Interesting Photo

[Jareth]

I collect navy paratrooper items. I thought this photo was very interesting especially the German connection WWII German Press Photo 1941 JAPANESE PARATROOPERS AIRBORNE Marine Troops | eBay

[ghp95134]

For archives when that link goes away:



Detail


Reverse:

28o2/ Japans moderne Luftwaffe
Japanische Fallschirmjäger bei der Entgegenahme* eines
Einsatzbefehls durch ihren *Befel lshaber.

Atlantic, 21.12.41 [12 Dec 1941] / : /LA

[*note misspellings of Entgegennahme and Befelshaber.]
==========
28o2/ Japan's modern Air Force
Japanese paratroopers receiving an
Operations order from their commander.

Atlantic, 12/21/41 / : /LA

-- Guy

[Akira Komiya]

I believe the caption is in error and what is shown are aircrewmen wearing the Type 89 model 3 observer parachute. You can see the cable with the snap hook for attaching the brief case style parachute packing running from an elastic loop on the right shoulder strap of the harness stuck into a pocket on the left shoulder strap. The cable is attached to a single D-ring high up on the back of the harness.
And clips onto a loop on the rear of the pack. Unlike observer chutes used by other nations and even the Japanese Army, the chute pack of the Type 89 parachute is not attachable to the harness so you had to carry it by its handle just like a briefcase when jumping out of the aircraft, making it hardly suitable for paratrooper use. (I can’t imagine how one could safely jump out of a crashing aircraft carrying a heavy parachute pack in one hand with only one hand to crawl out of the cockpit.)

[ghp95134]

Akira-san,

I am sure glad that you are a member of the community -- your insight is valuable.

-- Guy

[Jareth]

LOL and the Germans got it wrong too! I have seen navy paratroopers in training wearing identical suits

[Akira Komiya]

Most of the men seem to be wearing a white colored garment which is neither a flying suit nor a standard overall (煙管服, Enkanfuku, literally smoke stack suit, because they were also worn when cleaning the smoke stacks of Naval vessels; thus the earlier variants came with a button-on hood for the purpose), overalls have a stand collar with a draw string and not a fold down cover as seen in the photo. Also, as I pointed out in my earlier post, the harness they are wearing was for the Type 89 Model 3 chute for observers (under Naval parlance, all crew members other than pilots were initially called observers ).
I was therefore wondering if the men were paratrooper trainees, or for that matter, any kind of trainee such as Naval Academy Students wearing some kind of PT kit under their life vests and parachute harnesses prior to their acclimatization flight. (German paratroops as well as well as Japanese Army Paratroopers first provided an acclimatization flight around the airfield to trainees before actually jumping, and the Naval Academy also provided all students with flying experience as passengers on an aircraft as part of the curriculum.)
Also, for the reader's interest, I will post photos of both the Type 89 Model 3 Parachute for passengers as well as the Type 1 Parachute as worn by paratroopers.
The Type 89 Model 3 Harness has a 1.3 meters long cloth wrapped cable attached to a ring on the back with a carbine hook on the other end to which the parachute pack is attached. The method of stowing the cable as shown in the man in the center of the blown up photo Guy kindly posted for us is actually incorrect as the cable is seen running accross his chest; the correct method is to pass it behind the back and put the attachment hook into the pocket on the left side. Although there is a manual rip cord on the right side of the pack, it seems highly unlikely to me that one would be able to use it for opening the chute as you jump as you will need your left hand to grab the pack while you need your right hand to get purchase on the airframe in order to jump. However, there is also a static line below the D ring (you can see the opening cable attached to the static line running on top of the pocket for the D-ring) so provided that you hooked the static line onto the airframe before jumping, you don't need to pull the manual D-ring.
The Type 1 harness somewhat looks similar to the Type 89 harnes but can be distinguished by the buckles on the shoulder for attaching the flaps of the back pad as well as the D-rings below them. Unlike the Army Type 1 chutes which used the D-rings to attach the reserve chute, the D-rings on the Navy Type 1 harness was meant for attaching a weapons pack. (There is a well known photo in a wartime US manual on Japanese paratroopers showing a Navy paratrooper carrying a disassembled Type 100 submachine gun in the weapons pack attached to his parachute harness.)