Bomberguy's video: Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Paratroop Drops

The Whitley was designed in response to Specification B3/34 issued in July 1934 and within two years the first Whitley had made its maiden flight and the first orders for the new aeroplane (160) had been placed. Although far more capable than the aircraft it replaced (such as the Fairey Hendon and Heyford biplanes), the Whitley was hardly a modern looking aircraft with a slab-sided fuselage and prominent, jutting chin and a very distinctive nose-down flying attitude. It was however, capable of carrying a very impressive bombload of 7,000lb. The Whitley was retired from all front line service in late 1942 but it continued to operate as a transport for troops and freight, as well as for paratroop training and towing gliders. The first paratroop training course at Ringway was in July 1940 with dummy drops over Ringway and Tatton Park. The first live drops were on 13th July 1940 when RAF instructors made eight test jumps from a Whitley. Two were pull-offs from a small open platform that had been fitted in place of the rear gun turret. The other six drops were from an aperture in the fuselage floor. The pull-off method required the parachutist to face into the aircraft's slipstream and then release the parachute which immediately tore him from the aircraft. The slipstream caused somersaulting and occasionally the feared `candle' when the parachute failed to open properly. Pull-offs were soon abandoned, and jumping through the 'Whitley Hole' became the norm, but even this method had serious disadvantages for the hole was nearly three feet deep and unless a perfectly upright and rigid position was maintained the parachutist's face would strike the inside of the hole - known as "ringing the bell"- with painful consequences. Whitleys made the first paratroop drops during Operation Colossus, the failed attack on the Tragino viaduct in Italy and also on the daring raid to seize German radar equipment from Bruneval in the Channel coast. Operation Colossus was an experimental raid by thirty-eight of the five hundred men of No.2 Commando, who trained as Britains first paratroops in 1940. Despite being told they had only an even chance of returning at best, every man in the Commando volunteered. Maj. T. Pritchard commanded and among his men were three interpreters, one an Italian national who was formerly a waiter at the Savoy Hotel, London. The objective was to blow-up a fresh water aqueduct near Calitri in southern Italy, where it spanned the Tragino gorge. It was not a major military target, though it did supply some two million people including the ports of Bari and Brindisi and the naval base of Taranto. The object was primarily a test to see if the RAF could deliver men accurately to an enemy target, and the men could achieve their objective by air drop and exfiltrate themselves afterwards. On 10 February 1941, all but one of the six Whitley bombers dropped their men between 50 to 250 metres of the target. The sixth, suffering navigational problems, dropped its men and unfortunately much of the mission's explosives, two hours late and two miles north. On examining the aqueduct it was found the structure was of concrete and not brick as intelligence advised. All heavy explosives available were packed around one of the side piers and anything remaining to a small nearby bridge over the Ginestra stream, to hamper repairs, (though an officer later stated that just for the hell of it was part of the equation). Both detonations were successful and the Commandos set about making their way overland to the mouth of the Sele River, some 50 marching miles away on the Mediterranean coast south of Salerno. The British submarine HMS Triumph was to meet them offshore at this point, but unfortunately one of the Whitley bombers chose this spot to make a forced landing after incurring engine failure. As the downed bomber would attract considerable attention, the submarine abandoned any rendezvous. As it happened, the Commandos never reached the coast. Winter conditions forced them to leave their slow cross-country route and take to the roads. All at once when passing through a small town they found themselves passively but purposefully surrounded by civilians and local police. Declining to fire upon civilians, the Commandos gave themselves up. Within 36 hours of landing all men were in enemy hands, though one managed to escape back to England soon after. The Italian national was imprisoned separately, court-martialed and shot. The aqueduct was repaired in about a month during which time reservoirs coped. This raid, or test, provided valuable lessons for British Combined Operations, and served notice to the Axis that British soldiers were now airborne.