Italian Parachute Assaults

[statemachine]

Interesting,any info on these East African jumps,Paddy?

[sid guttridge]

Hi Guys,

I must correct my above post on the Peruvian parachute jump.

The Peruvians had trained up a paratroop company (actually more like a platoon in strength) by 1941. Their equipment and aircraft were pre-war Italian.

However, its only operational drop was by three men on Puerto Bolivar in southern Ecuador at the very end of July 1941, just hours before a ceasefire came into effect. The Ecuadoran Army had already abandoned the town and there was no actual fighting involved. Six Ecuadoran policemen and a warehouse of arms and munitions were captured and the parachutists were quickly relieved by a section of paratroops already air landed on a nearby airfield (at Machala?) and sailors landed by the Peruvian Navy. There are photographs puroporting to be of the actual parachute drop, but they are in fact doctored for propaganda purposes after the event.

Cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

P.S. This was the first operational parachute jump in the Americas.

[panzermahn]

Hi guys,

I read somewhere that the former Italian paratroopers (i think Major Eduardo Salla - he was the Chairman of the National Association of Italian paratroopers or something like that after the war. Apologies if I get it wrong) and those paratroopers/soldiers/commandos from the Decima X MAS formed the GLADIO detachment (I think its Stella Alpina or Stella Marina) defending the Italian south east border (Trieste, Venezia Giulia) against Titoists incursions during the 50s.

Anyone got more info on this?

Thanks,
Panzermahn

[Matthias Jünger]

Uhm...

may be I know the right person to ask about it, but I don't know if he'll be that pleased to return on the GLADIO matter, among the Decima's veterans the golpe affair and everything connected with is not a very apprecciated subject to discuss about...