Paratroopers

[kallinikosdrama1992]

In most films of WWII i've seen , all the paratroopers , they carry some rope . From the movie i think the rope is to thin , so probably it's not for climbing , i guess. Does anyone knows what was this rope for ?

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted by kallinikosdrama1992

In most films of WWII i've seen , all the paratroopers , they carry some rope . From the movie i think the rope is to thin , so probably it's not for climbing , i guess. Does anyone knows what was this rope for ?

I believe it was to give them an escape rope to climb down on if they were caught in a tree or church steeple or something.

[forager]

Never saw nor heard of such a thing.

My father was 506th PIR in WW2 and I went to jump school in 1967.
I was on jump status 3 1/2 years.
I have seen one million paratrooper movies and clips and lived the real thing.
No ropes.

One method of climbing down from something is to deploy your reserve and climb down it.

[Rising Sun*]

A length of rope, called a 'toggle rope' was standard issue for Australian troops in Vietnam.

The toggle rope, originally made of hemp with a timber toggle, was intended to be linked together for a variety of purposes. It was issued during the Vietnam War as 'Fibre rope assembly, single leg, polyester fibre, 1-in circ. 9ft long'. Although the timber toggle was no longer attached it was still universally known as a togle rope.

http://www.remlr.com/roseworthy/issued_kit/index.html

My training at the time, which was derived from field experience, was that the toggle rope could be linked with other toggle ropes for various purposes, including turning over enemy bodies from a safe distance to avoid booby trap injuries.

Another use was to put a number of canteens on a rope and send one man to refill them, thus avoiding reducing the section / platoon effectiveness to any great extent.

A mate of mine found that this wasn't the best part of his service in Vietnam when various factors resulted in the wrong smoke being thrown as an air strike was called in when his platoon should have been out of the firing line. He saw what was coming but felt he was running in slow motion until he realised that he was dragging a swag of canteens he'd just filled. He moved a lot quicker when he slipped the toggle rope holding the canteens.

[Rising Sun*]

And here is a toggle rope wound as I remember it, but the ones I knew didn't have the wooden toggle but otherwise were wound the same way.
http://cas.awm.gov.au/heraldry/REL34788

[32Bravo]

We used the toggle ropes also, RS. The two main use we put them to were: linking any number of them togetherr to form a rope for river crossing; and to wrap around a log for log racing.

http://www.army.mod.uk/images/image-..._Course307.jpg

We normally carried them wrapped about our waists, fastened at the front by the toggle.

[johnd]

thanks for that information. i didn't know much about paratroopers really.