1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
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The 1st Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. The division was formed in late 1941 during the Second World War, after the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, demanded an airborne force, and was initially under command of Major-General Frederick A. M. "Boy" Browning. The division was one of two airborne divisions raised by the British Army during the war, with the other being the 6th Airborne Division, created in May 1943, using former units of the 1st Airborne Division.
Men from the 1st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden fighting in the battle of Arnhem, September 1944.
British paratroopers training in Norwich, England, June 1941
King George VI inspects an airborne jeep fitted with a Vickers machine gun during a visit to the airborne forces in Southern Command, 21 May 1942. With him is Major-General "Boy" Browning, GOC of the 1st Airborne Division.
King George VI inspecting men of the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, April 1943. Accompanying him is the battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Osmund Luxmore Jones.
Airborne forces
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Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers.
United States Air Force paratroopers from the 720th Special Tactics Group jumping from a C-130J Hercules aircraft during water rescue training off the Florida Panhandle
Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth talking to paratroopers in preparation of D-Day, 19 May 1944
King George VI inspects men of the 7th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, 1st Airborne Division, in the North Midlands, 1944.
Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with American paratroopers of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.