Table of Contents
Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1 First Steps 11
2 Grokhovskiy and Company 15
3 Assault at Klochkovo Farmstead 26
4 What does a Paratrooper Require? 34
5 Concepts of Deployment 35
6 Parachutes 39
7 Clothing and Equipment 51
8 A Paratrooper's Weapons 53
9 'Grokhovskiy's Coffins' 64
10 Underslung Descent Pods 69
11 Pods, Bags and Cages 81
12 'Personnel Cages' 94
13 The Aviabuses 96
14 Drops onto Water 107
15 Assault Gliders 109
16 Communication Systems 122
17 Long Tailed Saboteurs 125
18 Wheels and Tracks 128
19 'Flying Tanks' 171
20 Artillery 179
21 The Reliance on Bombers 195
22 The Stronghold Dropped from the Air 219
23 The Assault at Siverskaya 221
24 The ANT-9 - Misplaced Hopes 224
25 Separate Detachment No. 3 230
26 The Future Wings of the Airborne Troops 234
27 Special Purpose Battalions 266
28 Mass Parachute Activity as a Means of Rolling Out the Airborne Troops 280
29 War Plans that Never Took Place 288
30 Manoeuvres by the Belorassian, Ukrainian and Leningrad Military Districts, 1934 291
31 Air Mobile Approach 295
32 Military Exercises that Stunned the World 297
33 Reorganisation of the Airborne Forces 307
34 At Khasan Lake 315
35 The Second Reorganisation 316
36 At Khalkin-Gol 319
37 Against Poland 320
38 War with Finland 321
39 Baltic Region Assault 324
40 Bessarabia Assault 326
41 The 'Douglas' Era 328
42 On the Eve of All Out War 337
Conclusion 341
Bibliography 343
