged. Though the move from England to the desert environment added sometimes 200–300 hours to the life of the liquid-cooled Allisons, few replacement parts and virtually no replacement aircraft were available.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
Col. Clifford R. Silliman, in charge of Lightning maintenance and repairs for the 1st, 12th and 14th fighter groups, recalled that no hangars, machine shops or service bays were available, forcing ground crews to make repairs in the open air. Crewmen were exposed not only to attack but to virtually incessant blowing sand and dust that continually fouled filters, breathers and lubricants. The searing sun was so intense that mechanics were unable to as much as touch the aluminum surfaces of the fuselage, wings and cowlings with exposed skin, Silliman said.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
The grating sand found its way not only into engine components and weapons but crewmens' bedding, footwear, clothing, hair, eyes and even their teeth. Pilots recorded some kills, but the loss ratio in air-to-air combat was even at best. For nearly a year, the group moved throughout Algeria and Tunisia, flying bomber escort and providing air coverage for the ground campaign. On 23 February 1943, the group began two days of low-level strafing missions in support of hard-pressed Allied troops at Kasserine Pass, losing several aircraft.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II
In April 1943 the Germans made several concerted attempts to reinforce the Afrika Korps using Ju 52 transports flown at wavetop level over the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in a series of interceptions by Allied aircraft and large numbers of transports destroyed. On 5 April, pilots of the 27th FS shot down 11, plus four Ju 87 Stukas and two Me 109 escorts, losing two Lightnings. On 10 April, the 71st FS intercepted another large force escorted by 15 Macchi 200 and Fw 190 fighters, shooting down 20 transports and 8 of the escorts without loss to itself. The North African campaign ended with the capture of Tunis on 7 May 1943.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Markings and squadron codes
In 1943 the squadrons of the 1st Fighter Group began to apply distinctive colors to their tailbooms, wingtips and propeller tips for rapid unit identification. This was in addition to the fuselage letter codes assigned to the group by the Eighth Air Force which it continued to use when reassigned to the Twelfth Air Force in November 1942. The 27th FS used red (squadron code HV, radio callsign PETDOG), the 71st FS used white (squadron code LM, callsign CRAGMORE), and the 94th FS used yellow (squadron code UN, callsign SPRINGCAP).


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Markings and squadron codes
When the group began receiving P-38s in an unpainted aluminium finish in the spring of 1944, the 71st changed its color to black. Red spinners were also introduced sometime in 1944 to the entire group. During the time of the North Africa invasion, the national insignia was outlined in yellow, replaced by a star-and-bar outlined in red in early 1943. From May 1943 on the standard star-and-bar national insignia was used.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
Six months of continuous combat in North Africa was followed by a short break, flying reconnaissance and escort missions around the Mediterranean. The respite ended on 15 August 1943, as air attacks increased against southern Italy in preparation for landings at Salerno. On 25 August, the 1st FG launched 65 P-38s, and joined with 85 other fighters, conducted a fighter-bomber attack against the airfield complex at Foggia. In addition to strafing ground targets, pilots of the 1st FG damaged or destroyed 88 German aircraft, with a loss of two P-38s.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
For this mission, the group received its first Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC). Five days later, on 30 August, the 1st Fighter Group earned its second DUC. The group flew 44 aircraft in escorting B-26 bombers to the railroad marshalling yards at Aversa, Italy, and were opposed by approximately 75–100 German fighters. Outnumbered two to one, the group engaged the Luftwaffe for 40 minutes, enabling the bombers to strike their target and return to base without loss, but in doing so lost 13 fighters themselves, with 10 pilots killed.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
The 1st Fighter Group became part of the newly created Fifteenth Air Force in December 1943 and moved to Italy, temporarily based at several airfields until its base at Salsola Airfield was ready on 8 January 1944. Living and supply conditions improved for the airmen, who received new P-38Js in the spring. On 16 April 1944, the group flew its 1,000th combat mission.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
The 1st Fighter Group received its third DUC for an escort mission on 18 May 1944. Assigned to escort the force of 700 B-17 and B-24 bombers to the oil refineries at Ploieşti, Romania, bad weather caused roughly half the bombers to abort the mission. The 1st Fighter Group continued through the heavy weather to support B-17s that continued to the target and engaged 80 Luftwaffe and Romanian fighters attacking the Flying Fortresses. The group's 48 P-38s shot down and damaged nearly 20 aircraft for a loss of one P-38, and drove off the rest.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
The minimal effect of high altitude bombing raids on the Ploieşti refineries prompted Fifteenth Air Force planners on 10 June 1944, to lay on a low level dive bombing attack by 48 P-38s of the 82nd Fighter Group and 45 of 1st FG. Mechanical turnbacks reduced the force by 21 aircraft, nine from the 1st Group. En route to the target much of the 1st FG was separated from the main force by a navigational error. Part of the 71st Fighter Squadron observed and attacked 6 Dornier 217 bombers but underestimated the numbers of Romanian IAR 80s escorting the bombers.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
Although six fighters and two bombers were credited as shot down, the 71st lost 9 Lightnings. When the 82nd FG arrived in the target area, along with the 27th Fighter Squadron and one flight of the 71st, they found the Ploieşti defense forces fully alert and a protective smoke screen concealing the targets. Flak shot down 7 P-38s during the attack, and 2 more were lost in strafing attacks on the return to Italy. After the attack, the 27th Fighter Squadron engaged 30–40 Me 109s, claiming 4 destroyed, 2 probables, and 4 damaged, but lost 4 P-38s in the engagement. In all, the 1st Fighter Group had 14 P-38s shot down, its heaviest single day loss of the war, while claiming 18 kills, including five by a 71st pilot, 1st Lt . Herbert Hatch. The 82nd FG lost an additional 8 Lightnings.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
From 10 to 21 August 1944, the 94th Fighter Squadron deployed sixty Lightnings to Aghione, Corsica, providing air support for the Allied invasion of Southern France. On an escort of a photo reconnaissance mission to Munich on 26 November 1944, the group lost an aircraft and pilot to an Me 262 jet.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
The group's last major operation of the war came between 16 January and 19 February 1945. Under Operation Argonaut, the 1st FG escorted British and American delegations to the Yalta Conference, deploying 51 P-38's to protect the ships and aircraft carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their aides to and from the Crimea. The group changed bases shortly after its return to combat operations, moving to Lesina. There the 1st Fighter Group received two YP-80A jet fighters (serials 44-83028 and 44-83029) sent to the theater for operational testing ("Project Extraversion"). Although the jets were marked for combat operations with easily identifiable tail stripes and the letters 'A' and 'B' on their noses, and flown on two operational sorties by the 94th FS, neither saw combat before the end of the war.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
On 15 April 1945, the 27th Fighter Squadron, which had scored the 1st Fighter Group's first kill of the war, also recorded the group's last aerial victory of World War II, during a mission in which 5 Lightnings were shot down strafing German airfields, with 4 pilots killed. Its final combat losses occurred on 23 April 1945, when three aircraft were shot down and a pilot, Capt. Clarence I. Knapp, killed in action.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Italian operations
During nearly three years of combat flying, from 31 August 1942, to 6 May 1945, the 1st Fighter Group flew over 21,000 sorties on 1,405 combat missions.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Aerial victories
The first aerial victory by a 1st Fighter Group pilot (and the first USAAF kill in the European Theater of Operations) occurred 14 August 1942, by a 27th Fighter Squadron pilot, 2nd Lt. Elza E. Shahan, stationed in Iceland, with the downing of an Fw 200C-3 Condor, a credit shared with a P-40C pilot of the 33rd Fighter Squadron. The final victory occurred 15 April 1945, by 1st Lt . Warren E. Danielson, also of the 27th Fighter Squadron, shooting down an Fw 190 near Regensburg.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Aerial victories
The 1st Fighter Group had 402.5 claims credited for German aircraft destroyed in air-to-air combat recognized by U.S. Air Force Historical Study No. 85, with 17 pilots identified as aces. Among the various units of the 1st, the 27th Fighter Squadron had the most victories, with 83 pilots credited with 176.5 kills. The 94th Fighter Squadron was credited with 124 kills by 64 pilots and the 71st Fighter Squadron with 102 kills by 51 pilots.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Fighter Group in World War II, Aerial victories
The uneven distribution of kills among the squadrons is an apparent reflection of an unequal degree of contact with German fighter units after June 1944, almost all of which occurred in July 1944. Of the last 38 kills awarded to the 1st Fighter Group, 30 were by the 27th FS (24 in July, 2 in August 1944, and 4 in 1945). The 71st FS recorded only four, with the last occurring 21 October 1944, while the 94th recorded four in July 1944 and none thereafter.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
The 1st Fighter Group was inactivated 16 October 1945. In the post-war reorganization of the Army Air Forces, the group was reactivated as a P-80 Shooting Star group, replacing the inactivated 412th Fighter Group at March Field, California, on 3 July 1946, and receiving its personnel and equipment.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
The Air Force became an independent service on 18 September 1947, and the 1st Fighter Group became part of the newly created 1st Fighter Wing. (See 1st Fighter Wing for command assignments.) During the summer of 1947, the Army Air Force implemented the Hobson Plan on a test basis, creating a self-sufficient wing at each base. As a result, on 15 August 1947, the 1st Fighter Wing was activated at March Field, California, and the 1st Fighter Group was assigned as its combat group. Administrative, maintenance and support, and medical functions were the responsibility of separate support groups. The test proved satisfactory and the Air Force implemented it for all its tactical wings.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
The 1st Fighter Wing was re-equipped with F-86 fighters in 1949 and the group was redesignated 1st Fighter-Interceptor Group (FIG) in April of the following year. In January 1950, while stationed at George Air Force Base, California, the 1st Group formed an aerial demonstration team, the "Sabre Dancers." The team, composed of five pilots of the 27th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (FIS), flew their most distinguished show on 22 April 1950, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for an audience that included President Harry S Truman.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
During the Korean War, the 1st Group served in an air defense role while the Wing's elements divided to provide defense for both coasts. The 1st FIG Headquarters, and the 27th and 71st FIS were temporarily detached to the Eastern Air Defense Force, while the Wing headquarters and the 94th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were assigned as part the Western Air Defense Force. The group was inactivated on 6 February 1952, in a general reorganization of all ADC units responding to ADC's difficulty under the existing wing base organizational structure in deploying fighter squadrons to best advantage. and its squadrons reassigned to other ADC headquarters.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
In April 1955, the group's designation was changed to 1st Fighter Group (Air Defense) and it was reactivated in August as part of Air Defense Command. It replaced ADC's 575th Air Base (later Air Defense) Group which had been the USAF host for Selfridge AFB since 1 February 1952 and had commanded the fighter squadrons at Selfridge effective 13 February 1953. The 575th group replacement was part of "Project Arrow", an ADC program to reactivate historic units.


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
Equipped first with radar equipped and Mighty Mouse rocket armed North American F-86D Sabre fighters, the group's 94th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (FIS) upgraded to data link equipped F-86Ls for interception control through the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system in 1956, followed by the 71st FIS in 1957. The 71st FIS transitioned to F-102 Delta Dagger aircraft the following year. The 71st retained its F-102s for only a year before converting to F-106 Delta Darts, while the 94th FIS retained its Sabres until converting directly to the F-106 in 1960. Until it was reassigned to the 1st


1st Operations Group, History, Post-war air defense role
Fighter Wing in 1956, it also served as the host organization for Selfridge AFB and was assigned a number of support organizations to fulfill this task. The group served as part of the 30th Air Division and the Detroit Air Defense Sector, based at Selfridge Air Force Base, before being reassigned as part of the 1st Fighter Wing (Air Defense) in 1956 and being inactivated on 1 February 1961.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Operations Group
On 1 October 1991, the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing was redesignated 1st Fighter Wing and the 1st Fighter Group reactivated as the 1st Operations Group to control its F-15 and operations support squadrons at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia as part of the implementation of the Air Force Objective Wing Reorganization.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Operations Group
On 15 March 1992, the 74th Air Control Squadron was transferred to the 1st Fighter Wing to provide command and control of air operations during deployments. On 1 February 1993, the 41st and 71st Rescue Squadrons, and the 741st Maintenance Squadron were also assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing. Stationed at Patrick AFB, Florida, the units provided search and rescue for NASA's space shuttle missions, and support of combat search and rescue operations in Southwest Asia. Additionally, C-21 operational support aircraft were assigned to the Wing on 1 April 1993, with the establishment of Detachment 1, 1st Operations Group. On 1 May, the detachment inactivated and the 12th Airlift Flight, with the same mission, activated.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Operations Group
On 14 June 1995, the 1st Rescue Group was activated as part of the 1st Fighter Wing and assumed operational control of the Search and Rescue organizations. On 1 April 1997, the 12th Airlift Flight was transferred to Air Mobility Command, leaving the group tasked with only fighter and air control operations.


1st Operations Group, History, 1st Operations Group
In 2003 the 27th and 94th FS began transition to the F-22 Raptor, with the 94th FS reaching full operational status on 16 December 2005. Both the 27th FS and the 149th FS of the Virginia Air National Guard's 192nd Fighter Wing (integrated with the 1st Fighter Wing in operating and maintaining the 1st FW's forty F-22's) were declared fully operational by Air Combat Command on 15 December 2007.


1st Operations Group, 1st FG P-38 on exhibit
Beginning in 1977, at least a dozen different groups attempted to locate and recover one of the eight aircraft abandoned on the Greenland ice cap after the forced landing of 15 July 1942. One of the B-17s was located and found to have been crushed by the glacial forces. A P-38 in restoreable condition was then located in 1988 approximately 268 feet below the surface. Efforts to bring it to the surface began in May 1992, culminating in the recovery in October 1992 of P-38F-1-LO 41-7630, last flown by 1st Lt . Harry L. Smith, Jr., 94th Fighter Squadron.


1st Operations Group, 1st FG P-38 on exhibit
The P-38 was subsequently restored to flying condition over the next ten years, dubbed Glacier Girl by its new owner, the Lost Squadron Museum, and flown on 26 October 2002. The P-38 (civil aviation number N17663) was stored at the museum's location in Middlesboro, Kentucky, until its sale to a private individual. A scale model kit of Glacier Girl was released by Academy Plastic Model Co.-Model Rectifier Corporation (Kit No. 12208) in July 2006.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment
The First Regiment Oregon volunteer Cavalry was a volunteer regiment in United States service Union army that was formed in response to the American Civil War. With men recruited in Oregon and some recruited in surrounding states, the regiment primarily served to protect the state of Oregon and surrounding territories during the American Civil War.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Background
In 1861, Colonel George Wright requested permission from Oregon Governor John Whiteaker to form a cavalry company in the state, as Wright was commander of the District of Oregon that included the Washington Territory. Wright was motivated by the fact that there were a total of 700 soldiers and 19 officers in the Pacific Northwest at a time when there were often battles with Native Americans. Some volunteers joined up, asked to provide their own horse, but were later discharged when the organization failed before Wright was transferred to California.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Background
Lieutenant Colonel Albemarle Cady replaced Wright late in 1861 as United States Army regular troops were returned east for the American Civil War. To replace those troops, Wright sent volunteers from California to protect Oregon from attacks by Native Americans. In response, Oregon then commissioned Thomas R. Cornelius in November 1861 as colonel and ordered him to raise ten companies of cavalry troops. Oregonians were unhappy with California volunteers protecting Oregon.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Formation
The initial part of the regiment (companies A through F) was organized and mustered into the army in Oregon from December 1861 to April 1862. In May 1862, it was sent into the Washington Territory to the Walla Walla country to protect immigrants and miners along the Salmon River. The 1st Oregon occupied Fort Walla Walla in June 1862 and sent out various expeditions over the next two years to fight the Snake Indians and other threats. Hence, the regiment was rarely intact as a single unit for much of the war. Several companies scattered to other frontier forts, including Fort Vancouver and Fort Dalles (see also The Dalles, Oregon) for detached duty such as constructing roads through the wilderness.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Formation
In January 1863, the remaining portion of the regiment (companies G, H, I, K, and M) were authorized and activated for duty. Companies G and H served at Camp Watson on Rock Creek; Company I was at Fort Klamath, Company K at Fort Dalles and Companies L and M at Fort Boise in Idaho Territory. The battalion came together for several skirmishes with local Indians in the Harney Lake Valley and other locations.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Formation
Men signed up for a three-year tour of duty with the cavalry. Pay was $31 per month for each soldier, and at the end of service men were given a $100 bounty and 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land. In addition to Col. Cornelius, other officers included R. F. Maury, C. S. Drew, Benjamin F. Harding as quartermaster, and J. S. Rinearson.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Disbanding
In January 1865, Col. Reuben F. Maury, 1st Oregon Cavalry, assumed command of the Federal District of Oregon. The 1st Oregon Cavalry mustered out November 20, 1866.


1st Oregon Cavalry Regiment, Disbanding
The 1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment did not muster out all at once, but did so in stages beginning in November 1864. Two years later there were only a small number of men remaining to muster out of service.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment
The 1st Oregon Infantry Regiment was an American Civil War era military regiment recruited in Oregon for the Union Army. The regiment was formed in November 1864. At full strength, it was composed of ten companies of foot soldiers. The regiment was used to guard trade routes and escorted immigrant wagon trains from Fort Boise to the Willamette Valley. Its troops were used to pursue and suppress Native American raiders in eastern Oregon and the Idaho Territory. Several detachments accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon. The regiment's last company was mustered out of service in July 1867.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Background
Following the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, most regular army troops were withdrawn from the Pacific Northwest for service in the war's eastern theatres. This left Oregon and the Washington and Idaho territories without sufficient troops to guard Native American reservations from trespassing miners, escort immigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers and traders from Native American raiders in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. Oregon officials were also concerned about possible conflicts between pro-Union and pro-Confederate supporters.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Background
As a result, the commander of the United States Army's Department of the Pacific, Brigadier General George Wright asked Oregon Governor John Whiteaker to recruit an Oregon cavalry regiment. At the same time, Wright asked Henry M. McGill, Washington Territory's acting Governor, to raise an infantry regiment in Washington. Both recruiting efforts were successful. The Washington infantry regiment was formed on 18 October 1861, and the 1st Oregon Cavalry was activated a month later on 21 November.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Formation
The initial enlistment period for six of the seven Oregon cavalry companies and five of ten Washington infantry companies expired in the fall of 1864. As a result, Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord, the Army's senior commander in Oregon, asked Oregon's new Governor Addison C. Gibbs to raise a new infantry regiment and recruit backfills for the expected cavalry vacancies. Gibbs agreed, and formally asked Major General Irwin McDowell, who replaced Wright as commander of the Department of the Pacific, to request authority to recruit additional troops for military operations in Oregon.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Formation
On 31 August 1864, Gibbs and McDowell sent a joint letter to the War Department in Washington, D.C. requesting permission to recruit a new infantry regiment and cavalry replacements. On 20 October 1864, the Governor received a positive reply from the War Department. The news arrived just one day before the end of Oregon's legislative session. Gibbs quickly asked the legislature to provide a $150 enlistment bounty, which the legislators enacted before going home.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Formation
Governor Gibbs appointed well known civic leaders as county recruiting officers to give prestige to the effort. The state's pro-union newspapers including The Oregonian, the Oregon Statesman, and the Jacksonville Sentinel all encourage young men to join the new regiment. The publicity along with the $150 bounty helped make the recruiting drive a success. The first companies of the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment were officially activated on 11 November 1864. By June 1865, the regiment reached ten full-strength companies. Three senior officers from the 1st Oregon Cavalry were promoted and placed in charge of the new infantry regiment. Colonel George B. Currey became the regiment's commander. Lieutenant Colonel John M. Drake was second in command, and Major William V. Rinehart was given the third most senior post.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
While some detachments of the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment occasionally skirmished with hostile Native American bands, the regiment's main duties were much more mundane. Most companies spent their time in garrison duty at small posts in eastern Oregon, southeast Washington, and southern Idaho. They protected immigrant trails and escorted wagon trains from Fort Boise to the Willamette Valley. Two companies escorted survey parties, and another constructed a road in southwestern Oregon.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
While scouting sixteen miles from Camp Wright on the Selvies River, near present-day Burns, Captain Loren L. Williams and a party of twenty Oregon infantrymen from Company H were ambushed by a band of hostile Native Americans. Williams and his troops fought a harrowing retreat back to Camp Wright, defending themselves for about fifteen hours before they reached safety. All along the way Native Americans fired from concealed positions. At one point, they even set a brush fire in the soldiers path to prevent them from escaping. Despite their continuous attacks, the Native Americans only wounded two soldiers. In his report, Williams stated that his long-range rifles killed fifteen Native American. He also stated that his superior weaponry was the only thing that prevented his party from being overrun.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
In the summer of 1865, Lieutenant Cyrus H. Walker and the men of Company B were responsible for disarming friendly Native Americans and guarding numerous wagon trains as they crossed southern Idaho. They also established Camp Reed at Salmon Falls Creek and Camp Wallace at Camas Prairie, both in Idaho. The troops built a blockhouse at Camp Wallace, but later abandoned the site in favor of winter quarters near Fort Hall.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
Lieutenant William Grant and his detachment accompanied David P. Thompson and his government survey team through central Oregon as they plotted the Deschutes Meridian, a north-south line extending from the Columbia River to the California border. In another party, Lieutenant John M. McCall led a detachment of forty-eight men responsible for escorting State Surveyor Byron J. Pengra and his assistants as they surveyed the route of the Oregon Central Military Road. The route they surveyed ran from Eugene, Oregon along the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, through the Cascades near Diamond Peak, then across arid southeastern Oregon to Idaho's mining country.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
Captain Franklin B. Sprague and twenty men of Company I built a section of road that linked the Rogue River with the John Day road. This connected Jacksonville and southwest Oregon with John Day's mining country. After the construction work was completed, Sprague published a list of the best camp sites along the road in the Jacksonville newspapers so that the wagon masters could find the best water and grass along the way.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
On 1 August 1865, two hunters from Sprague's party rediscovered Crater Lake, which had been first visited in 1853, but was never effectively recorded so that others could locate the lake. Based on directions from his hunters, Sprague and five other men visited the lake on 12 August. They climbed down the 800 foot caldera cliff to become the first explorers to reach the lake shore. Sprague's account of the visit to "Lake Majestic" was published in the Jacksonville Sentinel on 25 August.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
In the fall of 1865, Colonel Currey was planning a winter campaign against the Native Americans in eastern Oregon. To prepare, he sent detachments of the 1st Oregon Infantry along with Oregon cavalry units to Camp Alvord in the Alvord Valley; Camp Polk near present-day Sisters; Camp Currey near Silver Lake; Camp Logan and Camp Colfax along the Boise Road east of Canyon City; Camp Wallace; and Camp Lander near Fort Hall in the Idaho Territory. Detachment commanders were instructed to build winter quarters at their posts and prepare for a winter offensive.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Operations
Winter provisions were to follow in supply wagons. However, the end of the Civil War in the east had freed up many regular officers for duty in the west, and as a result, Colonel Currey was released from duty in November 1865 along with the men from companies C, D, and E. Lieutenant Colonel Drake was released from service in December, so the planned winter campaign never got started.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Disbanding
The remaining companies spent a long winter in field encampments waiting for orders. In February 1866, Major General Frederick Steele arrived at Fort Vancouver to take command of the Military Department of the Columbia. As soon as the weather improved he ordered the dispersed infantry units, except Captain Sprague's Company I, to report to Fort Vancouver where the volunteers were mustered out of service. Several officers were reassigned to regular Army units arriving from the east, but few were retained more than a year. On 19 July 1867, Captain Sprague, First Lieutenant Harrison B. Oatman, and the men of Company I were the last members of the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment to be mustered out of the Army.


1st Oregon Infantry Regiment, Officers
The following is a list of officers who served in the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The list was current as of 31 October 1865, the date the first members of the regiment were mustered out of service.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers
The 1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers (OAV) was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Artillery formed in the Orkney Islands in 1860 as a response to a French invasion threat. The unit served as coast artillery until it was disbanded after World War I.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Precursor unit
Numerous Volunteer units had been organised across Britain at the time for home defenceof the French Revolutionary Wars, and some of these had taken on the role of manning coast artillery guns. One such unit, the Kirkwall Gunners, was in existence at Kirkwall on Mainland, Orkney, as early as 1801, but little is known of its history. It was probably absorbed into the Orkney Volunteer Infantry and disbanded by the end of the Napoleonic Wars.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
Renewed enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer Corps composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need. A public meeting on 29 December 1859 resolved to raise a volunteer company in Orkney, and a further meeting in early January 1860 decided that it should be an artillery volunteer corps (AVC).


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
The 1st Orkney Artillery Volunteer Corps (OAV) was accepted for service by the War Office on 12 March 1860, and over 50 volunteers gathered at Kirkwall that month, when John Heddle of Melsetter was chosen as Captain. A battery with two 32-pounder guns was erected at Cromwell's Fort in the charge of the Sergeant-instructor. Over the following years the gunners practised gun drill and target firing with the heavy guns from the fort and musketry with carbines at a range on Mount Road. The first headquarters (HQ) was an office in Broad Street, then a wooden building on the Kirk Green until that was replaced by a purpose-built drill hall on reclaimed land on the shore of the Peerie Sea.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
Other AVCs followed across the islands, and from 1863 they were all administered by the 1st Administrative Brigade, Caithness Artillery Volunteers:


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
Some 70 volunteers were raised for a corps at South Ronaldsay and drills commenced, but no officer candidates came forward and the unit was abandoned. Once a fifth OAV had been raised there were moves for Orkney to have its own brigade, and Capt David Balfour of the 3rd (Shapinsay) OAV was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of a new 1st Administrative Brigade, Orkney Artillery Volunteers on 15 March 1867 with Capt Alex Bain of the 1st (Kirkwall) OAV as Major.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
Volunteer corps were consolidated into larger units in 1880, when the 1st Admin Brigade became simply the 1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, with the individual corps as numbered companies. On 1 April 1882 all AVCs were affiliated to a territorial garrison division of the Royal Artillery (RA), the Scottish Division in the case of the 1st Orkney, moving to the Southern Division when the numbers were reduced on 1 July 1889. By 1894 No 6 Company was at Holm and Fort Alexander, No 9 at Birsay and Douby.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
The unit had its headquarters and drill hall at Kirkwall, and each battery had its own drill hall, armoury, sergeant-instructor's cottage, practice battery of two guns (four at Kirkwall) and a carbine range. The practice batteries were re-armed with old 64-pounder RML guns, so serious training on modern guns was carried out at the annual camp.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Volunteer Force
From 1 June 1899 all artillery volunteers became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), and when the RA abolished its divisional structure on 1 January 1902 the unit was redesignated the 1st Orkney Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers).


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Orkney RGA transferred as a 'defended ports unit' with minor changes to organisation and uniforms. Headquarters remained at Kirkwall with the companies located as follows:


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, World War I
On the outbreak of war TF units mobilised and went to their war stations: the coast defences around Orkney and Fair Isle in the case of the Orkney RGA. Shortly afterwards, members of the TF were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service, and the majority did so. Soon the TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service were supplying trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas. Although most defended ports units provided cadres to form complete siege artillery batteries for front line service from New Army ('Kitchener's Army') volunteers, the Orkney RGA does not appear to have been used in this way.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, World War I
In 1915 it was announced that the Royal Navy, which was already responsible for the defence of the Grand Fleet's anchorage at Scapa Flow, would take over the defences of the whole of the Orkneys. The Orkney RGA was replaced by the Royal Marine Artillery, and because the unit no longer had a mobilisation role it was disbanded, despite the protests of the Orkney TF Association. The individual Orkney gunners were posted to other RGA units in the UK and overseas.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Postwar
When the TF was reconstituted on 1 January 1920, there were attempts to revive the Orkney RGA. Major J.D. Shearer raised two companies, which were designated the Orkney Coast Brigade, RGA when the TF was reorganised as the Territorial Army (TA) in 1921. However, recruitment was poor and the brigade was officially disbanded in May 1922. The historian of the Orkney and Shetland Volunteers places the blame for this failure on the disheartening effect of the 1915 decision to disband the former Orkney RGA.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Successor units
In 1926 it was decided that the coastal defences of Great Britain should be solely manned by part-time soldiers of the TA. However, there were by now no TA units existing in Orkney or Shetland, and new ones had to be hastily raised after the Munich Crisis in 1938. On the outbreak of World War II, the fixed coast defences on the Orkneys, including those protecting Scapa Flow, were manned by a new Orkney Heavy Regiment (TA) formed on 1 November 1938


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Uniforms and insignia
The original uniform of the 1st Orkney AVC was a blue Frock coat with blue cuffs and collar, with five rows of black lace across the chest. Other ranks had scarlet piping round the collar and Austrian knots above the cuffs, officers had them in silver. The headgear was a blue peaked cap with a black band  and scarlet piping, with the Royal Arms badge. White waist belts were worn, later replaced by cheaper black leather . However, in 1863 the 1st Orkney AVC adopted the standard uniform of the Royal Artillery. The Home Service helmet was worn from 1880.


1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers, Commanding officers
The following served as commanding officer of the 1st Orkney Artillery Volunteers and Orkney RGA:


1st Otdelenie Gosudarstvennoy Selektsionnoy Stantsii
1st Otdelenie Gosudarstvennoy Selektsionnoy Stantsii (Russian: 1-е Отделение Государственной Селекционной Станции) is a rural locality (a settlement) in Tulunsky District, Russia. The population was 214 as of 2012.


1st Otdelenie Gosudarstvennoy Selektsionnoy Stantsii, Geography
The settlement is located 10 km northwest of Tulun (the district's administrative centre) by road.


1st Panzer Army
The 1st Panzer Army (German: 1. Panzerarmee) was a German tank army that was a large armoured formation of the Wehrmacht during World War II.


1st Panzer Army
When originally formed on 1 March 1940, the predecessor of the 1st Panzer Army was named Panzer Group Kleist (Panzergruppe Kleist) with Colonel General Ewald von Kleist in command.


1st Panzer Army, Service history
Panzer Group Kleist was the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht. Created for the Battle of France on 1 March 1940; it was named after its commander Ewald von Kleist. Panzer Group Kleist played an important role in the Battle of Belgium. Panzer corps of the Group broke through the Ardennes and reached the sea, forming a huge pocket, containing several Belgian, British, and French armies. When the armistice was signed, the Group was deployed in occupied France, being renamed to Panzer Group 1 (Panzergruppe 1) in November. In April 1941, Panzer Group 1 took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia as part of Field Marshal Maximilian von Weichs's Second Army.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1941
In May 1941 Panzer Group 1 was attached to Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group South at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. At the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Panzer Group 1 included the III, XIV and XLVIII Army Corps (motorized) with five panzer divisions and four motorized divisions (two of them SS) equipped with 799 tanks. Panzer Group 1 served on the southern sector of the Eastern Front against the Red Army and was involved the Battle of Brody which involved as many as 3,000 Red Army tanks.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1941
The units of the Group closed the encirclement around the Soviet armies near Uman and near Kiev. After the fall of Kiev Panzer Group 1 was enlarged to become the 1st Panzer Army (on October 6, 1941) with Kleist still in command. The army captured Rostov, but was forced to retreat eight days later.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1942
In January 1942, Army Group Kleist, which consisted of the First Panzer Army along with the Seventeenth Army, was formed with its namesake, Kleist, in command. Army Group Kleist played a major role in repulsing the Red Army attack in the Second Battle of Kharkov in May 1942. Army Group Kleist was disbanded that month.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1942
The First Panzer Army, still under Kleist, which had been attached to Army Group South earlier, became part of Army Group A under Field Marshal Wilhelm List. Army Group A was to lead the thrust into the Caucasus during Operation Blue and capture Grozny and the Baku (current capital of Azerbaijan) oilfields. The First Panzer Army was to spearhead the attack. Rostov, Maykop, Krasnodar and the Kuban region were captured.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1942
In September 1942, the offensive by Army Group A stalled in the Caucasus and List was sacked. After Adolf Hitler briefly took personal control of Army Group A, he appointed Kleist to the command on 22 November 1942. As Kleist took over, Colonel-General Eberhard von Mackensen took the reins of the First Panzer Army.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1942
In December 1942, as the German 6th Army was being crushed in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army launched an offensive against Army Group A. The First Panzer Army was ordered to retreat through Rostov in January 1943, before the Soviet forces could cut it off in the Kuban. By February 1943, the army had been withdrawn west of the Don River and Kleist withdrew the remains of his forces from Caucasus into the Kuban, east of the Strait of Kerch.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1943
In January 1943, von Mackensen's First Panzer Army became attached to Army Group Don under Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. The month after that, von Manstein redeployed the First Panzer Army together with the Fourth Panzer Army to counter-attack the Soviet breakthrough from the Battle of Stalingrad. The First Panzer Army contributed to the success of the Third Battle of Kharkov in March 1943. In July 1943, the Army, with the help of the XXIV Panzer Corps, repelled the Soviet Izyum-Barvenkovo Offensive. In October 1943 Soviet forces crossed the Dnieper River between Dnipropetrovsk and Kremenchug. The First Panzer Army counter-attacked along with the 8th Army, but failed to dislodge the Soviet forces. At the end of that month, as the Red Army closed in on Kiev, von Mackensen was replaced by Colonel-General Hans-Valentin Hube.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1944
The First Panzer Army remained attached to Army Group South from March 1943 to July 1944. By that time German troops had been pulled out from the Ukraine. In March 1944, crisis hit the First Panzer Army as it was encircled by two Soviet fronts in the Battle of Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. A successful breakthrough was made, saving most of the manpower but losing the heavy equipment. That same month Hitler, who insisted his armies fight an inflexible defense to the last man, dismissed von Manstein.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1944
In October 1941, when the First Panzer Army had been formed, it was a large army consisting of four corps, several infantry, panzer, motorized, mountain, and SS divisions, along with a Romanian army and some Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Slovak divisions. By the spring of 1944, the First Panzer Army had shrunk considerably, consisting of only three corps, two infantry, four panzer, and one SS division. After July 1944 it retreated from Ukraine and Poland before fighting with Army Group A in Slovakia (Battle of the Dukla Pass).


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1945
During its existence, from October 1941 to May 1945, the First Panzer Army spent its entire time on the Eastern Front. In the spring of 1945, the First Panzer Army's main task was to defend the Ostrava region in the north of Moravia, which was at the time the last large industrial area in the hands of Third Reich. There the First Panzer Army was facing the advance of 4th Ukrainian Front from the north-east (Ostrava-Opava Operation, 10 March – 5 May 1945) and had lost most of its heavy and medium tanks.


1st Panzer Army, Service history, 1945
At the same time however the Panzer Army was flanked by the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the south (Bratislava-Brno Operation, 25 March – 5 May 1945). German defensive lines finally collapsed in the early hours of Prague Offensive. The staff of First Panzer Army, along with other commands subordinated to Army Group Center, surrendered to the Soviet forces on 9 May 1945 in the area of Deutsch-Brod, while the remnants of its Panzer-units were scattered and captured all the way from Olomouc to Vysočina Region. Its last commander was general Walter Nehring, who abandoned his staff and fled south to surrender to the American forces.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr)
The 1st Panzer Division (German: "1. Panzerdivision", short: "1. PzDiv") is an armoured division of the German Army. Its headquarter is based in Oldenburg. In the course of the last reorganisation of the Bundeswehr it became the backbone of Germany's newly formed intervention forces with a manpower of 35,000 soldiers. The division is equipped and trained for high intensity combat operations against militarily organized enemies as well as peacekeeping missions. The majority of all German troops assigned to EU-Battlegroups and Nato Response Forces will come from this division. It also represents Germany's permanent contribution to the binational I. German/Dutch Corps.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr)
The 43rd Mechanized Brigade of the Royal Netherlands Army is integrated into the 1st Panzer Division since 2019.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr), History
This division was formed on July 1, 1956, the day of the official inauguration of the Bundeswehr. It was the first fully operational unit of the new German Army. At first referred to as 1st Grenadier Division, it was reorganized in the 1980s and made fully armoured in 1981. During this period it was part of I Corps of the Bundeswehr Heer, in turn part of NATO's Northern Army Group, Allied Forces Central Europe.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr), History
1st Panzer Division has deployed to the Balkans, Afghanistan and to several peacekeeping operations. Troops of this division were also deployed to the support of civilian agencies during large natural disasters such as the Hamburg Floods of 1962, disastrous wild fires in Northern Germany in the 1970s and the 2002 Floods in Eastern Germany.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr), History
The division cultivates a partnership with the United States Army 28th Infantry Division.


1st Panzer Division (Bundeswehr), History
In April 2019 the division headquarters took the role of exercise High Command (HICON) for Exercise "Allied Spirit X" at Hohenfels Training Area in Bavaria. The exercise lead is routinely rotated among coalition/NATO partners. The exercise primarily involved the 21st Panzer Brigade, the Lithuanian Iron Wolf Brigade, and their subordinate units; 5,630 participants from 15 nations took part. The division already had Dutch, British and Polish officers within its ranks. The US Army's 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored Regiment, took part in the exercise. Six engineering advisor teams from 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade provided hands-on experience and testing of secure communications between NATO allies and partners.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 1st Panzer-Division (short: 1. Pz.Div . German: 1. Panzer-Division, English: 1st Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Wehrmacht, during World War II.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The division was one of the original three tank divisions established by Germany in 1935. It took part in pre-war occupations of Austria and Czechoslovakia and the invasions of Poland in 1939 and Belgium and France in 1940. From 1941 to 1945, it fought on the Eastern Front, except for a period in 1943 when it was sent for refitting to France and Greece. At the end of the war, the division surrendered to US forces in Bavaria.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
The 1st Panzer Division was formed on 15 October 1935 from the 3rd Cavalry Division, and was headquartered in Weimar. It was one of three tank divisions created at the time, the other two being the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Division. Earlier in the year, Germany had renounced the Treaty of Versailles, which had forbidden the country, among other things, from having tank forces, a treaty Germany had violated almost from the start by secretly developing tanks and operating a covert tank school in the Soviet Union.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
Initially, the division consisted of two panzer regiments organized into a brigade, a motorized infantry brigade, a reconnaissance battalion, a divisional artillery regiment, and supporting ancillary formations. The division was equipped with the sub-standard light Panzer I and Panzer II, with the more powerful Panzer III arriving in late 1936. While the Pz I saw service in large numbers in Poland in 1939, the division was still using its Panzer II's in 1941.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
In 1938, the division participated in the Anschluss of Austria and the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938 and the subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. In September 1939, the 1st Panzer Division took part in the invasion of Poland, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw after eight days. After Warsaw the division was moved to support the 18th Infantry Division before returning to Germany in November 1939, after the Polish surrender.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
In May 1940, the 1st Panzer Division was part of the invasion of France, Luxembourg and Belgium. It took part in the battles of Sedan and Dunkirk before swinging south to participate in the attack on the Weygand Line. It advanced towards the Swiss border and occupied Belfort before the surrender of France. During the battle of France, the division suffered relatively low casualties, having just under 500 men killed in action.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
The 1st Panzer Division remained in France until September 1940, when it was moved to East Prussia. It supplied a substantial number of units to the new 16th and 18th Panzer Divisions. From 22 June 1941, it took part of Operation Barbarossa, crossing the former German-Lithuanian frontier as part of the Army Group North and the 4th Panzer Group. The division was involved in heavy fighting and, by mid-August, had only 44, of the 155 tanks it had started out with less than two month earlier, left in serviceable condition. It continued to advance towards Leningrad until early October when it was transferred to the Army Group Centre to take part in the advance on Moscow. The division advanced within 32 kilometres (20 mi) on Moscow before being forced to retreat during the Soviet counterattack.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
The division was part of the defence of the Rzhev Salient during early 1942, initially being very short on tanks and fighting predominantly as infantry until being resupplied during Spring. The 1st Panzer Division was engaged in the defence of the supply lines of the 9th Army in the centre of the Eastern Front. It suffered heavy casualties during the defence against repeated Soviet attacks in the Winter of 1942–43 before eventually being transferred back to France in January 1943 for refitting.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
After months in northern France, the division was sent to occupied Greece in June 1943 because of the perceived threat of an Allied landing there. Instead, the landing took place in Sicily and the division participated in the disarming of Italian forces in Greece when the former defected from the Axis in September 1943. The 1st Panzer Division was brought up to full strength again in October when it received a substantial number of Panther tanks and returned to the Eastern Front again shortly thereafter.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
The 1st Panzer Division was engaged in the southern sector of the Eastern Front to serve alternately within the 1st and 4th Panzer Army as an emergency force. It was constantly thrown from crisis location to crisis location as the German front lines retreated, taking part in battles at Kiev, Zhitomir and Cherkassy. The latter battle saw the division attempting to break through to the cauldron but falling just short. By March 1944, the division had been reduced to just over 25 percent of its nominal strength.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
Retreating further westwards, the division was part of the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket and, from there, took part in the defence of eastern Poland and Hungary. It was engaged in defensive operations around Lake Balaton and took part in the unsuccessful attempt to break through to the Siege of Budapest and once more suffered heavy losses.


1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht), History
The final month of the Second World War saw the division engaged in the defence of Styria. From there, it retreated westwards to surrender to US forces rather than Soviet ones, successfully crossing the demarcation line between the two. It surrendered on 8 May 1945 in southern Bavaria and most of its soldiers were released from captivity soon after.


1st Panzergrenadier Brigade (Germany)
The 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (German: Panzergrenadierbrigade 1) in Hildesheim was a formation in the  Bundeswehr, which was subordinated to the 1st Armoured Division in Hanover. The Brigade was disbanded on 31 December 2007. During its lifetime the Brigade was stationed between the Lüneburg Heath, Harz Mountains, the Solling hills and the River Weser.


1st Panzergrenadier Brigade (Germany), Formation sign
The formation sign displays the white Sachsenross or Saxon steed on a red background within a yellow and white shield. The steed recalls the Welf dukes and the Kingdom of Hanover. The original Saxon tribal emblem was adopted in 1235 by the Welf dukes, the Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, as an additional coat of arms. Through the amalgamation of part of the Lüneburg-Brunswick region with the Principality, later Kingdom, of Hanover the Saxon steed appeared in 1705 on the escutcheon of the kingdom's coat of arms surrounded by the main yellow and white shield.


1st Panzergrenadier Brigade (Germany), Formation sign
On the foundation of the state of Lower Saxony in 1952 the Saxon steed on a red field became the coat of arms of the state. The white border of the coat of arms, in embroidery shown as a white cord - represents the usual heraldic custom of the German Army: white borders were always the formation signs of the "first" brigades in a division. The superior division as well as the other two brigades in the division traditionally bore an identical formation sign apart from the white border. On the disbandment of the Brigade the sign continued to be worn by Panzerlehrbrigade 9, which gave up its old sign in 2006. The white border remains.


1st Panzergrenadier Brigade (Germany), Composition 2007
In 2007, just before disbanding the brigade was organised as:


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht)
The German 1st Parachute Army (1. Fallschirm-Armee) was formed in September, 1944, comprising 30,000 men.


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht), History
Its first commander was Colonel General Kurt Student, the Wehrmacht's airborne pioneer. During the Allied Operation Market Garden, Student's men delayed the Allied advance across the south of the Netherlands. The 30,000 soldiers were likely the only combat-ready reserve forces in Germany at the time. However, few of the Army's units or personnel were paratroopers.


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht), History
Student was transferred to the Eastern Front, and on 18 November 1944, command of the First Parachute Army passed to General der Fallschirmtruppe Alfred Schlemm, who opposed the Canadian First Army during the Battle of the Reichswald.


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht), History
The Canadian First Army and Lieutenant-General William Hood Simpson’s U.S. Ninth Army compressed Schlemm’s forces into a small bridgehead on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Wesel. On 10 March 1945, the rearguard of the 1st Parachute Army evacuated their bridgehead, destroying the bridge behind them. Schlemm was wounded in an air attack on his command post at Haltern eleven days later and on 20 March 1945, command passed to General Günther Blumentritt.


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht), History
Just before Operation Varsity, First Parachute Army had three corps stationed along the river;


1st Parachute Army (Wehrmacht), History
Of these formations, II Parachute Corps and LXXXVI Corps had a shared boundary which ran through the proposed landing-zones for the Allied airborne divisions, meaning that the leading formation of each corps would face the airborne assault — these being 7th Parachute Division and 84th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht). After their retreat to the Rhine both divisions were under-strength and did not number more than 4,000 men each, with 84th Infantry Division supported by only 50 or so medium artillery pieces. In the final days of the war, command passed once more to Student (10 April) and finally to Erich Straube.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia)
The 1st Parachute Battalion was a parachute infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Raised for service during the Second World War, it was formed in early 1943 from volunteers for airborne training. Despite achieving a high level of readiness, the battalion did not see action during the war and was disbanded in early 1946.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
Like the British Army, Australia did not have a parachute operations capability at the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the demonstration of the effectiveness of such forces by the Germans in the early stages of the conflict soon provided the impetus for their development. Efforts to raise an operational parachute capability in the Australian Army began in November 1942, with 40 volunteers being selected for initial training with the newly formed Paratroop Training Unit. The first descents were made at Tocumwal in New South Wales, with the initial parachute courses consisting of four jumps. By March 1943 enough personnel had been trained for the Army to consider forming a full parachute battalion. As a result, the 1st Parachute Battalion was raised at this time at RAAF Station Richmond near Sydney, New South Wales.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
Initially, raised on a reduced scale of only two rifle companies, the battalion's personnel were mainly drawn from volunteers from other Army units—mostly the independent companies that had been set up in 1941–42 to carry out irregular warfare—and as a result, most of the battalion's personnel had seen active service prior to being accepted. These volunteers completed their parachute training with 1st Parachute Training Unit before joining the battalion, and upon completion of their training qualified to wear the maroon beret, which was adopted by the 1st Parachute Battalion as a symbol of their elite status. In April 1943, while based at Scheyville Farm, the battalion raised a troop of engineers. Consisting of six officers and 51 other ranks, the 1st Parachute Troop, Royal Australian Engineers, was specially trained to undertake clandestine demolitions work alongside the battalion's rifle companies.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
As the battalion was to be Australia's first airborne unit it required extensive training. Consequently, in addition to basic parachute training at Richmond, the battalion also trained in jungle warfare at Canungra in Queensland. In September 1943, Major John Overall, formerly of the 2/13th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, was appointed as commanding officer. Throughout this time training continued in the demolitions, tactics and parachuting, and as no reserve parachutes were used several fatalities occurred. A third rifle company was formed in October 1943 and by January 1944 the battalion was at full strength.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
Following company and battalion level exercises the battalion was declared ready for operations in May 1944 and moved to Mareeba airstrip in North Queensland. A fourth rifle company was formed in June 1944. In August 1944 the battalion gained its own organic indirect fire support when it was joined by the parachute qualified 1st Mountain Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, equipped with short 25 Pounder guns.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
In late 1944, the battalion was alerted to begin preparations for operations in Borneo as part of the Borneo campaign. As well as preparing for airborne operations, the battalion also conducted amphibious training in late January and early February 1945 as part of a possible role in the amphibious landing at Balikpapan. The battalion was not used in this operation, however, due to a shortage of suitable aircraft. A few months later, the battalion was warned to prepare for a mission to rescue thousands of Allied prisoners held by the Japanese at Sandakan in North Borneo.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
This operation, codenamed Operation Kingfisher, was controversially cancelled and the prisoners were subsequently killed by the Japanese in what subsequently became known as the Sandakan Death Marches. The disappointment of not being deployed to Borneo caused significant frustration within the battalion, with many soldiers requesting transfers to other infantry units such as Z Special Unit. Many of these requests were denied, however, as the battalion had been instructed to prepare to operate alongside British paratroopers in the planned liberation of Singapore that was to have taken place later in 1945 as part of Operations Zipper and Mailfist.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), History
The war ended before these operations took place, however, and following the Japanese surrender the battalion was ordered to prepare to deploy to Singapore for garrison duties. While an advance party of 120 men arrived in Singapore on 9 September, the rest of the battalion remained in Australia. The unit contributed an honour guard to the main surrender ceremony. Afterwards, a further 75 men were sent out to join them and together this force performed general garrison and policing duties before returning to Australia in January 1946. Orders were received to disband the battalion on 29 January 1946, and these were carried out the following day at Sydney.


1st Parachute Battalion (Australia), Composition
The 1st Parachute Battalion was organised with the following sub units:


1st Parachute Battalion (Hungary)
The 1st Parachute Battalion was a unit of the Royal Hungarian Army that participated in the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 1st Parachute Brigade was an airborne forces brigade formed by the British Army during the Second World War. As its name indicates, the unit was the first parachute infantry brigade formation in the British Army.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
Formed from three parachute battalions as well as support units and assigned to the 1st Airborne Division, the brigade first saw action in Operation Biting – a raid on a German radar site at Bruneval on the French coast. They were then deployed in the Torch landings in Algeria, and the following Tunisia Campaign, where it fought as an independent unit. In North Africa each of the brigade's three parachute battalions took part in separate parachute assaults.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
The brigade then fought in the front line as normal infantry until the end of the campaign, during which they earned the nickname the "Red Devils". Following the Axis surrender in North Africa, when 1st Airborne Division arrived in Tunisia the brigade once more came under its command. The brigade's next mission was Operation Fustian, part of the Allied invasion of Sicily. This was also the British Army's first brigade-sized combat parachute jump. Because of casualties sustained in Sicily, the brigade was held in reserve for the division's next action, Operation Slapstick, an amphibious landing at Taranto in Italy.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
At the end of 1943, the brigade returned to England, in preparation for the invasion of North-West Europe. Not required during the Normandy landings, the brigade was next in action at the Battle of Arnhem, part of Operation Market Garden. Landing on the first day of the battle, the brigade objective was to seize the crossings over the River Rhine and hold them for forty-eight hours until relieved by the advancing XXX Corps, coming 60 miles (97 km) from the south.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
In the face of strong resistance elements, the brigade managed to secure the north end of the Arnhem road bridge. After holding out for four days, with their casualties growing and supplies exhausted they were forced to surrender. By this time the remainder of the brigade trying to fight through to the bridge had been almost destroyed and was no longer a viable fighting force.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom)
Reformed after the battle, the brigade took part in operations in Denmark at the end of the war and then in 1946 joined the 6th Airborne Division on internal security duties in Palestine. Post-war downsizing of the British Army reduced their airborne forces to a single brigade and led to the 1948 dissolution of 1st Parachute Brigade.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Background
Impressed by the success of German airborne operations during the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops. On 22 June 1940, No. 2 Commando was redeployed to parachute duties and on 21 November re-designated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion (later the 1st Parachute Battalion), with both a parachute and glider wing, the men of which took part in the first British airborne operation, Operation Colossus, on 10 February 1941.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Background
The success of the raid prompted the War Office to expand the airborne forces, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in Derbyshire in April 1942, and creating the Parachute Regiment as well as converting several infantry battalions into airborne battalions in August 1942. This resulted in the formation of the  1st Airborne Division with the 1st Parachute Brigade and the 1st Airlanding Brigade. Its commander Major-General Frederick Arthur Montague Boy Browning, expressed his opinion that the fledgling force must not be sacrificed in "penny packets" and urged the formation of further brigades.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Background
All parachute forces had to undergo a twelve-day parachute training course at No. 1 Parachute Training School, RAF Ringway. Initial parachute jumps were from a converted barrage balloon and finished with five jumps from an aircraft. Anyone failing to complete a descent was returned to his old unit. Those men who successfully completed the parachute course were presented with their maroon beret and parachute wings.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Background
Airborne soldiers were expected to fight against superior numbers of the enemy armed with heavy weapons, including artillery and tanks. Training was as a result designed to encourage a spirit of self-discipline, self-reliance and aggressiveness. Emphasis was given to physical fitness, marksmanship and fieldcraft. A large part of the training regime consisted of assault courses and route marching while military exercises included capturing and holding airborne bridgeheads, road or rail bridges and coastal fortifications. At the end of most exercises, the battalions would march back to their barracks.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Background
An ability to cover long distances at speed was also expected: airborne platoons were required to cover a distance of 50 miles (80 km) in twenty-four hours, and battalions 32 miles (51 km). This ability was demonstrated in April 1945. When the 3rd Parachute Brigade advanced 15 miles (24 km) in twenty-four hours, which included eighteen hours of close-quarters fighting. In the same month the 5th Parachute Brigade marched 50 miles (80 km) in seventy-two hours, during which they also carried out two night time assaults.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Formation
Brigadier Richard N. Gale, who would later command the 6th Airborne Division, took command of the 1st Parachute Brigade on its formation in September 1941. A triangular brigade formation with three battalions, Gale decided that rather than dividing the 11th Special Air Service Battalion among the brigade's battalions, he would keep the already trained unit together. On 15 September it was renamed the 1st Parachute Battalion, which, together with the newly raised 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions, now formed the 1st Parachute Brigade. These battalions were formed from volunteers aged between twenty-two and thirty-two years of age.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Formation
Only men in infantry units were selected and only ten men from any one unit were allowed to leave. Early in 1942 the brigade was joined by the 4th Parachute Battalion, the 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, and the 1st (Parachute) Squadron, Royal Engineers (RE). The 4th Parachute Battalion left the brigade in July to become the first battalion in the 2nd Parachute Brigade.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Formation
By 1944 the brigade had increased in size and now comprised the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Parachute battalions, the 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance and the 1st (Parachute) Squadron Royal Engineers (RE) as well as the 3rd (Airlanding) Light Battery Royal Artillery (RA) with 75 mm howitzers, 1st (Airlanding) Anti -Tank Battery RA with 6 pounder and 17 pounder guns along with a Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) detachment.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Formation
After the war the brigade comprised the 1st, 2nd, 17th Parachute Battalions and the 16th (Parachute) Field Ambulance. The 3rd Parachute Battalion had left to join the 3rd Parachute Brigade, replacing the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, who had returned to Canada at the cessation of hostilities. The 1st Airborne Division was disbanded in November 1945, and the brigade assigned to the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine. In 1946 the 17th Parachute Battalion amalgamated with the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion retaining the number of the senior unit. The brigade formation changed again in 1948.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Formation history, Formation
Further amalgamations and the general reduction in the post war British Army resulted in the brigade being formed from the 1st Parachute Battalion, the amalgamated 2nd/3rd Parachute Battalion and the amalgamated 8th/9th Parachute Battalion. By July 1948 the 6th Airborne Division had been withdrawn to England and disbanded, leaving the 2nd Parachute Brigade as the only regular British Army parachute formation.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Bruneval
The Bruneval raid or Operation Biting in February 1942 was one of the first missions planned by Combined Operations Headquarters that used all three of the British Armed Forces. An attacking force from 'C' Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion would be parachuted into France by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and later evacuated by the Royal Navy. Their objective was a German Würzburg radar station on the coast of France, which British scientists wanted to examine.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Bruneval
On 27 February, in ideal tide and weather conditions, the raid was commanded by Major John D. Frost. A group of forty men would attack machine-guns on the cliffs overlooking the evacuation beach and then advance to Bruneval village. Another fifty-five men in an assault group would attack the radar station and forty men would set up a blocking position to prevent German reinforcements reaching the radar site. The parachute drop was mostly successful with half of the first group missing the drop zone (DZ) by 2 miles (3.2 km).


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Bruneval
After capturing the radar and other installations, the assault group dismantled the equipment then withdrew towards the beach. They were intercepted en route by the cliff machine guns which had not yet been cleared and suffered some casualties. When the delayed first group arrived, they managed to neutralize the enemy machine guns and by 02:15 the company had mustered on the beach to wait for the navy. Despite some initial problems caused by a lack of experience in combined operations, the troops were successfully evacuated with losses of three men killed and seven wounded.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Bruneval
The success of the Bruneval raid was reported in the British media for several weeks while Winston Churchill, who had taken a personal interest in the raid, assembled the War Cabinet on 3 March to hear from Major Frost and several other officers who had taken part. On 15 May 1942 a special supplement to the London Gazette carried the announcement of nineteen decorations for the mission, including a Military Cross for Frost.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
In November 1942, the brigade now commanded by Brigadier Edwin Flavell, was detached from 1st Airborne Division, to take part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in French North Africa.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
On 11 November, the first major British parachute landing was made by the 3rd Parachute Battalion, which without its 'A' Company, flew from England via Gibraltar in a fleet of American piloted Douglas Dakotas. Their objective, the airfield at Bone, turned out to be deserted and was secured with no opposition. No. 6 Commando and a flight of RAF Spitfires reinforced the battalion later the same day. The following day the rest of the brigade who had travelled by sea arrived at Algiers.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
During the next airborne mission on 16 November, the 1st Parachute Battalion secured an important road junction near Souk el Arba, 90 miles (140 km) west of Tunis then the next day ambushed a German convoy and were involved in several small battles. The Commanding Officer (CO) Lieutenant Colonel James Hill was wounded attacking an Italian position and replaced by his second-in-command, Alastair Pearson.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
On 29 November the 2nd Parachute Battalion, now commanded by John Frost, parachuted onto an  airfield at Depienne, 30 miles (48 km) south of Tunis. The airfield was deserted so Frost marched the battalion 10 miles (16 km) to a second airfield at Oudna. Due to postponement of their advance, the First Army did not relieve the battalion as planned and instead it became trapped 50 miles (80 km) behind the German lines, where Frost was informed by radio that they had been written off.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
After ambushing an advancing German formation, the battalion were attacked by a second German unit and surrounded. On 1 December the Germans attacked with infantry, armour and artillery, almost wiping out 'C' Company and causing heavy casualties in the rest of the battalion. Frost ordered the battalion to disperse into company groups and head for the Allied lines. On 3 December, the surviving 180 men reached safety at Majaz al Bab. With no more opportunities for parachute operations, the brigade fought in the front line as normal infantry.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
In February they held the right flank of the Allied line at Bou Arada and on the night of 2/3 February, the 1st Battalion, along with a French Foreign Legion unit, captured the Jebel Mansour heights and were then subjected to constant shelling and infantry attacks. After three days without relief, their almost ammunition expended, and having suffered 200 casualties, they were forced to withdraw. This was followed by the brigade fighting two fierce engagements at Tamera and checking the German offensive of Operation Ochsenkopf.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, North Africa
When the Allied advance began again after the winter rains, the brigade was assigned to the force tasked with capturing Bizerta on 17 March. The remaining Axis forces surrendered on 13 May 1943 bringing the Tunisian campaign to an end with a cost to the 1st Parachute Brigade of 1,700 killed, wounded or missing. They had nevertheless proved themselves in combat and been nicknamed the Red Devils by the German forces they had fought against.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
Immediately before the Axis surrender in April 1943, the 1st Airborne Division, now commanded by Major-General George F. Hopkinson, arrived in North Africa, and the 1st Parachute Brigade once again came under their command for further operations in Sicily. The invasion of Sicily was to be carried out by General Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army landing in the east and Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Seventh Army coming ashore in the west. These seaborne landings were to be supported by airborne assaults whereby the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division would support the Americans and the 1st Airborne Division the British.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
The British airborne assault was divided into brigade-sized operations: Operation Ladbroke by the 1st Airlanding Brigade took place on the night of 9/10 July, and Operation Fustian by the 1st Parachute Brigade on the night of 13/14 July. A third operation to drop 2nd Parachute Brigade beside Augusta on the night of 10/11 July (Operation Glutton) was cancelled.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
Now under the command of Brigadier Gerald Lathbury, 1st Parachute Brigade's objective in Sicily was the Primosole bridge across the Simeto River, south of Catania, the only crossing point that gave the Eighth Army access to the Catania plain. Once they had captured the bridge, the brigade were to hold out until relieved by Major-General Sidney C. Kirkman's 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, reinforced by the 4th Armoured Brigade advancing from the landing beaches. Paratroops of the brigade would land on four DZs and the gliders at two landing zones (LZ).


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
The 1st Parachute Battalion was divided into two groups that would land at DZs on both sides of the river and thereafter attack the bridge from both sides simultaneously–3rd Parachute Battalion would land on their own DZ north of the bridge and secure the high ground, while the 2nd Parachute Battalion did the same in the south.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
At 19:30 on 12 July 1943 the brigade took off from North Africa Consisting of 105 Dakotas, eight of them towing Waco gliders and 11 Albemarles towing Horsa gliders, the gliders amongst other things transported the twelve anti-tank guns of the 1st (Airlanding) Anti -Tank Battery.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
The brigade's first casualties occurred while they were still en route, when two Dakotas were shot down flying over an Allied convoy with another nine damaged and forced to turn back. When they reached the Sicilian coast, Axis anti-aircraft fire shot down thirty-seven and a further ten were damaged and forced to abort their mission. Of the surviving aircraft, only thirty-nine managed to drop their paratroops within .5 miles (0.80 km) of the correct DZ. Only four gliders arrived intact and those not shot down en route were destroyed while attempting to land.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
Despite these setbacks, the 250 surviving men of the 1st Parachute Battalion captured the bridge intact. The battalion commander, 28-year old Lieutenant Colonel Pearson, ordered his men to dig in on the north side of the river. Their only support weapons were three anti-tank guns, two 3 inch mortars and a Vickers machine gun. As they dug in, the men removed the demolition charges from the bridge such that even if they were forced off the bridge it could not be immediately destroyed.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
Unknown to the brigade, units of the German 1st Parachute Division had parachuted onto Catania airfield to reinforce the Italians guarding the bridge and quickly moved to regain the crossing. The German paratroops attacked at dawn. The defenders at the bridge held out all day against infantry, armour and attacks by aircraft. South of the bridge, the 2nd Parachute Battalion also under attack, were able to call on naval gunfire support from the 6 inch guns of the British cruiser HMS Mauritius, which stopped an assault that was about to overrun their position. The men from the 1st and 3rd Battalions, although initially forced across the river, still held the southern bank until dark when they withdrew to the 2nd Battalion's position.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Sicily
To the south, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, in the face of strong German resistance, had stopped for the night 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the 2nd Battalion. Gunfire was heard just south of the brigade position on the following morning whereupon Brigadier Lathbury sent out a patrol to investigate and they discovered it was from British guns. The leading elements of the 50th Division had finally made contact with the brigade. After two days fighting, the brigade's 4th Armoured and the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry recaptured the bridge. Operations Ladbroke and Fustian had cost the British 1st Airborne Division 454 dead, 240 wounded and 102 missing.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, England
The brigade returned to England in late 1943 and trained for operations in North-West Europe under the supervision of I Airborne Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning. Although they were not scheduled to take part in the Normandy landings, Operation Wastage was a contingency plan drawn up whereby all the 1st Airborne Division would be parachuted in to support any of the five invasion beaches if delays were experienced.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, England
In early September the brigade prepared for Operation Comet, during which the 1st Airborne Division's three brigades were to land in the Netherlands and capture three river crossings. The first of these was the bridge over the River Waal at Nijmegen, the second the bridge over the River Maas at Grave and finally the bridge over the River Rhine at Arnhem. The objective of the British 1st Parachute Brigade would be the bridge at Arnhem. Planning for Comet was well advanced when on 10 September the mission was cancelled. Instead, a new operation was proposed with the same objectives as Comet but to be carried out by three divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army, the British 1st and U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
Landings by the 1st Allied Airborne Army's three divisions began in the Netherlands on 17 September 1944. Although the allocation of aircraft for each division was roughly similar, the 101st Airborne Division landing at Nijmegen would use only one lift. The 82nd Airborne Division at Grave required two lifts while the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem would need three lifts. Whereas the two American divisions delivered at least three quarters of their infantry in their first lift, the 1st Airborne's similar drop used only half its capacity for infantry and the remainder to deliver vehicles and artillery.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
The 1st Airborne Division had the required airlift capacity to deliver all three parachute brigades with their glider-borne anti-tank weapons or two of the parachute brigades and the airlanding brigade on day one. Instead, the vast majority of the division's vehicles and heavy equipment, plus the 1st Parachute Brigade, most of the 1st Airlanding Brigade and divisional troops were to be on the first lift, with the rest to follow the next day. Following the first lift, the airlanding brigade would remain at the landing grounds to defend them for the following day's lifts, while the parachute brigade set out alone to capture the bridges and ferry crossing on the River Rhine.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
Planes carrying the brigade left England at around 09:45 and arrived over DZ 'X' at 13:00. After an uneventful landing the brigade, once organised, set off for Arnhem. The 2nd Parachute Battalion followed a southern route along the river Rhine, to the north 3rd Parachute Battalion took the Heelsum-Arnhem road through Oosterbeek, while the 1st Parachute Battalion initially remained in reserve at brigade headquarters. The 2nd Battalion, with 'A' Company leading, came under sporadic fire from pockets of German troops. 'C' Company were directed to capture the Arnhem railway bridge, but it was blown up just as they arrived.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
Pushing ahead, 'A' Company came under fire from German armoured cars and discovered that the central span of the pontoon bridge was missing. Entering Arnhem as night fell, the leading battalion elements reached the main road bridge at 21:00. Having secured the northern end of the bridge, attempts to capture the southern end were repulsed and the battalion started to fortify the houses and dig in. Following behind, other units of the brigade started to arrive, including a troop of guns from 1st (Airlanding) Anti -Tank Battery, brigade headquarters without the brigadier, part of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, and detachments of Royal Engineers and Royal Army Service Corps men. In total about 500 men were now at the bridge.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
A lucky break allowed 3rd Battalion to ambush the staff car carrying Generalmajor Friedrich Kussin, the German commandant of Arnhem, and kill him and his driver. Nevertheless, most of the battalion had been stopped by the Germans in Oosterbeek while 'C' Company had entered Arnhem but were halted on the road leading to the bridge. At 15:30 the 1st Parachute Battalion were released from the reserve and directed along the Ede-Arnhem road. Here they first encountered German armoured vehicles and a column of five tanks and fifteen half-tracks, which were engaged by the battalion.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
They continued fighting their way forward, and by morning had reached the outskirts of Arnhem. By this time around a quarter of the battalion had been killed, wounded or were missing. Before this, at nightfall, Brigadier Lathbury had contacted Lieutenant-Colonel Frost in command at the bridge and informed him the brigade would stay put during the night and attempt to reach him in the morning.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
At dawn on the second day, the defenders on the bridge saw a small convoy of trucks approaching at some speed from the south, which at first they misidentified as the British XXX Corps. That they were enemy trucks did not become apparent until they were on the bridge whereupon the defenders opened fire and destroyed the convoy. Soon afterwards, German infantry and armour approached the bridge from the east. One tank reached the space under the bridge before it was destroyed by one of the 6 pounder anti-tank guns.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
At 09:00, thirty armoured cars, half-tracks and trucks from the 9th SS Panzer Division attempted to rush the bridge from the south. The first five armoured cars, using the wrecks of the dawn convoy as cover and with the element of surprise, managed to cross unscathed. The rest of the force was engaged and twelve of their vehicles destroyed with the survivors returning to the southern bank. All day long, the force at the bridge came under fire from mortars and anti-aircraft guns positioned south of the river and were subject to probing infantry and armour attacks.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
On the outskirts of Arnhem, 1st Battalion, which had been joined by Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, unsuccessfully attempted to fight through to the bridge then moved south in an attempt to flank the German line. They eventually ended up beside the river, whereafter 3rd Battalion advanced 2.5 miles (4.0 km) along the bank until daylight revealed their position to the Germans. Divisional commander Major-General Roy Urquhart and Brigadier Lathbury accompanied 3rd Battalion until Lathbury was shot and wounded. Due to his injuries, they were unable to move him and he was left in the care of a Dutch family. The 1st and 3rd Battalions spent all day trying to force a way through to the bridge. By nightfall they had failed and the strength of both battalions was reduced to around 100 men.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
Another attempt to reach the bridge began at 03:45 on the third day, 19 September when the 1st and 3rd Battalions were joined by the 11th Parachute Battalion and the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. By dawn, under intense fire from the German defenders, the attack had faltered whereupon the 11th Parachute Battalion, until then held in reserve, was ordered to carry out a left flanking assault on the German line. This last attempt to reach the defenders at the bridge was subsequently stopped on the orders of General Urquhart when he realised the futility of the battle. By this time the 1st Parachute Battalion had been reduced to forty men and the 3rd Parachute Battalion to around the same number.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
With no word from the division or brigade Lieutenant-Colonel Frost assumed command of the brigade units at the bridge. With their casualties mounting and supplies of food and ammunition running low, a request for the force to surrender was rejected by Frost, who decided they would fight on.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
By day four, 20 September, the brigade still holding out at the bridge had been split into two groups during the night by the Germans who had managed to infiltrate close enough to separate them into positions east and west of the bridge road. Any movement was subjected to machine-gun and sniper fire and they were under almost constant mortar and artillery attack. Added to this were probes by tanks and self propelled guns, which approached the defenders' buildings and opened fire at point blank range.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
The brigade, out of anti-tank ammunition, could do nothing to stop them in the east, but the 6 pounders in the west still proved an effective deterrent. During the day, Lieutenant John Grayburn of the 2nd Battalion was killed and later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery during the fighting at the bridge. That morning, communications with 1st Airborne Division were established and Frost, on asking for reinforcements and supplies, was informed that the division was surrounded at Oosterbeek and the brigade was on their own.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Arnhem
Frost was later wounded and command of the brigade assumed by Major Frederick Gough of the reconnaissance squadron. By midday the brigade position was untenable and the last defenders were withdrawn into what had been the Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion's position. By nightfall they were still holding out, and in the darkness some men tried unsuccessfully to break out. At dawn on day five, what was left of the brigade was forced to surrender.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Post war
By early May 1945, the 1st Parachute Brigade had been brought up to strength, albeit mainly with inexperienced replacements and the survivors of the 4th Parachute Brigade, which had been disbanded. On 4 May, the brigade was detached from 1st Airborne Division and 1st Parachute Battalion transported to Denmark for occupation duties while the rest of the brigade remained in Britain as a reserve formation. Without the brigade, the 1st Airborne Division deployed to Norway, but on their return were disbanded on 15 November 1945. The remaining airborne division, the 6th, went to serve in Palestine.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Post war
On 8 April 1946, the brigade, now under command of Brigadier Hugh Bellamy, arrived in Palestine where it deployed in an internal security role. They replaced the 6th Airlanding Brigade, which was reformed as a normal infantry formation. Disbandment of the last brigade was overseen by its final commander Brigadier James Hill. Except for the three battalions of the 2nd Parachute Brigade in England, the remainder of the British airborne forces were disbanded. Between March and May 1948, the 6th Airborne Division was dismantled, with the men leaving for England to be demobbed. The 1st Parachute Battalion, along with divisional headquarters, were the last airborne units to leave Palestine, three days after the British mandate ended on 18 May.


1st Parachute Brigade (United Kingdom), Operational history, Post war
After the brigade had been disbanded in June 1948, its battalions were reformed, by renumbering those in the 2nd Parachute Brigade. The 5th (Scottish) Parachute Battalion became the 2nd Parachute Battalion, the 4th/6th Parachute Battalion the 1st Parachute Battalion, and the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion the 3rd Parachute Battalion. Finally, in July 1948, the 2nd Parachute Brigade was renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade Group, taking its one and six numbers from the two wartime divisions.


1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment
The 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment (French: 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes, 1er R.C.P) is the oldest and among the most decorated airborne regiments of the French Army. Established in the French Army in 1943 and formerly part of the French Air Force since 1937, the chasseur distinguished its Regimental Colors during the campaigns of the Liberation of Paris, the First Indochina War in 1947, 1950, 1953, 1954 and the Algerian War. This elite regiment is part of the 11th Parachute Brigade.


1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment
The 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment is the only French parachute regiment that traces its roots to the French Air Force, hence the representation of a golden Hawk on the rank insignia and that of uniforms and which originally referred to the 601st Airborne Infantry Group and 602nd Airborne Infantry Group respectively (601e G.I.A, 602e G.I.A).


1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment, History, creation and different nominations, The Genesis
In 1935, the Russians successfully parachuted airborne contingents with various equipment and supporting materials. France, aware of such an operational system put in motion, dispatched three officers to the Soviet Union, Captain Frédéric Geille (prime paratrooper and fighter pilot (French: Pilote de Chasse)), Captain Durieux and Captain Charley Durrieu, to familiarize with and train on the parachute techniques adopted by the Soviet Union. On September 12, 1935 by the French Air Minister, Général Denain, decreed the creation of a parachute training center in Avignon-Pujaut and accordingly on October 3, 1936, French Air Minister Pierre Cot signed a decree which stipulated that Combat Air Brigades can include Air Infantry Units.