The Canadian Army formed two parachute units during the war: 1st and 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalions. Initial parties were trained in either the British (Ringway) or US (Fort Benning) parachute schools, pending the setting up of Canada’s own establishment at Camp Shilo. 

1st Canadian Parachute Battalion arrived in England on June 1943 where it immediately  became part of the British 6th Airborne Division. The first paratroops from the 1st Battalion jumped into Normandy at 00.20 hours on June 6, 1944. The battalion remained in Normandy, fighting in a ground role, until August 6 when it returned to the UK. 

The battalion arrived in Belgium, this time by ship, on December 23, 1944 and marched forward to fight in the Ardennes until February 1945 when it again returned to England.

The battalion’s first operational drop was in Operation Varsity (Rhine crossing) where it was involved in very heavy fighting. Eventually successful, the battalion then advanced on foot and reached Wismar on the Baltic coast on May 2, 1945, where it met Soviet forces advancing from the east, the only Canadians to meet the Russians face-to-face.

- Fighting Men of World War II

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