Collection: Airborne Assault

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The collection evolved from objects maintained by The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces from their formation in June 1940. Many objects were utilised to inform the rest of the Army about the role and function of this new force.

  Within 12 months of the end of the Second World War, on 29th October 1946, a meeting of the Committee of the Parachute Regiment Association chaired by Brigadier Hill DSO MC, established the Museum of the Airborne Forces. Brigadier CHV Pritchard DSO supervised the collection of exhibits and produced a display.

  It was initially placed in a disused officer’s mess at Corruna Barracks Aldershot, where it remained until 1949 when the mess was again required for accommodation. War Office permission was obtained the following year to convert a barrack block in Maida Barracks into the new Airborne Forces Museum. This was not properly housed until 1952, although King George VI visited it on 19th July 1950 during the Presentation of the Colours ceremonies.

  The Museum remained at Maida Barracks until the Depot and Regimental Headquarters of the Parachute Regiment moved to the Browning Barracks site in 1968. This custom designed home was regarded as permanent and sponsored by a number of civilian firms and other regiments associated with Airborne Forces.

  The original briefing models for the airborne operations of the Second World War – Bruneval, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing – could be displayed for the first time. Dioramas were set up to show the capture of the Pegasus Bridge and fighting around the Arnhem Bridge. Vehicles and weapons and equipment of the airborne soldier from 1940 to the present were displayed, including British, American and German.

  Aircraft displays of the nose sections of the Hotspur training and Horsa assault gliders were erected, with an original Dakota aircraft, eventually painted in the D-Day colours, set up outside the Museum entrance. It became an iconic and much photographed back-drop to Regimental group photographs and a well-known Aldershot landmark. Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein – then the Colonel Commandant of the Regiment – officially opened the Museum on 23rd March 1969.

  The medal room, designed to exhibit the valour, honour and pageantry of the Regiment and Airborne Forces, housed one of the finest medal collections in the country. Captured Argentinean guns and equipment’s were brought back after the Falkland Islands conflict and displayed outside.

  Exhibits were rotated and special displays built to commemorate events including the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the formation of Airborne Forces and key battle anniversaries.

  When it was decided the Parachute Regiment, then part of 16 Air Assault Brigade was to move to Colchester, planning and preparation began to find a new home for the Museum. In December 2008 the Museum was re-located and re-opened as the Airborne Assault Museum at the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford in Cambridgeshire.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The collection contains associated equipment, weapons, uniforms, memorabilia, photographs, books, documents, film and recordings, relating to the evolution, development, history and traditions of the British Airborne Forces and The Parachute Regiment since their formation in 1940. In addition, items relating to international airborne forces that have impacted British Airborne Forces are included in the collection. How the collection is utilised and stored can be broken into 4 main areas:

  The AAM Collection housed in the Airspace Hangar at IWMD Main Site displays artefacts relating to the formation, development and subsequent operations of The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces. At the centre of this collection is a unique selection of Airborne specific uniform and equipment, trophy items and a multimillion-pound selection of honours and awards, from the inception of Airborne Forces through to those awarded in the present in Afghanistan

  The Archive, located on the IWMD North Site Contains archival material from the formation of The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces in 1940 to the present day

  The Reserve Collection, housed at Bassingbourn Barracks, contains objects in 4 bespoke humidity-controlled containers

  ParaData, AAM’s online digital archive contains digitised records from the archive and entries for all those who have been killed in service and for veterans to add their own profiles and accounts. Access to ParaData is provided online through www.paradata.org.uk and also through touch screen kiosks in the AAM Collection at the Airspace Hangar at IWMD.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC