Italian Folgare

While thus far there have been no reports of the employment of Italian parachute troops in any theater of operations, it is known that the Italians have recently been stressing this aspect of modern warfare in their training programs. The following details, also learned from captured prisoners, concerning the equipment and training of Italian parachutists are of interest. (1) At the time of jumping, each parachutist is equipped with the following: a Beretta machine carbine strapped to his right leg, 400 rounds of ammunition, a haversack containing 40 grenades, 3 days hard rations, and 1 quart of water. (2) Guns and ammunition are dropped in sacks by blue parachutes. For the purpose of easier identification, these sacks are marked with certain distinguishing symbols. Thus the sack containing the gun barrel is marked a yellow flag, that containing the wheels and trail with a blue circle, and that containing the carriage with a black circle. The ammunition is dropped in a sack marked with a red circle. (3) In the training of Italian parachutists, jumps are never made below an altitude of 300 feet. A feature of the training is the emphasis on speed in unloading a plane, and the jumping schedule calls for seven men jumping in an interval as small as 4 seconds. The soldier is ATLANTIC's Italian Folgare para WW2