Second World War North Africa In November 1942 the
British First Army, with the
1st,
2nd and
3rd Parachute Battalions (
1st Parachute Brigade) attached, invaded
French Morocco and
Algeria (
Operation Torch). The
British airborne operations in North Africa started on 12 November, when the 3rd Battalion carried out the first battalion sized parachute drop, on
Bône airfield between
Algiers and
Tunis. The remainder of the brigade arrived by sea the next day. The two forces engaged in a bitter fight, and the Paras failed to secure the landing ground for the following glider force of the
1st Airlanding Brigade carrying their artillery and heavy equipment. Those gliders that did land were not unloaded before the bridge was captured at 04:40. Later that day, the Germans counter-attacked with artillery support and, within hours, the Paras were driven off the bridge.
Italy In September, the
4th,
5th and
6th Battalions (
2nd Parachute Brigade) and the
10th,
11th and
156th Battalions (
4th Parachute Brigade) took part in
Operation Slapstick, a landing from the sea near the port of
Taranto in Italy. On 14 September 1943, a
company of the 11th Battalion carried out a parachute drop on the island of
Kos. The Italian garrison surrendered, and the company was quickly reinforced by men from the 1st Battalion,
Durham Light Infantry and
Royal Air Force Regiment, before being withdrawn on 25 September and in December 1943, the 11th Battalion rejoined the division in England.
Normandy guarding a road junction near
Ranville. Each is armed with a Mk V
Sten submachine gun The next operation for the regiment was in
Normandy, France with the
6th Airborne Division. The
8th and
9th Battalions, along with the
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, from the (
3rd Parachute Brigade) and the
7th,
12th and
13th Battalions of the (
5th Parachute Brigade) were involved. The mission was
Operation Tonga, capturing bridges over the
River Orne and
Caen Canal, and destroying the
Merville Gun Battery and several other bridges to prevent the Germans reaching the landing beaches. They did, however, manage to reinforce the
glider troops of 2nd Battalion,
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, from the
6th Airlanding Brigade, that had
captured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges and held them until relieved by the
3rd Infantry Division. The 12th and 13th Battalions also had about 40 per cent of their men go missing. The 12th had to capture the village of Le Bas de Ranville, whilst the 13th was to take the town of
Ranville. Both battalions then helped secure the area around the captured bridges until relieved. Only about 150 men of the 9th Battalion had assembled when they launched their assault on the Merville Gun Battery. Their attack on the battery was successful, but with heavy casualties: 50 dead and 25 wounded. The 8th Battalion had to destroy two bridges near
Bures and a third by
Troarn. All bridges were destroyed and the battalion numbering around 190 men dug in around Troarn. The paras held the left flank of the invasion area until going onto the offensive on the night of 16/17 August. In nine days, they
advanced to the mouth of the River Seine, capturing over 1,000 German prisoners. On 27 August, the division was withdrawn from the front line and embarked for England in September.
South of France The 4th, 5th and 6th Parachute Battalions (2nd Independent Parachute Brigade) had been left in Italy when the 1st Airborne Division returned to England. On 15 August 1944, the
1st Airborne Task Force (ATF), including the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, parachuted into the region between
Fréjus and
Cannes in the south of France. Their objective was to destroy all enemy positions in the area and hold until the
U.S. Seventh Army came ashore. The ATF was preceded at 03:30 by nine pathfinder teams; only three teams, all from the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, landed on the correct DZs. When the brigade starting landing on 04:50, the drop was dispersed. Most of the 6th Battalion, half of the 4th, and one company of the 5th landed on their DZs. Most of the rest of the Paras were scattered over a 9-mile (14 km) area, The division's mission was to capture intact the road, rail and
pontoon bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and hold them until relieved, which was expected to occur two or three days later. A shortage of transport aircraft hindered operations, and it would take two days for all three of the division's brigades to arrive. It was decided that the 1st Parachute and the airlanding brigade would land on the first day. On the second day, the 4th Parachute Brigade would arrive. These battalions would dig in north and north-west of Arnhem. On day one 17 September 1944, the 1st Parachute Brigade landed and headed towards Arnhem, but only the 2nd Battalion, largely unopposed, made it to the bridges. The railway bridge was blown up as they approached and the pontoon bridge was missing a section. By dusk, most of the 2nd Battalion and some supporting units, including the Brigade Headquarters, numbering about 740 men, had taken the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge. By the second day, the
9th SS Panzer Division arrived in Arnhem, deploying to the west of the city and cutting off access to the bridge. On day two attempts by the 1st and 3rd Battalions to fight through to the bridge were unsuccessful and, by 10:00, they had been halted. At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion continued to hold out against German armoured and infantry attacks. Several hours later than expected, at 15:00, the 4th Parachute Brigade landed under fire from the Germans. The 11th Battalion was sent towards Arnhem to assist in the attempt to break through to the bridge, linking up with the 1st and 3rd Battalions after dark. The 10th and 156th Battalions moved to take up their planned positions north-west of Arnhem. En route, in the dark, the 156th Battalion came under fire and halted for the night. In the morning of the third day, the 1st, 3rd, and 11th Battalions and the 2nd Battalion,
South Staffords (1st Airlanding Brigade) tried to fight through to the bridge. Crossing open ground, the 1st Battalion was engaged by heavy fire from three sides. Trapped in the open, the 1st Battalion was decimated, and the 3rd had to withdraw. The 11th, which until then had not been heavily involved, were now exposed by the withdrawal and overwhelmed. Unable to break through the German line, the remaining men retreated towards the main force, now at
Oosterbeek. In the north, the 10th and 156th Battalions were spotted as they attempted to seize the high ground in the woods north of Oosterbeek. Both battalions came under German fire and were unable to advance any further. Ordered to fall back on
Wolfheze and Oosterbeek, they had to fight all the way, with the Germans in close pursuit. At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion still held out, but short of supplies, their position was becoming untenable. The Germans, had started destroying the buildings the battalion occupied with tank, artillery and mortar fire. By day four, the battered division was too weak to make any attempt to reach the bridge. Of the nine infantry battalions, only the 1st Battalion,
Border Regiment, still existed as a unit; the others were just remnants and battalions in name only. The division, unable to do anything for the 2nd Battalion at the bridge, dug in, forming a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek with its base on the river. The remnants of the 10th and 156th battalions at Wolfheze began to fall back, but several elements were surrounded and captured. Some 150 men of 156th Battalion were pinned down just west of the Oosterbeek. These men broke out in the late afternoon, with 90 of them making it into the perimeter. At the bridge, Lieutenant Colonel Frost finally made radio contact with the division and was told that reinforcement was doubtful. Shortly afterwards, Frost was injured by a mortar bomb, and command passed to Major
Frederick Gough. Gough arranged a two-hour truce to evacuate his wounded (including Frost), who were taken into captivity. That night, some units managed to hold out for a while and several tried to break out towards Oosterbeek, but by 05:00 on day five, all resistance at the bridge had ceased. The division managed to hold on for nine days, until it was decided to withdraw back across the Rhine by rafts and boats. At 10:00 on the last day, the Germans launched an assault with infantry and tanks on the south-east portion of the perimeter. The assault penetrated the perimeter and threatened to cut off the division from the river. British counter-attacks, supported by artillery fire from south of the river, stopped the German assault. To prevent the Germans learning about the evacuation, the plan was kept secret until the afternoon, and some men (mainly wounded) remained behind to give covering fire through the night. By 05:00, 2,163 men had been rescued and the evacuation was ended. The two parachute brigades had contained 3,082 men of the Parachute Regiment. Of these, 2,656 were killed or reported missing and only 426 made it to safety. The only awards of the
Victoria Cross to the Parachute Regiment in the war were for the Battle of Arnhem. The two recipients were
Captain John Hollington Grayburn of the 2nd Battalion, and Captain
Lionel Ernest Queripel of the 10th Battalion; both awards were posthumous.
Ardennes On 16 December 1944, the
German Army launched a surprise offensive against the
U.S. First Army through the
Ardennes the
Battle of the Bulge. The 6th Airborne Division, refitting in England, was flown to Belgium on 22 December to help stop the German attack. By 26 December, the division was in the
Dinant and
Namur area. On 29 December, they received orders to launch a counter-attack on the leading German units. The 13th Battalion, part of the 5th Parachute Brigade, suffered the heaviest losses. Between 3–5 January, the battalion fought to
capture the village of Bure. After they had taken the village, the battalion had to fight off a number of counter-attacks. By the end of the battle, their casualties were 68 dead and 121 wounded or missing.
Rhine crossing The airborne assault over the Rhine (
Operation Varsity), was the largest single airborne operation in the history of airborne warfare and also involved the
U.S. 17th Airborne Division. Five battalions of the Parachute Regiment in the 6th Airborne Division took part. The first unit to land was the 3rd Parachute Brigade (8th, 9th and 1st Canadian Battalions). The brigade suffered a number of casualties as it engaged the German forces in the Diersfordter Wald, but by 11:00, the DZ was almost cleared of German forces. The key town of
Schnappenberg was captured by the 9th Battalion in conjunction with the 1st Canadian Battalion. However, the 7th Battalion soon cleared the DZ of German troops, many of whom were situated in farms and houses, and the 12th and 13th secured the rest of the brigade's objectives.
Post war operations Far East (Jakarta) December 1945 In May 1945, it was intended that the 6th Airborne Division should be deployed to the Far East. It was intended they would form an Airborne Corps with the
44th Indian Airborne Division. The first unit to leave was the 5th Parachute Brigade, under the command of
Kenneth Darling. The brigade consisted of the 7th, 12th and 13th Battalions, 22nd Independent Parachute Company, and support units. The brigade arrived in India in June 1945 and started jungle training, but Japan surrendered before it was completed. The Japanese surrender changed British plans and it was decided the 6th Airborne Division would become the Imperial Strategic Reserve and stay in Europe. The brigade was used on operations in
Malaya, and
Singapore restoring order after the Japanese occupation.
Palestine by the Parachute Regiment in September 1946 As the Imperial reserve, the 6th Airborne Division was sent to Palestine in September 1945 as the
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine intensified. The division now consisted of the 2nd Parachute Brigade (4th, 5th and 6th Battalions), 3rd Parachute Brigade (3rd, 8th and 9th Battalions) and 6th Airlanding Brigade. Their mission was to support the police in keeping the peace between the Arab and Jewish populations. The division also conducted a 48-hour search of Tel Aviv called
Operation Shark in response to the
King David Hotel bombing. Palestine was a time of change for the Paras. With the reduction in the army after the war, the 1st Airborne Division had been disbanded and the 1st Parachute Brigade (1st, 2nd and 17th Battalions) joined the 6th Division on 1 April 1946 to replace the 6th Airlanding Brigade. In August, the 5th Parachute Brigade (7th, 12th and 13th Battalions) rejoined the division from the Far East, but was soon disbanded and its men reassigned to the other battalions in the division. Further reductions saw the disbandment of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in October 1947, leaving just the 1st and 2nd Brigades in the division. On 18 February 1948, news that the division was to be disbanded was received, leaving only one regular army parachute brigade, the 2nd, soon renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade.
1950s Cyprus and Suez For most of the next 20 years, the Parachute Regiment was involved in numerous peacekeeping and small scale operations associated with the
withdrawal from empire. In 1951, the
Prime Minister of Iran,
Mohammad Mosaddegh, seized the oilfields in
Abadan. The 16th Parachute Brigade was sent out to Cyprus in June to be ready to intervene should it be required. They were soon sent to reinforce the British troops in the
Suez Canal Zone in response to Egyptian nationalists threatening the bases there. The brigade returned to Cyprus between January and July 1956 because of attacks on British forces by
EOKA insurgents. On 5 November 1956, the 3rd Battalion conducted what would become the last British battalion-sized parachute assault. The objective was the
El Gamil airfield in
Port Said during the Suez Crisis. The battalion secured the airfield and dug in to wait the arrival of the rest of the assault forces by sea. The 1st and 2nd Battalions arrived at Port Said by
Landing Ship Tank, the 2nd Battalion were delayed in starting to advance towards
Ismailia. The battalion was supported by the tanks of the 6th
Royal Tank Regiment, but due to the delay, they were still short of their objective when a ceasefire was announced. On 14 November, the brigade returned to Cyprus. A force was assembled (Operation Vantage) which included armour, artillery, commando, and infantry battalions, one being the 2nd Battalion, based in Cyprus. The battalion was not involved in any combat and remained just long enough for the
Arab League to take over from them. All British forces had withdrawn by 19 October. , 1956 In 1960, Britain decided to withdraw from
Aden, which was then part of the
Federation of South Arabia, with independence scheduled for 1968. This decision started a campaign by the local tribes against the regular army. Supported by Egypt, communist infiltration reached a head in 1963 when Britain was forced to take action in support of the local government in what was called the Aden Emergency. The British force, known as Radforce, comprised a mixture of troops including a company from the 3rd Battalion. The rest of the 3rd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Anthony Farrar-Hockley, was also sent to Aden to conduct operations in the
Radfan mountains, capturing the Bkri ridge in May 1964. Farrar-Hockley was awarded the bar for his
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this operation. The rest of the battalion were awarded two
Military Crosses (MC) and one
Military Medal (MM), and a number were
mentioned in dispatches. By 1964, the terrorist attacks had spread to Aden, south of Radfan; to protect British servicemen and their dependents, the 1st Battalion was deployed on security duties throughout the areas of
Crater and
Khormasker. In 1965, the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, was sent to
Singapore for jungle training in response to the threat of invasion from Indonesian President
Sukarno. By March, the battalion was established along the Malaysia–Indonesia border in Borneo and conducting 10-day patrols in the jungle. On 27 April, 'B' Company's base on the hilltop village of
Plaman Mapu, consisting of company headquarters, a mortar section, and one weak platoon of young soldiers, was attacked by 150 Indonesians supported by rocket launchers, mortars, rifle grenades, and machine guns from the surrounding hills.
1970s Northern Ireland The British Army during
Operation Banner spent 38 years in
Northern Ireland, during which the 2nd Battalion spent more time there than any other infantry battalion. Between 1971 and 1996, 51 men of the Parachute Regiment were killed while serving in Northern Ireland. The first was Sergeant
Michael Willetts, 3rd Battalion. On 24 May 1971, he was killed during a bombing incident at the
Springfield Road Police Station in Belfast. A hand-carried bomb in a suitcase was left at the front of the station. Sergeant Willetts held open a door allowing members of the public and police officers to escape and then stood in the doorway, shielding those taking cover. For his actions, he was awarded the
George Cross.
Ballymurphy massacre Following
Operation Demetrius (the mass arrest and
internment of Irish nationalists), soldiers of the Parachute Regiment were involved in the
Ballymurphy massacre, in which 11 innocent civilians were shot dead and dozens wounded between 9 and 11 August 1971. At the Ballymurphy inquest in 2019, Sir
Geoffrey Howlett, who in 1971 was a lieutenant colonel and commander of the Parachute Regiment's Second Battalion, gave evidence in which he acknowledged that "most, if not all" of those killed were not members of the IRA, and that a regimental note from 1971 indicating that the incident inflicted "severe casualties" on the IRA may have been a mistake. Howlett added that he had "enormous sympathy" toward the families of those killed. The
first inquiry into the Bloody Sunday events, produced by
Baron Widgery in April 1972, largely cleared the Paras of blame. It denoted some of their shooting as "bordering on the reckless" but mostly accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen and bomb-throwers. As a result of the subsequent and more detailed Saville report, even observers who are natural supporters of the British Army are assessed as regarding the Widgery findings as "discredited." A
more detailed inquiry—chaired by
Lord Saville (
Bloody Sunday Inquiry) and lasting over a decade—concluded that the Paras had fired on unarmed civilians, most of whom were shot while fleeing or trying to help the wounded. It found that none of the march participants were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown, and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing. The soldiers denied shooting the victims named or anyone else by mistake. The inquiry found that soldiers had been fired at by members of the '
Official IRA' but concluded that the Paras had fired the first shots and that none of the soldiers had fired in response to attacks or to threatened attacks by gunmen or bomb-throwers, although two soldiers suffered slight injuries from acid or a similar, corrosive substance. Prime Minister
David Cameron, addressing the House of Commons in 2010 after the publication of the report, stated that the Paras' action overall was "both unjustified and unjustifiable, it was wrong". The
1972 Aldershot bombing was carried out by the '
Official IRA' as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday. On 22 February 1972, a car bomb was left outside the officers' mess of the 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot. When the bomb exploded, a
Roman Catholic priest serving in the army and five female kitchen staff were killed while 19 others were injured.
Shankill Road shootings The 1st Battalion was involved in another controversial shooting incident on 7 September 1972. The Paras raided houses and the headquarters of the
Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in the
Protestant Shankill area of Belfast. Two Protestant civilians were shot dead and others wounded by the Paras, who claimed they were returning fire at
loyalist gunmen. This sparked angry demonstrations by local Protestants, and a unit of the Army's
Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) refused to carry out duties until 1 Para was withdrawn from the Shankill.
Warrenpoint ambush On 27 August 1979, 16 men of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, and two from the
Queen's Own Highlanders (QOH) were killed in the
Warrenpoint ambush. The first six Paras were killed while travelling in a small convoy of three vehicles. As it passed a roadside bomb hidden in a lorry by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the bomb exploded. The PIRA had studied how the Army reacted after a bombing and correctly guessed that they would set up an incident command point in the nearby gatehouse. A second bomb detonated 32 minutes later, killing 10 Paras and two men from the QOH, one being Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair, their commanding officer. After the first explosion, the soldiers, believing that they had come under attack from the IRA, began firing across the narrow
maritime border with the Republic of Ireland, a distance of only 57 m (187 feet). An uninvolved civilian, Michael Hudson (an Englishman whose father was a
coachman at
Buckingham Palace) was killed as a result, and his cousin Barry Hudson wounded. According to
RUC researchers, the soldiers may have mistaken the sound of ammunition
cooking off from the destroyed Land Rover for enemy gunfire from across the border. The Paras were under orders not to pursue their attackers into the Republic to avoid causing any diplomatic incidents. The death toll in the Warrenpoint ambush is the highest suffered by the British Army in a single incident in Northern Ireland.
Falklands War On 2 April 1982, the
Falklands War began when Argentine forces began the invasion of the
British Overseas Territories of the
Falkland Islands and
South Georgia. British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher announced on 3 April that a naval
task force was being sent to the South Atlantic to "restore British administration to the Falkland Islands". On 20 April, the British war cabinet ordered the repossession of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The force dispatched to carry this out was based on the
3 Commando Brigade, reinforced by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment. At 04:40 21 May, the 2nd Battalion was the first major unit to land in the Falklands, just south of
San Carlos on the eastern side of
San Carlos Water. They immediately moved south to the
Sussex Mountains to cover the landings. By daylight, all troops had landed with little opposition. The first battle in the campaign was the
Battle of Goose Green, undertaken by the 2nd Battalion on 28 May. After a day long battle the Argentine commanders, agreed to surrender at 09:30 29 May. Lieutenant-Colonel
H. Jones was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross; amongst other awards were one DSO, and two DCMs. Over the night 11/12 June, the 3rd Battalion fought the
Battle of Mount Longdon. Longdon is a prominent feature to the north-west of the island's capital,
Port Stanley, which dominates the surrounding area. During the battle
Sergeant Ian McKay, was killed in a single handed attack on a machine gun position. For his actions, he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the second of only two such awards during the war. The ridge was taken with minimal casualties and an Argentine counter-attack defeated. The Argentines now had their backs to the sea, and only the capital, Stanley, remained to be liberated. The cost to the two battalions was 40 dead and 93 wounded, the highest death toll of any British regiment on land in that conflict.
Balkans In May 1999, the British government decided to send a force of 17,400 troops to take part in operations in
Kosovo, saying that the troops would be needed to rebuild the infrastructure after the
Kosovo War. An additional 12,000 troops joined the force of 5,400 already stationed in the
Republic of Macedonia. On 6 June, the 5th Airborne Brigade, including the 1st Battalion and other units, were flown to Macedonia. On 12 June, the brigade spearheaded
Operation Joint Guardian the advance into Kosovo by
KFOR. The 1st Battalion and other brigade units secured the high ground above the road from
Bace to
Pristina. With the road covered,
NATO forces could start their advance into the country. On 12 June, British paratroopers and other NATO forces had a tense standoff against Russian paratroopers over the Russian occupation of the
Pristina Airport. The incident was peacefully resolved. On 24 June, the 1st Battalion Battle Group assumed control of
Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. On that first day, they had to deal with murder, kidnapping, torture, inter-communal gun-battles, house burnings, beatings, weapon finds and looting. The number of incidents reported required all the battalion's subunits. By the afternoon, there were no reserves left. To relieve the problem, an ad hoc patrol of headquarters staff, including the
padre, was formed to assist. In August 2001, the 2nd Battalion took part in NATO's intervention in the Republic of Macedonia (
Operation Essential Harvest) to disarm the rebel
National Liberation Army, with the mission planned to last 30 days.
Sierra Leone In May 2000,
Operation Palliser was the name given to the evacuation of British,
Commonwealth and
European Union citizens from
Sierra Leone. At the time, rebel activity was increasing and the capital city
Freetown was in danger. A task force including the 1st Battalion, less 'A' Company but reinforced by 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, and the
Pathfinder Platoon, elements of the
Special Air Service (SAS), the
Royal Navy and the
Royal Air Force were dispatched to the country. A forward operating base at
Lungi Airport, to be used in the evacuation, was seized by 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, arriving by C-130 Hercules. On 17 May, the Pathfinder Platoon in the village of Lungi Lol, from the airport, were attacked by the rebels. The fight lasted several hours, killing over 30 rebels without loss to the Pathfinders. At the end of May, the Parachute Regiment was relieved by
42 Commando and returned to the United Kingdom. The British Army agreed to provide a unit to train government forces and carry out foot and vehicle mounted patrols designed to ensure the security of areas where training bases were located. In August, this unit was based on the
Royal Irish Regiment. On 25 August, a 12-man vehicle patrol in the Occra Hills was ambushed and forced to surrender by an armed rebel group known as the
West Side Boys. Negotiations led to the release of six of the men. The remainder were rescued during
Operation Barras by a combined team from A Company of the 1st Battalion and the SAS.
Iraq In January 2003, the British government announced that the
1st Armoured Division would be sent to the
Persian Gulf for potential operations in Iraq. The division units would be the
7th Armoured Brigade, 3 Commando Brigade, and the 16 Air Assault Brigade with the 1st and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. The invasion began on 19 March. The battalions' first objective was to secure the
Rumaylah oilfields before heading north to secure the main supply route north of
Basra. By the end of the month, the 3rd Battalion had entered Basra unopposed. The other two battalions crossed the
Euphrates River and occupied
El Qurna. As the fighting ended, the 1st Battalion occupied
Maysan province and
Al Amarah, less one company sent to
Baghdad to secure the British Embassy. By July, the 16 Air Assault Brigade had returned to Britain. During the war, Sergeant Gordon Robertson became the first Para to be awarded the
Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for service in
Al-Majar on 24 June 2003.
Afghanistan In May 2006, as part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the 3rd Battalion were sent to Afghanistan for
Operation Herrick. They were part of 3,300 British troops that would be deploying to
Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan as a component of the NATO International Security Assistance Force. Not expecting to be involved in any fighting, they were the only infantry unit in the brigade involved. In December 2006, it was announced that Corporal
Bryan Budd 3rd Battalion had been awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for two separate acts of "inspirational leadership and the greatest valour" which led to his death during actions against the
Taliban in Afghanistan in July and August 2006. In the same deployment, Corporal
Mark Wright 3rd Battalion was awarded a posthumous George Cross. Wright was killed after entering a minefield near Kajaki Dam to save a wounded colleague that had stepped on an old Russian mine. The brigade returned to Afghanistan from April to October 2008. This time, the three parachute battalions were reinforced by reservists from the 4th Battalion. In October 2010, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, reinforced by the 4th Battalion, 16 Air Assault Brigade, returned to Afghanistan for their third tour. In 2015, Lance Corporal
Joshua Leakey became the third serviceman during the
War in Afghanistan to receive the Victoria Cross for showing "complete disregard" for his own safety during a 2013 Taliban attack. ==Structure==