1st Parachute Battalion (Australia)

1st Parachute Battalion (Australia)
Soldiers from the 1st Parachute Battalion boarding a DC-2 in 1944.
Active	1943–46
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Airborne forces
Role	Parachute infantry
Size	Battalion
Battle honours	None
Commanders
Notable commanders	Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Overall

The 1st Parachute Battalion was a parachute infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Raised for service during the Second World War, it was formed in early 1943 from volunteers for airborne training. Despite achieving a high level of readiness, the battalion did not see action during the war and was disbanded in early 1946.

Like the British Army, Australia did not have a parachute operations capability at the outbreak of the Second World War; however, the demonstration of the effectiveness of such forces by the Germans in the early stages of the conflict soon provided the impetus for their development. Efforts to raise an operational parachute capability in the Australian Army began in November 1942, with 40 volunteers being selected for initial training with the newly formed Paratroop Training Unit. The first descents were made at in New South Wales, with the initial parachute courses consisting of four jumps. By March 1943 enough personnel had been trained for the Army to consider forming a full parachute battalion. As a result, the 1st Parachute Battalion was raised at this time at RAAF Station Richmond near Sydney, New South Wales.

Initially, raised on a reduced scale of only two rifle companies, the battalion's personnel were mainly drawn from volunteers from other Army units—mostly the independent companies that had been set up in 1941–42 to carry out irregular warfare—and as a result, most of the battalion's personnel had seen active service prior to being accepted. These volunteers completed their parachute training with 1st Parachute Training Unit before joining the battalion, and upon completion of their training qualified to wear the maroon beret, which was adopted by the 1st Parachute Battalion as a symbol of their elite status. In April 1943, while based at Scheyville Farm, the battalion raised a troop of engineers. Consisting of six officers and 51 other ranks, the 1st Parachute Troop, Royal Australian Engineers, was specially trained to undertake clandestine demolitions work alongside the battalion's rifle companies.