• rustyfish@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    During the Cold War soviets experimented with dropping soldiers from helicopters into snow. Without a rope or parachute. Just jump and pray. Went as smooth as you imagine. There is also that legend which almost certainly happened, but there aren’t any records of it. In one occasion during WW2 Russian paratroopers have been deployed from a plane from low altitude without parachutes. Again on snow. And only a third of them died.

    Now, this has been denied by the soviets. But if we look at what else the Kremlin has said over the last century, we can safely assume that it absolutely happened.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Reminds me of the (probably apocryphal) story about the Ghurkas. They were told they’d be jumping behind Japanese lines, and they were a little apprehensive because they didn’t think the ground would be soft enough. But when they were told they’d have parachutes they felt better.