Summer 2026 5 My role was to conduct a night jump with my Scorpion crews so we could recce the route to the start line, set up the start line and then guide the Sqn to the start line once they had completed the dawn jump. The Scorpion crews and I deployed to a sole chinook at about 2 in the morning we collected our chutes and reserves but had not fitted them yet. Unlike the rest of the Sqn, we were not going to be able to get our heads down for a few hours. Despite being totally knackered, as with any jump, no matter how knackered you are before the jump, once you are fitted up with your chute and on your way to the aircraft the adrenaline kicks in and you perk right up, all fatigue disappears. We approached the chinook; it was dark and wet, and the chinook was powered down, so it too was in darkness. We all piled into the rear of the chinook out of the rain, and you could hear chuntering coming from the aircrew. It would appear that the cloud ceiling was well below 500 feet, and they could not take off at night or let us jump in those conditions, so the night jump was scrubbed. The only consolation with the night jump would have been that you could not see what condition the ground was for your landing and given the frozen and extremely cut up state of the DZ we were grateful for that. So off we trudged back to the Sqn and informed the Boss that the night jump was off, and we had to readjust the plan for all of us conducting a dawn jump. This meant that we were able to get a couple of hours sleep in just our green maggots and bivibags. When we went to sleep it was all snow and frozen ground but through lucky happenstance a warm front came through with heavy rain, melted the snow and softened the ground. So many of us woke up surrounded by water, thankfully the bivibags were waterproof. Before first light we all drew and fitted out chutes and reserves. As this was going to be the first operational jump and the aircrew had only just completed their trg it was decided that we would jump with a max of 7 or 8 in a stick. One of the guys would jump with equipment so each section could have radios and extra ammunition for the GPMGs. The Scorpion crews were to jump first, again, as we had a separate rally reorg point to the rest of the Sqn. We were to make our way south to a small stand of trees where we were to wait for our Scorpions to come onto the battlefield underslung from the Chinooks. We emplaned into the Chinook. I was number 2 on the first stick. I had wanted to be number one out on this significant jump for the Regiment and the Chinook Sqn, but the Loadmaster insisted that the bloke with the equipment went first. None of us had ever jumped from a Chinook before and only a few had jumped from the tailgate of an aircraft. Normally we jumped from the side doors of a Hercules or from a balloon, so the jump was all new to us. We were briefed that instead of being as tight as possible when you jumped, we were to spread our elbows and legs out wide and imagine you are spread out on a wide chair. We came into the DZ from the south. It was an overcast day, but the clouds were quite high and visibility was good. On the approach to the DZ we stood up, hooked up and the order was given to check equipment. You then shuffle up to the Red/Green light and await the instruction to jump. You see that red light come on and hear “Red On” called out. The next thing you will see is the green light come on and the Jumpmaster yelling GO. The aircrew were tentative about dispatching us as it was their first large scale drop and they kept a decent space between us. I saw our number one shuffle up the ramp as he had a ton of equipment strapped to the front of him and he was dispatched by the Loady. I moved up closely behind him as we normally would but was held up by the Loady to get a bit of space between us and was then heard the command GO. I took a couple of steps to the end of the ramp and then launched myself off the ramp, 800 metres above the Luneburg plain. I was immediately struck by how calm the exit was. Normally you jump into a slipstream of about 120 knots, tailgating you are jumping with the aircraft, so it was just like sitting in a comfy chair. No buffeting, no twists, just the most pleasant jump I have ever done. You could see from this height the amount of water on the DZ. The Luneburg plain is made up of a black fine sandy soil and the water pools looked like silver against the black surface. I noted that I was near to the yellow DZ markers, and I could see a film crew with a large camera on a tripod filming our decent. As I came down, I got closer and closer to the cameraman and eventually landed in a huge run of water from a deep tank track, and I disappeared into a spray of water right by the BBC cameraman and the still photographer. Looking at the BBC footage afterwards, you see me disappearing into a cloud of very muddy water before emerging to collapse my chute and released myself from my reserve and harness. I was piss wet through, but I had my wax proof jacket on under my Para smock so upper body wise I was still quite dry. Normally we would gather up our chutes and take then off the DZ but for this jump because it was to simulate an airborne assault as realistically as possible, we left the chutes where we landed. In the end they wrote off all 100 chutes as the Saltau black sand got into every mechanism and stained all the chutes a black colour. The sight of so many deflated chutes on the DZ brought back memories of images of the Normandy and Arnhem DZs. I headed South to set up or rally reorg for the Scorpion crews and to await the arrival of our Scorpions. I set up the troops in all round defence, and we watched the rest of the Sqn jump onto the DZ and head north into the tree line where they would reorg before launching as assault on 1 Sqn. The sight of the scorpions coming into the DZ underslung from the Chinooks was extraordinary. I had never seen armour coming into battle underslung before. They came in at quite low level from the south and put the Scorpions down near to our rally reorg position. Going in to unhook the Scorpions was like you see in Vietnam war films. Small groups of us running towards the helo, which was hovering above the Scorpion, bent right over against the massive down draft from the twin rotors of the Chinook. The downwash kicked up a mass of sand, stones and water that battered your body and face as you ran into the Scorpion. The Scorpions were attached at 4 points by heavy duty chains which were then attached to the central hook of the Chinook. Once unhooked we had to stow the chains somewhere, so they were dumped on the commander’s seat so those of us commanding the Scorpions had a very uncomfortable battle sitting on a mound of very cold, uncomfortable chains. Once all the Scorpions were landed, we moved off to a flank to provide fire support for the Squadron assault on 1 Sqn’s defensive positions around the bridge. Whilst waiting to assault the position 1 Royal Scots mounted a diversionary assault to the rear of the bridge at the same time Harriers screamed in at low level providing air support for the assault. Thus 1 Sqn was met with a two-pronged assault as well as suffering from bombing and strafing runs from the Harriers. Given the nature of the assault, 1 Sqn had no other option than blowing the bridge before being overrun.
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