I would really like to see actual evidence where the use of reserves was curtailed for ammo/gear.
That is what we used tethered D bags for.
Also other containers.
Some early combat jumps were made from low altitudes where a reserve would not have been much good.
I have heard only tales about that.
Nobody is going to allow reserves being replaced for gear or ammo.
Comix, maybe.
Might there have been an especially important drop which broke the rules, something like the Doolittle planes flying without guns to save weight and create fuel storage space?
Read any non-fiction WW2 para book.
During war they went way beyond weight limits for ammo.
Guys were jumping with/over their weight in gear.
Experts now say it couldn’t be done, yet they did it, history shows it.
Unless you’re the type that doesn’t believe that the war happened.
There is a finite amount of weight you can jump with when coming down on the silk. Carry too much and risk either coming down too fast and hard and therefore injury or even chute failure.
During any conflict there were troops on the ground that preferred to carry more ammunition, in which case they invariably left other items behind. It was not the case of carry all your kit plus extra ammunition. You balanced out what you considered you would need with what you knew you would have to have.
Or you could be wearing all the correct weight of gear and chutes just to be killed when your plane was shot down.
Or you could be dropped into the ocean like some were and drowned.
Or you could have your gear in drop bag and never see it again after jump.
Or and what ifs abound.
I am just amazed that some will say “never happened” like they were there.
Yet you say “happened” when you yourself were not there, how is that different? May I caution against such exuberance in posting until you have a bit more experience here.
Are you saying we shouldn’t believe history books either?
Why are kids going to school if that’s true?
I “quote” books I’ve read, not the fictional “Deathlands” or “Rat Bastards”.
Just because I saw it in a movie doesn’t call for a quote either.
As I said, read any non-fiction war book and learn what happened from the people that were there.
I’m a 60 year old man, I’ve got a little more experience than some.
I lost some kin folk in the war, my Grandmother worked for Boeing during that time, guess what she built.
I “wasn’t there” either, but I believe what she told me.
In this day of “google” anyone can verify info about paratrooppers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/sfeature/sf_paratrooper.html
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/dday/airborne.aspx
http://www.508pir.org/archival/magazines/yank_02.htm
You are brash for someone so light in the postcount, a congenial manner works best here.
In what year?
In WW2 people were being trained to kill in a few weeks.
Have you asked your dad about any of this?
All of my family members that served are dead.
My father-in-law only told my wife a couple of things about his service. He almost died of hunger and was cold. Bastonge?
Her great uncle was at Iwo, I would like to ask him about stuff before he dies, but I hate to bring up bad memories.
It might be bringing up bad memories but sadly the vets are getting fewer and fewer each year. You should try and record his experiences for posterity.
If you want to challenge members’ qualifications to express opinions, at least do them the courtesy of (a) reading their relevant posts which may contain the answer to your question and save you from embarrassing yourself by questioning someone who knows what they’re talking about, and (b) respecting their service experience in general and their relevant specialist service experience in particular.
In relation to (a) and (b) so far as forager is concerned, in #3 in this thread he said
I went to jump school in 1967.
I was on jump status 3 1/2 years.
Look at his avatar and read some more of his posts in other threads and you’ll see that he is eminently qualified to express an opinion on the matters you question. He is certainly a lot better qualified than the rest of us who have no difficulty with the notion that the best way to reach the ground from a serviceable aeroplane is to be aboard it when it lands uneventfully at a properly constructed aerodrome. 
Care to give some examples of American airborne troops doing this, or even any combat troops in any English-speaking army?
Basic training typically took a few months in English-speaking armies, followed by corps training of a similar or longer period, followed for specialist troops such as airborne by another similar or longer period.
As for US airborne, the 101st trained for about two years before going into action in 1944.
P.S.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of forager’s trainers at jump school in 1967 were WWII veterans, not least because I had WWII veterans training me a few years later, and if they passed on knowledge that allows him to express accurate opinions about WWII jumps.
Read any non-fiction WW2 para book.
During war they went way beyond weight limits for ammo.
Guys were jumping with/over their weight in gear.
Experts now say it couldn’t be done, yet they did it, history shows it.
Unless you’re the type that doesn’t believe that the war happened.
Ok where in any of those links does it say they discarded their emergency chutes or carried more weight than the chutes were allowed. It does say they carried up to their own weights, nothing new, soldiers have always carried heavy loads when on foot.
In what year?
In WW2 people were being trained to kill in a few weeks
Basic training for British Soldiers in WW2 was 8 weeks, followed by specialist training afterwards, strangely its still the same now (I actually did 7 weeks basic before going onto specialist courses in 1983).
Politeness and thought out posts get you further by the way.
Please read post #3.
When I posted a link to an actual picture of WW2 with a “rope”, did anyone say “yeah, they did have them”??
http://www.history.com/topics/d-day/media#d-day-paratroopers-geared-up
Any WW2 reenactor would back me up, cause they try to be as accurate as possible.
Which is why they make repro let down ropes, if they didn’t use them why make repros?
Please read this story, you can find “reserve” to save time. I know, he’s no “expert”
http://www.pathfindergroupuk.com/2008%20part%202.htm
From one WW2 book: “Fresh from basic training and four weeks jump school, they had arrived in Europe only a week or two before.”
WW2 re-enactors are not always correct or accurate, you get many different levels from the cool look type but not historically accurate, through the general idea is right all the way up to everything has to be original and perfect.
Ok so the pathfinder site says they were not issued a reserve chute not that they chose not to take it to carry more ammunition there is a difference.
Looks like these guys dropping wore reserve chutes
US WW2 Paras
US Paras Embarking
US Para with 40kg of equipment
And just to show I am not biased these have no reserve chute I can see.
Italian Paras with British Equipment on Op Herring, 26th March 1945
Seems it may have been down to the particular op as to whether they carried them or not and also what equipment they were issued.
A quote you yourself just posted from the book about training length
Fresh from basic training and four weeks jump school,
Not that they only had a couple of weeks training as you had originally posted. So how long was basic training, also the part they had arrived in Europe only a week or two before, so they arrived in Europe after a long sea journey to do what, join the reserve pool, join a unit and do a combat jump, join in the line as ground infantry. You need to put a quote in the context it is written for it to make sense.
My dad was 506th PIR. He joined them just after DDay and served througth the end.
He was wounded at Eindhoven and reissued during the stand down before Bastogne.
I once jumped a bunch of extra equipment on a training FTX.
I was incapable of moving with all the gear and was manhandled into the plane by four guys and shoved out by them as well.
As I mentioned, the drop bags were tethered by a 15 foot rope and we dropped them shortly before landing. This prevented oscillation which can kill you.
Weight is not that big of an issue as long as you can enter and exit the AC.
The training to combat in WW2, Korea and VN could be much shorter than some folks realize.
A matter of weeks is not far off at all in many cases.
The old 4 week jump school included a week of packing chutes-total waste of time and dropped early on.
An airborne q’d troop could have been in VN in 20 weeks.
Pretty much the same in WW2.
I believe my dad did basic, AIT, jump school, and immediately went over as a replacement.
Many of the guys I served with were old time paratroopers and sport jumpers.
Many literally had thousands of jumps and lots of stories.
There was a sport club at Ft Bragg and in 1967 there were guys with single digit “D” licenses.
I made “Distinguished Honor Graduate” of my BAC in 1967. Got a trophy and a couple letters.
I was very surprised even though I was very motivated.
