When the 101st airborne did the jump from the c-47's on d-day they had the 'famous' leg bag which flew off their leg the second they jumped, all i know is that the british designed it but what was if used for if anyone can help me.
On the Normandy jump, many individuals stashed all their spare equipment and even their weapons in a British made leg bag as shown above. The bag could be lowered on a 15 foot rope to dangle below the jumper after his parachute opened, so he would be free of the weight of it when landing. However, the vast majority of men who jumped with leg bags in Normandy had them torn-off by the opening shock of their deploying parachutes. The bags and contents sailed off into pitch black Norman air space never to be seen by the original owners again. American Rigger M/Sgt Joe Lanci developed an improved version of the leg bag in time for the Holland jump in September, 1944.
Reporter:How do you feel about being rescued by Patton? Joe Toye: Great, except who the f*** said we needed to be rescued? http://www.101airborneww2.com/title.jpg
The British 6th Airborne used the airbags and didn't loose many of them. When the US paratroopers jumped on d-day they had never used them before and subsequently overfilled them. Add to this the factor that when they jumped they were going to fast.
The bags were lost during the jump in Normandy, was also due the pilots not slowly their airspeed down the the expect levels. The guys jumped at higher than normal airspeeds, which joted everybody and everything
the 82nd used them also, with better results. Pilots flew at slower speeds, and the 82nd was more combat trained than the 101st, which had more influance on their pilots, so veterans say
If you watch the 30 minut Ingame video of BiA, you'll see that after Baker jumps out of the C-47 that was hit by german flak, he loses his bag (you can see the bag flying through the air).
The bag wasn't meant to carry more than 15-20 pounds. By the time the Airborne got done with them they were weighing anywhere from 35-75 pounds. This overage in weight combined with the incredible prop blast from going way too fast meant that they were ripped off when you jumped.
The leg bags were mainly issued to the 506 leading to a great amount of them losing their weapons, usually the M1 as the carbine and the Thompson that would be strapped to your side either by itself(thompson) or in its scarbard(carbine). The rest of the PIR used the griswald bag which was attached behind the reserve chute. The majority of the rest of the 101st PIR did retain their weapons though there were some that did lose equipment due to the high speeds of the C-47s. The information link used above was taken from Mark Bando's site and used on their own, don't know if permission was granted.
interestingly, in the link up above someplace, i was looking at the different equipment issued and subsequently aquired by paratroopers and came across this,
a ww1 era trench knife that was held onto after that war and issued to Frank Pistone, F Company, 502. interesting seing a relec from a person who was actually in the company that the game we are playing is based around.
yeah, there were plenty of reasons the leg bags stuffed up, you guys have already mentioned overspeed and overweight but there was another reason. The leg bag was designed to be attatched to the webbing or held onto while the chute deployed, then lowered down using the rope. Many guys in the 101st let go of them before the chute deployed or kicked them out the door. The problem with this was, the bag was already hanging once the prop blast hit them or when the trooper jolted as the chute opened. Thies extra tension on the cable snapped the ropes and was one of the 3 reasons why so many were lost.
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