title: The Last Starfighter

text: The rights to the film have not been clearly defined due to conflicting information. Multiple sources say Universal Pictures still owns the theatrical and home media distribution rights while Warner Bros., which absorbed Lorimar-Telepictures (Lorimar's successor) in 1992, has the international distribution rights. Another source states that Universal has the option to remake the film while Betuel has sequel rights. Further complicating the situation is a claim that both Universal and Warner Bros. each have remake and sequel rights.


title: The Last Starfighter

text: On April 4, 2018, Whitta posted concept art for "The Last Starfighter" sequel on his Twitter account. In the same tweet he also indicated that Betuel will be collaborating with him on the project. In a follow-up interview with Gizmodo, Whitta referred to the project as "a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation."


title: The Last Starfighter

text: On October 20, 2020, Betuel stated that, with Whitta, a script for a sequel is being written and the rights to the film were recaptured.


title: The Last Starfighter

text: On March 25, 2021, Whitta posted a sequel concept reel on YouTube called "The Last Starfighters" with concept art by Matt Allsopp and music by Chris Tilton and Craig Safan and featuring an audio clip from the original movie by Robert Preston.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: In graph theory, a tree is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by "exactly one" path, or equivalently a connected acyclic undirected graph. A forest is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by "at most one" path, or equivalently an acyclic undirected graph, or equivalently a disjoint union of trees.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A polytree (or directed tree or oriented tree or singly connected network) is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) whose underlying undirected graph is a tree. A polyforest (or directed forest or oriented forest) is a directed acyclic graph whose underlying undirected graph is a forest.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: The various kinds of data structures referred to as trees in computer science have underlying graphs that are trees in graph theory, although such data structures are generally rooted trees. A rooted tree may be directed, called a directed rooted tree, either making all its edges point away from the root—in which case it is called an arborescence or out-tree—or making all its edges point towards the root—in which case it is called an anti-arborescence or in-tree. A rooted tree itself has been defined by some authors as a directed graph. A rooted forest is a disjoint union of rooted trees. A rooted forest may be directed, called a directed rooted forest, either making all its edges point away from the root in each rooted tree—in which case it is called a branching or out-forest—or making all its edges point towards the root in each rooted tree—in which case it is called an anti-branching or in-forest.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: If has finitely many vertices, say of them, then the above statements are also equivalent to any of the following conditions:


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: As elsewhere in graph theory, the order-zero graph (graph with no vertices) is generally not considered to be a tree: while it is vacuously connected as a graph (any two vertices can be connected by a path), it is not 0-connected (or even (−1)-connected) in algebraic topology, unlike non-empty trees, and violates the "one more vertex than edges" relation. It may, however, be considered as a forest consisting of zero trees.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: An internal vertex (or inner vertex) is a vertex of degree at least 2. Similarly, an external vertex (or "outer vertex", "terminal vertex" or "leaf") is a vertex of degree 1. A branch vertex in a tree is a vertex of degree at least 3.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: An "irreducible tree" (or "series-reduced tree") is a tree in which there is no vertex of degree 2 (enumerated at sequence in the OEIS).


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "forest" is an undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by at most one path. Equivalently, a forest is an undirected acyclic graph, all of whose connected components are trees; in other words, the graph consists of a disjoint union of trees. As special cases, the order-zero graph (a forest consisting of zero trees), a single tree, and an edgeless graph, are examples of forests.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: Since for every tree , we can easily count the number of trees that are within a forest by subtracting the difference between total vertices and total edges. number of trees in a forest.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "polytree" (or "directed tree" or "oriented tree" or "singly connected network") is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) whose underlying undirected graph is a tree. In other words, if we replace its directed edges with undirected edges, we obtain an undirected graph that is both connected and acyclic.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: Some authors restrict the phrase "directed tree" to the case where the edges are all directed towards a particular vertex, or all directed away from a particular vertex (see arborescence).


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "polyforest" (or "directed forest" or "oriented forest") is a directed acyclic graph whose underlying undirected graph is a forest. In other words, if we replace its directed edges with undirected edges, we obtain an undirected graph that is acyclic.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: Some authors restrict the phrase "directed forest" to the case where the edges of each connected component are all directed towards a particular vertex, or all directed away from a particular vertex (see branching).


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "rooted tree" is a tree in which one vertex has been designated the "root". The edges of a rooted tree can be assigned a natural orientation, either "away from" or "towards" the root, in which case the structure becomes a "directed rooted tree". When a directed rooted tree has an orientation away from the root, it is called an "arborescence" or "out-tree"; when it has an orientation towards the root, it is called an "anti-arborescence" or "in-tree". The "tree-order" is the partial ordering on the vertices of a tree with if and only if the unique path from the root to passes through . A rooted tree which is a subgraph of some graph is a normal tree if the ends of every -path in are comparable in this tree-order . Rooted trees, often with additional structure such as ordering of the neighbors at each vertex, are a key data structure in computer science; see tree data structure.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: In a context where trees typically have a root, a tree without any designated root is called a "free tree".


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "labeled tree" is a tree in which each vertex is given a unique label. The vertices of a labeled tree on vertices are typically given the labels . A "recursive tree" is a labeled rooted tree where the vertex labels respect the tree order (i.e., if for two vertices and , then the label of is smaller than the label of ).


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: In a rooted tree, the "parent" of a vertex is the vertex connected to on the path to the root; every vertex has a unique parent except the root which has no parent. A "child" of a vertex is a vertex of which is the parent. An "ascendant" of a vertex is any vertex which is either the parent of or is (recursively) the ascendant of the parent of . A "descendant" of a vertex is any vertex which is either the child of or is (recursively) the descendant of any of the children of . A "sibling" to a vertex is any other vertex on the tree which has the same parent as . A "leaf" is a vertex with no children. An "internal vertex" is a vertex that is not a leaf.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: The "height" of a vertex in a rooted tree is the length of the longest downward path to a leaf from that vertex. The "height" of the tree is the height of the root. The "depth" of a vertex is the length of the path to its root ("root path"). This is commonly needed in the manipulation of the various self-balancing trees, AVL trees in particular. The root has depth zero, leaves have height zero, and a tree with only a single vertex (hence both a root and leaf) has depth and height zero. Conventionally, an empty tree (a tree with no vertices, if such are allowed) has depth and height −1.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A "-ary tree" is a rooted tree in which each vertex has at most children. 2-ary trees are often called "binary trees", while 3-ary trees are sometimes called "ternary trees".


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: An "ordered tree" (or "plane tree") is a rooted tree in which an ordering is specified for the children of each vertex. This is called a "plane tree" because an ordering of the children is equivalent to an embedding of the tree in the plane, with the root at the top and the children of each vertex lower than that vertex. Given an embedding of a rooted tree in the plane, if one fixes a direction of children, say left to right, then an embedding gives an ordering of the children. Conversely, given an ordered tree, and conventionally drawing the root at the top, then the child vertices in an ordered tree can be drawn left-to-right, yielding an essentially unique planar embedding.


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: Cayley's formula states that there are trees on labeled vertices. A classic proof uses Prüfer sequences, which naturally show a stronger result: the number of trees with vertices of degrees respectively, is the multinomial coefficient


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: A more general problem is to count spanning trees in an undirected graph, which is addressed by the matrix tree theorem. (Cayley's formula is the special case of spanning trees in a complete graph.) The similar problem of counting all the subtrees regardless of size is #P-complete in the general case ().


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: Counting the number of unlabeled free trees is a harder problem. No closed formula for the number of trees with vertices up to graph isomorphism is known. The first few values of are


title: Tree (graph theory)

text: This is a consequence of his asymptotic estimate for the number of unlabeled rooted trees with vertices:


title: Low (band)

text: Low is an American indie rock band from Duluth, Minnesota, formed in 1993 by Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals) and Mimi Parker (drums and vocals). The band was a trio from 1993 to 2020, having featured four different bassists. Parker was a member from its formation until her death in 2022.


title: Low (band)

text: The music of Low is characterized by slow tempos and minimalist arrangements. Early descriptions sometimes referred to it as a rock subgenre called "slowcore" often compared to the band Bedhead, who played this style during the early 1990s. However, Low's members ultimately disapproved of the term.


title: Low (band)

text: Parker and Sparhawk's vocal harmonies represent perhaps the group's most distinctive element; critic Denise Sullivan writes that their shared vocals are "as chilling as anything Gram [Parsons] and Emmylou [Harris] ever conspired on—though that's not to say it's country-tinged, just straight from the heart." Low's style grew experimental over time, gradually incorporating elements of electronica and glitch on later releases, while retaining their minimalist approach.


title: Low (band)

text: The band formed in early 1993. Sparhawk had been playing in the Superior, Wisconsin band Zen Identity, the core of which was formed by drummer Robb Berry and vocalist Bill Walton. That band needed a new bassist, and recruited future Low bassist John Nichols. At that time, Nichols was a senior at Superior Senior High School, and bassist in the band Lorenzo's Tractor. Sparhawk taught Zen Identity songs to Nichols and during practices, the two started improvising with some very modest, quiet themes. As a joke, they wondered what would happen if they played such quiet music in front of Duluth crowds, which at that point focused around the loud, grunge, "post-punk" sound. Soon, the joke became a serious thought. Sparhawk left Zen Identity, who continued to perform and record without him, and he and Nichols recruited Sparhawk's wife Mimi Parker to play a very modest drum kit composed of a single snare drum, single cymbal, and a single floor tom. She was to use brushes almost exclusively, rather than drum sticks. Sparhawk said they played their first two shows in 1993 at the RecyclaBell in Duluth, Minnesota.


title: Low (band)

text: Low's debut album, "I Could Live in Hope", was released on Virgin Records' Vernon Yard imprint in 1994. It featured Nichols on bass, though he was replaced by Zak Sally, who joined for the recording of the band's next album "Long Division". Both "I Could Live in Hope" and "Long Division" were produced and recorded by Kramer. "Long Division" and its similar follow-up, 1996's "The Curtain Hits the Cast", established the band as critical darlings; extensive touring helped them to develop a highly devoted fan base. "Over the Ocean", a single drawn from "The Curtain Hits the Cast", also became something of a hit on college radio.


title: Low (band)

text: By the time of their next full-length album, 1999's "Secret Name," Low had moved to the independent label Kranky. In between, they released several singles and EPs. In 1999, Low joined forces with Dirty Three to record an In The Fishtank session for Konkurrent records. Allmusic called the six-song disc "some of the best material either unit has produced." Of particular note is the disc's lengthy cover of Neil Young's "Down by the River". 2001 saw the release of "Things We Lost in the Fire".


title: Low (band)

text: The following year saw the release of the band's final full-length on Kranky, "Trust". All three of the band's full-length releases on Kranky featured superstar producers: "Secret Name" and "Things We Lost in the Fire" feature the work of recording engineer Steve Albini, who proved sympathetic to capturing the band's strengths; while "Trust" was recorded by Tom Herbers along with Duluth engineer Eric Swanson and mixed by Tchad Blake at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.


title: Low (band)

text: In April 2003, Peter S. Scholtes of the Twin Cities weekly paper "City Pages" posted in his weblog that Zak Sally had left Low. The following month, the band posted an update to the news on their website: "We have all had to work through some personal things recently ... After sorting it out, the good news is that Zak is remaining in the band ..." In July 2003, they toured Europe with Radiohead, Sally in tow. Following a successful tour in early 2004 that vividly demonstrated the band's commitment to their fans (Parker was visibly pregnant throughout), the band signaled their intent to continue making music by signing with powerhouse indie label Sub Pop. To tie up the loose ends of the era, Low released a three-disc rarities compilation on its own Chairkickers label in 2004.


title: Low (band)

text: Beginning with "Secret Name", the band have diversified their sound. The band use subtle electronic music touches to augment their sound, reflective of their tenure with Kranky and their exposure to the Midwest's post-rock scene. Adding a more overt rock element to their aesthetic, the band has used fuzz bass from "Things We Lost In the Fire" onward, and began using distorted lead guitar on "Trust". The band's 2005 album, "The Great Destroyer", nods even further in the direction of rock. Recorded with producer Dave Fridmann and released by Sub Pop in January 2005, "The Great Destroyer" has received mostly positive reviews; the "Village Voice" described the record's "comparatively thunderous verve".


title: Low (band)

text: Low cancelled the second leg of their extensive tour in support of "The Great Destroyer" in late spring of 2005. Sparhawk published a statement on the band's website, addressed directly to fans, detailing his personal problems with depression that resulted in the cancellation of the tour. In August 2005, Sparhawk announced his return to performance, embarking on a US tour with former Red House Painters frontman Mark Kozelek. In October 2005, Sally announced he was leaving the band. Low replaced Sally with Matt Livingston, a bassist and saxophonist from Duluth's musical scene. In addition to playing bass guitar, Livingston also played an antique Navy chaplain's pump organ in the group.


title: Low (band)

text: After appearing on 2007's "Drums and Guns" and touring with the group, Matt Livingston left Low in 2008, to be replaced by Steve Garrington. Garrington would perform with the band for the next 12 years and four studio albums: 2011's "Cmon", 2013's "The Invisible Way", 2015's "Ones and Sixes" and 2018's "Double Negative".


title: Low (band)

text: Sparhawk and Parker provided guest vocals on "Lunacy", the opening track on Swans' 2012 album "The Seer".


title: Low (band)

text: In June 2021, the band announced an upcoming release on Sub Pop entitled "Hey What". The album was released on September 10. With the announcement of the album came news of Garrington's departure from the band a year prior, turning Low into an official duo for the first time in their career. It was soon announced that the band had hired Charlie Parr bassist Liz Draper to support "Hey What" on tour.


title: Low (band)

text: Parker was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in late 2020; she began treatment in 2021 and publicly revealed the diagnosis during a podcast interview in January 2022. In August 2022, the band cancelled some European shows to accommodate Parker's treatment. In September, the band cancelled its dates opening for Death Cab for Cutie in the United States. In October, the band cancelled the remainder of their 2022 European tour dates, due to continued concerns about Parker's health. Parker died on November 5, 2022.


title: Low (band)

text: Low are known for their live performances. Rock club audiences sometimes watch the band while seated on the floor. During their early career, the band often faced unsympathetic and inattentive audiences in bars and clubs, to which they responded by bucking rock protocol and turning their volume down. The dynamic range of their early music made it susceptible to background noise and chatter, since many of their songs were very quiet. A performance in 1996 at the South by Southwest festival was overpowered when a Scandinavian hardcore band was booked downstairs. The "Trust" album marked a turning point, and Low's music has developed a more emphatic sound.


title: Low (band)

text: Their shows often feature drastically reinterpreted cover versions of famous songs by Joy Division and The Smiths, in addition to their own original material. In performance, Low shows off a sense of humor not necessarily found on their recordings; a tour in early 2004 featured a cover of OutKast's hit song "Hey Ya!". At a gig in Los Angeles on Halloween 1998, the band took the stage as a Misfits tribute act, complete with corpse paint and black clothing.


title: Low (band)

text: At the 2008 End of the Road Festival in Dorset, England, Sparhawk abruptly ended the band's performance by ripping the strings and lead out of his guitar, throwing it to the ground and then hurling it into the crowd before exiting the stage. He had earlier informed the audience that it had been a "crappy day". In 2010 they performed "The Great Destroyer" at Primavera Sound Festival On Friday July 13, 2012, Low gave a candlelit concert at Halifax Minster.


title: Low (band)

text: Low's performance at the 2013 Rock the Garden concert consisted of a slowed and lengthened version of their drone rock song "Do You Know How to Waltz?" followed by Alan saying, "Drone, not drones," a reference to an anti-drone sticker made by Minneapolis's Luke Heiken; the performance resulted in mass audience confusion and divisive online discussion. The performance lasted half an hour and was broadcast live on the Current which had been playing cuts of their recent album. Low had performed a more traditional show for the Current at the Fitzgerald earlier in the year.


title: Low (band)

text: On September 4, 2022, Low took the stage at the Water is Life Festival in Duluth, MN, closing with Canada from their 2002 album "Trust".


title: Low (band)

text: The band's mainstream exposure was limited in the early part of their career. Their best-known song is arguably a hymnal version of "The Little Drummer Boy", which was featured in a Gap television ad that depicted a snowball fight in slow-motion to match the song's glacial tempo.


title: Low (band)

text: Starting with "Things We Lost in the Fire" (2001), Low's albums began to appear on sales charts in Europe and then gradually in the United States as well. A remix of their "Halflight" was featured in the "Mothman Prophecies" motion picture in 2002. The band made their network television debut in 2005 by performing the single "California" on an episode of "Last Call with Carson Daly". On June 11, 2007, Scott Bateman, a web animator, announced that his video for Low's song "Hatchet (Optimimi version)" would be one of the preloads on the new Zune. Also in 2007 they recorded a song called "Family Tree" which featured in the "Careful" episode of Nick Jr's kids' show "Yo Gabba Gabba!"


title: Low (band)

text: On March 24, 2008, their song "Point of Disgust" was featured in the UK television show "Skins", prompting a rush of download sales from iTunes. Another of their songs, "Sunflower", was featured in the following episode (episode 9), and "Breaker" was featured in a later episode. As the music supervisor of "Skins" declared in the Episode Track Listing section of the show's official website: "You may have guessed by now that we are all pretty huge fans of Low in the Skins office[...]".


title: Low (band)

text: The 2008 movie "KillShot", starring Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane, features the song "Monkey" early in the film. The 2003 documentary film "Tarnation" by Jonathan Caouette features the Low tracks "Laser Beam", "Embrace" and "Back Home Again" alongside tracks by artists such as Red House Painters and The Magnetic Fields. "Laser Beam" also featured on episode 4 season 2 of "Misfits". Low was the subject of the 2008 documentary "Low: You May Need a Murderer".


title: Low (band)

text: In 2010, Robert Plant recorded two Low songs for inclusion on his album "Band of Joy", "Monkey" and "Silver Rider" from the LP "The Great Destroyer". In an interview, Plant said of "The Great Destroyer", "It's great music; it's always been in the house playing away beside Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin' Wolf, you know. There's room for everything." It is rumored that Plant was introduced to Low's music by guitarist/producer Buddy Miller; Miller worked with Low in the past, and played guitar on "Band of Joy". Curiously, writing credits for both "Monkey" and "Silver Rider" are listed in the "Band of Joy" liner notes as "Zachary Micheletti, Mimi Parker, George Sparhawk" per the official listing in BMI's publishing database. It is notable that Sparhawk performs under the pseudonym "Chicken-Bone George" in his side project Black Eyed Snakes. The band were chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in March 2012 in Minehead, England.


title: Low (band)

text: George Alan Sparhawk (born 1968 or 1969) and Mimi Jo Parker (1967–2022) first met while attending grade school in a small town outside of Bemidji, Minnesota. They eventually fell in love, married, and moved to Duluth, where they formed the band. They had two children, Hollis and Cyrus and are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about which Sparhawk has said, "our spiritual beliefs encompass our whole life and understanding of who we are and what we do." Prior to moving to Minnesota at the age of nine, Sparhawk lived in Seattle.


title: Low (band)

text: Sparhawk has done charity work with the Maasai tribe in Kenya. After a friend of his became a friend of the village of Namuncha, he played a Christmas show in order to raise funds to build a school there, where students had previously been meeting in the shade outside. He calls the experience of visiting the Maasai one of the most spiritual of his life.


title: Low (band)

text: Parker died on November 5, 2022. She was diagnosed with cancer in December 2020, but she did not disclose her illness until the next summer, when the band was forced to cancel multiple dates. In addition to Sparhawk, she is survived by their children, Hollis and Cyrus; her mother; and her sisters, Cindy Elam and Wanda Larson.


title: Low (band)

text: Her death was announced by the band's official Twitter account on November 6 with the message: "Friends, it's hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but she passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing."


title: Low (band)

text: Low owns a record label, Chairkickers' Union, which releases material by other musicians such as Rivulets and Haley Bonar, as well as some of their own material. Sparhawk is notably active in Duluth's small but vibrant independent music scene; he operates a recording studio in the town, in a deconsecrated church that naturally provides the lush reverb characteristic of Low's sound. The Chairkickers label offers another outlet for Duluth musicians, as most groups on the label are from that city, or at least from Minnesota and surrounding areas.


title: Low (band)

text: Sally has toured as a bassist with Dirty Three, and Sparhawk has devoted considerable time and energy to his Black Eyed Snakes project, a blues-rock revival band quite far removed from the Low aesthetic. Recently Sparhawk has also been seen with a new side project called The Retribution Gospel Choir. Matt Livingston, who became Low's bassist in late 2005, also played in The Retribution Gospel Choir, and was subsequently replaced by Steve Garrington. On Retribution's first tour (fall 2005), they played the Low song "From Your Place on Sunset". Musical crossover between Sparhawk's bands went in both directions as two songs originally released on a RGC tour EP, "Hatchet" and "Breaker", were later covered on Low's Drums and Guns release (before making it onto RGC's self-titled full-length debut). Similarly, Low and the Black-Eyed Snakes have played some overlapping songs, such as "Lordy".


title: Low (band)

text: As a solo artist, Sparhawk released his debut album entitled "Solo Guitar" in August 2006. He also released a track on a various artists compilation, "Songs for the End of the World", as Hollis M. Sparhawk & Her Father, and the track "Be Nice To People With Lice" on the various artists compilation album "See You on the Moon!". In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.


title: Low (band)

text: Sparhawk and Sally also made several recordings in a more synthesizer-driven style, reminiscent of the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, under the name The Hospital People. The most widely distributed of these was "Crash / We'll Be Philosophers", released as a 7-inch on clear vinyl by Duck Suit Records. Sparhawk and Sally have also played live as The Tooth Fairies, with Sally performing on drums and Sean Erspamer on bass; Tooth Fairies sets have typically consisted of cover songs by the Stooges, MC5, and similar bands. Sally has generated several works that fall in the 'graphic novel' genre, and also created the original artwork for David Bazan's (formerly of Pedro the Lion) first solo effort, the EP Fewer Moving Parts, which was recently re-released by Barsuk. At one time, Mimi Parker was rumored to have started a punk band called Rubbersnake, but this was an inside joke on the part of the band. In 2007 Sparhawk did a "Take-Away Show" acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.


title: Low (band)

text: In April 2012, Low collaborated with artist Peter Liversidge for their performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Low collaborated with the artist again for their performance at the Barbican Centre in London in April 2013.


title: Low (band)

text: In 2011, Sparhawk began collaborating with fellow Duluth violinist/vocalist Gaelynn Lea on a band called The Murder of Crows. The duo


title: Low (band)

text: plays Lea's originals, instrumentals, and covers, using looping pedals and pared-down arrangements that create a haunting sound. Their first album, "Imperfecta", was released in June 2012.


title: Low (band)

text: The band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh.


title: Document Object Model

text: The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform and language-independent interface that treats an XML or HTML document as a tree structure wherein each node is an object representing a part of the document. The DOM represents a document with a logical tree. Each branch of the tree ends in a node, and each node contains objects. DOM methods allow programmatic access to the tree; with them one can change the structure, style or content of a document. Nodes can have event handlers attached to them. Once an event is triggered, the event handlers get executed.


title: Document Object Model

text: The principal standardization of the DOM was handled by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which last developed a recommendation in 2004. WHATWG took over the development of the standard, publishing it as a living document. The W3C now publishes stable snapshots of the WHATWG standard.


title: Document Object Model

text: The history of the Document Object Model is intertwined with the history of the "browser wars" of the late 1990s between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, as well as with that of JavaScript and JScript, the first scripting languages to be widely implemented in the JavaScript engines of web browsers.


title: Document Object Model

text: JavaScript was released by Netscape Communications in 1995 within Netscape Navigator 2.0. Netscape's competitor, Microsoft, released Internet Explorer 3.0 the following year with a reimplementation of JavaScript called JScript. JavaScript and JScript let web developers create web pages with client-side interactivity. The limited facilities for detecting user-generated events and modifying the HTML document in the first generation of these languages eventually became known as "DOM Level 0" or "Legacy DOM." No independent standard was developed for DOM Level 0, but it was partly described in the specifications for HTML 4.


title: Document Object Model

text: Legacy DOM was limited in the kinds of elements that could be accessed. Form, link and image elements could be referenced with a hierarchical name that began with the root document object. A hierarchical name could make use of either the names or the sequential index of the traversed elements. For example, a form input element could be accessed as either codice_1 or codice_2.


title: Document Object Model

text: The Legacy DOM enabled client-side form validation and simple interface interactivity like creating tooltips.


title: Document Object Model

text: In 1997, Netscape and Microsoft released version 4.0 of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer respectively, adding support for Dynamic HTML (DHTML) functionality enabling changes to a loaded HTML document. DHTML required extensions to the rudimentary document object that was available in the Legacy DOM implementations. Although the Legacy DOM implementations were largely compatible since JScript was based on JavaScript, the DHTML DOM extensions were developed in parallel by each browser maker and remained incompatible. These versions of the DOM became known as the "Intermediate DOM".


title: Document Object Model

text: After the standardization of ECMAScript, the W3C DOM Working Group began drafting a standard DOM specification. The completed specification, known as "DOM Level 1", became a W3C Recommendation in late 1998. By 2005, large parts of W3C DOM were well-supported by common ECMAScript-enabled browsers, including Internet Explorer 6 (from 2001), Opera, Safari and Gecko-based browsers (like Mozilla, Firefox, SeaMonkey and Camino).


title: Document Object Model

text: The W3C DOM Working Group published its final recommendation and subsequently disbanded in 2004. Development efforts migrated to the WHATWG, which continues to maintain a living standard. In 2009, the Web Applications group reorganized DOM activities at the W3C. In 2013, due to a lack of progress and the impending release of HTML5, the DOM Level 4 specification was reassigned to the HTML Working Group to expedite its completion. Meanwhile, in 2015, the Web Applications group was disbanded and DOM stewardship passed to the Web Platform group. Beginning with the publication of DOM Level 4 in 2015, the W3C creates new recommendations based on snapshots of the WHATWG standard.


title: Document Object Model

text: To render a document such as a HTML page, most web browsers use an internal model similar to the DOM. The nodes of every document are organized in a tree structure, called the "DOM tree", with the topmost node named as "Document object". When an HTML page is rendered in browsers, the browser downloads the HTML into local memory and automatically parses it to display the page on screen. However, the DOM does not necessarily need to be represented as a tree, and some browsers have used other internal models.


title: Document Object Model

text: When a web page is loaded, the browser creates a Document Object Model of the page, which is an object oriented representation of an HTML document that acts as an interface between JavaScript and the document itself. This allows the creation of dynamic web pages, because within a page JavaScript can:


title: Document Object Model

text: Because the DOM supports navigation in any direction (e.g., parent and previous sibling) and allows for arbitrary modifications, an implementation must at least buffer the document that has been read so far (or some parsed form of it).


title: Document Object Model

text: Web browsers rely on layout engines to parse HTML into a DOM. Some layout engines, such as Trident/MSHTML, are associated primarily or exclusively with a particular browser, such as Internet Explorer. Others, including Blink, WebKit, and Gecko, are shared by a number of browsers, such as Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Firefox. The different layout engines implement the DOM standards to varying degrees of compliance.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Parachute Regiment, colloquially known as the Paras, is an airborne infantry regiment of the British Army. The first battalion is part of the Special Forces Support Group under the operational command of the Director Special Forces. The other battalions are the parachute infantry component of the British Army's rapid response formation, 16 Air Assault Brigade. The Paras, along with the Guards, are the only line infantry regiment of the British Army that has not been amalgamated with another unit since the end of the Second World War.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Parachute Regiment was formed on 22 June 1940 during the Second World War and eventually raised 17 battalions. In Europe, these battalions formed part of the 1st Airborne Division, the 6th Airborne Division and the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group. Another three battalions served with the British Indian Army in India and Burma. The regiment took part in six major parachute assault operations in North Africa, Italy, Greece, France, the Netherlands and Germany, often landing ahead of all other troops.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: At the end of the Second World War, the regiment was reduced to three regular army battalions first assigned to the 16th Parachute Brigade and later the 5th Airborne Brigade. The reserve 16th Airborne Division was formed using the regiment reserve battalions in the Territorial Army. Defence cuts gradually reduced the TA formations to a parachute brigade and then a single reserve battalion. In the same time period, the regular army battalions have taken part in operations in Suez, Cyprus, Borneo, Aden, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Kosovo War, the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, at times being reinforced by men from the reserve battalion.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops. On 22 June 1940, No. 2 Commando was turned over to parachute duties and on 21 November, re-designated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, with a parachute and glider wing. It was these men who took part in the first British airborne operation, Operation Colossus, on 10 February 1941. In September, the battalion was re-designated the 1st Parachute Battalion and assigned to the 1st Parachute Brigade. To fill out the brigade, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Parachute Battalions were raised by calling for volunteers from all units in the British Army.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The first operation by the Parachute Regiment was Operation Biting in February 1942. The objective was to capture a Würzburg radar on the coast of France. The raid was carried out by 'C' Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion, under the command of Major John Frost.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The success of the raid prompted the War Office to expand the existing airborne force, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in Derbyshire in April 1942, and creating the Parachute Regiment as well as converting a number of infantry battalions into airborne battalions in August 1942. The 2nd Parachute Brigade was then formed from the 4th Battalion, transferred from the 1st Para Brigade, and two of the converted infantry battalions, the 5th Battalion from the 7th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and 6th Battalion from the 10th Royal Welch Fusiliers. The Army Air Corps was created as the command formation of the Parachute Regiment and the Glider Pilot Regiment. With two parachute brigades now in the order of battle, the 1st Airborne Division commanded by Major-General Frederick Arthur Montague Browning was formed. By the end of the war, the regiment had raised 17 battalions.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In India, the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade was raised on 27 October 1941, comprising 151 (British), 152 (Indian) and 153 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalions along with the brigade signals, sapper squadron and 80 Parachute Field Ambulance. 151 British Parachute Battalion moved to Egypt and then to England where it was redesignated 156 Parachute battalion and joined the 4th Parachute Brigade, 1st Airborne Division. The British battalion was composed of volunteers from the 27 infantry battalions of the British Army in India. The 2nd/7th Gurkha Battalion was converted en bloc to the airborne role and renamed 154th (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion. Later, when the formation was to expand, 14th and 77th Indian Parachute Brigades from the Chindit operations were converted and comprised one airborne battalion each of British, Indian and Gurkha troops. They were part of the 44th Indian Airborne Division.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Parachute training was a 12-day course carried out at the No. 1 Parachute Training School, RAF Ringway. Recruits initially jumped from a converted barrage balloon and finished with five parachute jumps from an aircraft. Anyone failing to complete a parachute jump was returned to his old unit. At the end of the course, new Paras were presented with their maroon beret and parachute wings and posted to a parachute battalion. Parachute training was not without its dangers; three men were killed in the first 2,000 parachute jumps at Ringway.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Airborne soldiers were expected to fight against superior numbers of the enemy equipped with artillery and tanks. So training was designed to encourage a spirit of self-discipline, self-reliance and aggressiveness. Emphasis was given to physical fitness, marksmanship and fieldcraft. A large part of the training consisted of assault courses and route marching. Military exercises included capturing and holding airborne bridgeheads, road or rail bridges and coastal fortifications. At the end of most exercises, the battalion would march back to their barracks. An ability to cover long distances at speed was expected: airborne platoons were required to cover a distance of in 24 hours, and battalions .


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Parachute Regiment had their own distinctive uniform: the maroon beret at first with the Army Air Corps cap badge and from May 1943 the Parachute Regiment cap badge which is still in use today. Parachute wings were worn on the right shoulder above the airborne forces patch of Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus. On operations, Paras wore the airborne forces pattern steel helmet instead of the normal Brodie helmet. Initially they wore a 'jump jacket' modelled on the German "Fallschirmjäger" jacket. After 1942, the Denison smock was issued as the first camouflaged uniform for the British Army. In 1943, a green sleeveless jacket was designed to wear over the Denison smock when parachuting. British Paras did not use a reserve parachute, as the War Office considered the £60 cost a waste of money.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Parachute Regiment were not issued any special weapons. Their small arms were the same as the rest of the army's: the bolt action Lee–Enfield rifle and the Enfield or Webley revolver or the M1911 pistol. For a submachine gun, they used the British Sten in Northwest Europe, which was issued in higher numbers than to a normal infantry battalion. Paratroopers attached to Eighth Army used the Thompson submachine gun in the North African and Mediterranean theatre and during Operation Dragoon. Each section had a Bren light machine gun and the platoon had a 2-inch mortar. The only battalion heavy weapons were eight 3-inch mortars, four Vickers machine guns and after 1943, ten PIAT anti tank weapons.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The airborne divisions were disbanded after the Second World War, with only the 2nd Parachute Brigade (1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions) remaining. In February 1948, it was renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade and posted to the British Army on the Rhine. The brigade remained in Germany until October 1949, when it relocated to Aldershot, which became the home of the Parachute Regiment for the next 50 years. The Territorial Army (TA) reformed after the war and raised the 16th Airborne Division with nine parachute battalions (10th to 18th) in three parachute brigades. The division was disbanded in the 1956 defence cuts, leaving the 44th Independent Parachute Brigade as the only reserve parachute formation. The remaining reserve battalions were the 10th (City of London), 12th (Yorkshire), 13th (Lancashire), 15th (Scottish) and 17th (Durham Light Infantry). Further reductions resulted in the amalgamation of the 12th and 13th Battalions soon afterwards. In 1967, the TA battalions were reduced again, the 12th, 13th and 17th being amalgamated to reform the 4th Battalion. The 44th Independent Parachute Brigade was disbanded in 1977, leaving the reserve parachute battalions as independent units. Following the Falklands War, in November 1983 the 5th Airborne Brigade was formed for out-of-area operations. The brigade consisted of two of the parachute battalions and its own parachute trained artillery, engineers, medics, signals and logistics units. The Options for Change restructuring after the Cold War again reduced the number of TA battalions. The 4th and 15th Battalions were amalgamated in 1993 as the 4th Battalion, and the 10th Battalion was disbanded. The 5th Airborne Brigade lasted until the 1999 Strategic Defence Review, which recommended that the 5th Airborne and 24th Airmobile Brigade be amalgamated as the 16th Air Assault Brigade.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In November 1942 the British First Army, with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions (1st Parachute Brigade) attached, invaded French Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch). The British airborne operations in North Africa started on 12 November, when the 3rd Battalion carried out the first battalion sized parachute drop, on Bône airfield between Algiers and Tunis. The remainder of the brigade arrived by sea the next day. On 15 November, the 1st Battalion were ordered to parachute and capture a vital road junction at Béja west of Tunis. The battalion captured both Béja and Mateur after an attack on a German armoured column and an Italian tank position. The 2nd Battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, carried out a parachute drop on Depienne Airfield south of Tunis. The airfield had been abandoned, so they marched to capture Oudna Airfield. There, they were supposed to have been relieved by advancing British forces, but they had been held up by unexpected German resistance. Frost contacted First Army, only to be informed that, as they were trapped behind the lines, they had been written off. The battalion headed for the British lines, but lost 266 men under constant German attack by the time they reached safety at Medjez el Bab.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In February 1943, the brigade deployed as normal infantry, serving in the front lines for the rest of the Tunisian Campaign. They fought notable actions at Bou Arada and Tamerza against their German counterparts, the Fallschirmjäger, where they earned the nickname ""Die Roten Teufel"" (the Red Devils).


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions (1st Parachute Brigade) next took part in Operation Fustian. This was an airborne assault to seize and hold the Primosole Bridge over the River Simeto, south of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, and hold until relieved by ground forces. Those that survived the flight landed on the same drop zone (DZ) chosen by the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, which had landed moments before the British aircraft appeared. The two forces engaged in a bitter fight, and the Paras failed to secure the landing ground for the following glider force of the 1st Airlanding Brigade carrying their artillery and heavy equipment. Those gliders that did land were not unloaded before the bridge was captured at 04:40. Later that day, the Germans counter-attacked with artillery support and, within hours, the Paras were driven off the bridge.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In September, the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions (2nd Parachute Brigade) and the 10th, 11th and 156th Battalions (4th Parachute Brigade) took part in Operation Slapstick, a landing from the sea near the port of Taranto in Italy. Their objective was to capture the port and several nearby airfields, and link up with the British Eighth Army, before pressing north to join the U.S. Fifth Army near Foggia. They landed unopposed on 9 September 1943, the only losses being 58 men of the 6th Battalion, lost at sea when their ship struck a mine. Pushing inland, the Paras captured the town of Castellaneta and the town and airfield of Gioia del Colle before the 4th Parachute Brigade was withdrawn from the theatre.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 14 September 1943, a company of the 11th Battalion carried out a parachute drop on the island of Kos. The Italian garrison surrendered, and the company was quickly reinforced by men from the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry and Royal Air Force Regiment, before being withdrawn on 25 September and in December 1943, the 11th Battalion rejoined the division in England.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 2nd Parachute Brigade fought on in Italy under command of several infantry divisions, including the 2nd New Zealand Division and 8th Indian Infantry Division. In June 1944 they carried out Operation Hasty, the only parachute drop on the Italian mainland. This was a 60-man raid ahead of 2nd NZ Division's area intended to disrupt the German demolition plan during the withdrawal from the Gothic Line. 2nd Parachute Brigade took part in Operation Dragoon in southern France, then returned to Italy briefly before being sent to Greece.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The next operation for the regiment was in Normandy, France with the 6th Airborne Division. The 8th and 9th Battalions, along with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, from the (3rd Parachute Brigade) and the 7th, 12th and 13th Battalions of the (5th Parachute Brigade) were involved. The mission was Operation Tonga, capturing bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal, and destroying the Merville Gun Battery and several other bridges to prevent the Germans reaching the landing beaches. The 7th Battalion had so many missing that, by 03:00, only around 40 per cent of the battalion had been accounted for. They did, however, manage to reinforce the glider troops of 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, from the 6th Airlanding Brigade, that had captured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges and held them until relieved by the 3rd Infantry Division. The 12th and 13th Battalions also had about 40 per cent of their men go missing. The 12th had to capture the village of Le Bas de Ranville, whilst the 13th was to take the town of Ranville. Both battalions then helped secure the area around the captured bridges until relieved. Only about 150 men of the 9th Battalion had assembled when they launched their assault on the Merville Gun Battery. Their attack on the battery was successful, but with heavy casualties: 50 dead and 25 wounded. The 8th Battalion had to destroy two bridges near Bures and a third by Troarn. All bridges were destroyed and the battalion numbering around 190 men dug in around Troarn. The paras held the left flank of the invasion area until going onto the offensive on the night of 16/17 August. In nine days, they advanced to the mouth of the River Seine, capturing over 1,000 German prisoners. On 27 August, the division was withdrawn from the front line and embarked for England in September. The division's casualties were 821 killed, 2,709 wounded and 927 missing.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 4th, 5th and 6th Parachute Battalions (2nd Independent Parachute Brigade) had been left in Italy when the 1st Airborne Division returned to England. On 15 August 1944, the 1st Airborne Task Force (ATF), including the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, parachuted into the region between Fréjus and Cannes in the south of France. Their objective was to destroy all enemy positions in the area and hold until the U.S. Seventh Army came ashore. The ATF was preceded at 03:30 by nine pathfinder teams; only three teams, all from the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, landed on the correct DZs. When the brigade starting landing on 04:50, the drop was dispersed. Most of the 6th Battalion, half of the 4th, and one company of the 5th landed on their DZs. Most of the rest of the Paras were scattered over a 9-mile (14 km) area, but some landed away at Cannes. The battalions achieved all their objectives apart from the town of Le Muy on the first day. The brigade remained in France until 26 August and then returned to Italy.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions (1st Parachute Brigade) and the 10th, 11th and 156th Battalions (4th Parachute Brigade) were next in action in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands with the 1st Airborne Division. The resulting Battle of Arnhem has since become a byword for the fighting spirit of British paratroops and set a standard for the Parachute Regiment. The division's mission was to capture intact the road, rail and pontoon bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and hold them until relieved, which was expected to occur two or three days later. A shortage of transport aircraft hindered operations, and it would take two days for all three of the division's brigades to arrive. It was decided that the 1st Parachute and the airlanding brigade would land on the first day. The DZs and LZs would be secured by the airlanding brigade, whilst the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Parachute battalions would head into Arnhem and capture the bridges. On the second day, the 4th Parachute Brigade would arrive. These battalions would dig in north and north-west of Arnhem.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On day one 17 September 1944, the 1st Parachute Brigade landed and headed towards Arnhem, but only the 2nd Battalion, largely unopposed, made it to the bridges. The railway bridge was blown up as they approached and the pontoon bridge was missing a section. By dusk, most of the 2nd Battalion and some supporting units, including the Brigade Headquarters, numbering about 740 men, had taken the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: By the second day, the 9th SS Panzer Division arrived in Arnhem, deploying to the west of the city and cutting off access to the bridge.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On day two attempts by the 1st and 3rd Battalions to fight through to the bridge were unsuccessful and, by 10:00, they had been halted. At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion continued to hold out against German armoured and infantry attacks. Several hours later than expected, at 15:00, the 4th Parachute Brigade landed under fire from the Germans. The 11th Battalion was sent towards Arnhem to assist in the attempt to break through to the bridge, linking up with the 1st and 3rd Battalions after dark. The 10th and 156th Battalions moved to take up their planned positions north-west of Arnhem. En route, in the dark, the 156th Battalion came under fire and halted for the night.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In the morning of the third day, the 1st, 3rd, and 11th Battalions and the 2nd Battalion, South Staffords (1st Airlanding Brigade) tried to fight through to the bridge. Crossing open ground, the 1st Battalion was engaged by heavy fire from three sides. Trapped in the open, the 1st Battalion was decimated, and the 3rd had to withdraw. The 11th, which until then had not been heavily involved, were now exposed by the withdrawal and overwhelmed. Unable to break through the German line, the remaining men retreated towards the main force, now at Oosterbeek. In the north, the 10th and 156th Battalions were spotted as they attempted to seize the high ground in the woods north of Oosterbeek. Both battalions came under German fire and were unable to advance any further. Ordered to fall back on Wolfheze and Oosterbeek, they had to fight all the way, with the Germans in close pursuit. At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion still held out, but short of supplies, their position was becoming untenable. The Germans, had started destroying the buildings the battalion occupied with tank, artillery and mortar fire.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: By day four, the battered division was too weak to make any attempt to reach the bridge. Of the nine infantry battalions, only the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment, still existed as a unit; the others were just remnants and battalions in name only. The division, unable to do anything for the 2nd Battalion at the bridge, dug in, forming a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek with its base on the river. The remnants of the 10th and 156th battalions at Wolfheze began to fall back, but several elements were surrounded and captured. Some 150 men of 156th Battalion were pinned down just west of the Oosterbeek. These men broke out in the late afternoon, with 90 of them making it into the perimeter. At the bridge, Lieutenant Colonel Frost finally made radio contact with the division and was told that reinforcement was doubtful. Shortly afterwards, Frost was injured by a mortar bomb, and command passed to Major Frederick Gough. Gough arranged a two-hour truce to evacuate his wounded (including Frost), who were taken into captivity. That night, some units managed to hold out for a while and several tried to break out towards Oosterbeek, but by 05:00 on day five, all resistance at the bridge had ceased.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The division managed to hold on for nine days, until it was decided to withdraw back across the Rhine by rafts and boats. At 10:00 on the last day, the Germans launched an assault with infantry and tanks on the south-east portion of the perimeter. The assault penetrated the perimeter and threatened to cut off the division from the river. British counter-attacks, supported by artillery fire from south of the river, stopped the German assault. To prevent the Germans learning about the evacuation, the plan was kept secret until the afternoon, and some men (mainly wounded) remained behind to give covering fire through the night. By 05:00, 2,163 men had been rescued and the evacuation was ended.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The two parachute brigades had contained 3,082 men of the Parachute Regiment. Of these, 2,656 were killed or reported missing and only 426 made it to safety. The only awards of the Victoria Cross to the Parachute Regiment in the war were for the Battle of Arnhem. The two recipients were Captain John Hollington Grayburn of the 2nd Battalion, and Captain Lionel Ernest Queripel of the 10th Battalion; both awards were posthumous.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 16 December 1944, the German Army launched a surprise offensive against the U.S. First Army through the Ardennes the Battle of the Bulge. The 6th Airborne Division, refitting in England, was flown to Belgium on 22 December to help stop the German attack. By 26 December, the division was in the Dinant and Namur area. On 29 December, they received orders to launch a counter-attack on the leading German units. The 13th Battalion, part of the 5th Parachute Brigade, suffered the heaviest losses. Between 3–5 January, the battalion fought to capture the village of Bure. After they had taken the village, the battalion had to fight off a number of counter-attacks. By the end of the battle, their casualties were 68 dead and 121 wounded or missing.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The airborne assault over the Rhine (Operation Varsity), was the largest single airborne operation in the history of airborne warfare and also involved the U.S. 17th Airborne Division. Five battalions of the Parachute Regiment in the 6th Airborne Division took part. The first unit to land was the 3rd Parachute Brigade (8th, 9th and 1st Canadian Battalions). The brigade suffered a number of casualties as it engaged the German forces in the Diersfordter Wald, but by 11:00, the DZ was almost cleared of German forces. The key town of Schnappenberg was captured by the 9th Battalion in conjunction with the 1st Canadian Battalion. Despite taking casualties, the brigade cleared the area of German forces, and by 13:45, the brigade reported it had secured all of its objectives.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The next unit to land was the 5th Parachute Brigade (7th, 12th and 13th Battalions). The poor visibility around the DZ made it difficult for the Paras to rally. The DZ came under heavy fire from German troops stationed nearby and was subjected to shellfire and mortaring which inflicted casualties in the battalion rendezvous areas. However, the 7th Battalion soon cleared the DZ of German troops, many of whom were situated in farms and houses, and the 12th and 13th secured the rest of the brigade's objectives. The brigade was then ordered to move due east and clear an area near Schnappenberg, as well as to engage German forces gathered to the west of the farmhouse where the 6th Airborne Division Headquarters was established. By 15:30, the brigade had secured all of its objectives and linked up with other British airborne units.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: By nightfall of 24 March, out of the 7,220 men of the 6th Airborne Division who had taken part in the operation, 1,400 men had been reported killed, wounded or missing.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In May 1945, it was intended that the 6th Airborne Division should be deployed to the Far East. It was intended they would form an Airborne Corps with the 44th Indian Airborne Division. The first unit to leave was the 5th Parachute Brigade, under the command of Kenneth Darling. The brigade consisted of the 7th, 12th and 13th Battalions, 22nd Independent Parachute Company, and support units. The brigade arrived in India in June 1945 and started jungle training, but Japan surrendered before it was completed. The Japanese surrender changed British plans and it was decided the 6th Airborne Division would become the Imperial Strategic Reserve and stay in Europe. The Brigade was used on operations in Malaya, and Singapore restoring order after the Japanese occupation.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In December, the brigade was part of Operation Pounce, a mission to disarm the remaining Japanese forces in Java until they could be relieved by Dutch forces in April 1946. On their arrival in Batavia (Jakarta) they discovered that the Japanese had handed over their weapons to Indonesian nationalists who attacked the British force when they tried to wrest control, knowing that the British intended to return Batavia to the Dutch. The brigade dispersed rioters and patrolled the city until they were moved to Semarang on the coast between Batavia and Surabaya in January 1946. To prevent nationalists entering the town, the three battalions established patrols on the outskirts of the town and seized the docks and the airport. Despite a number of guerrilla attacks, the Indonesians were defeated. In April 1946, the British handed over control to the Dutch and returned to Singapore.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: As the Imperial reserve, the 6th Airborne Division was sent to Palestine in September 1945 as the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine intensified. The division now consisted of the 2nd Parachute Brigade (4th, 5th and 6th Battalions), 3rd Parachute Brigade (3rd, 8th and 9th Battalions) and 6th Airlanding Brigade. Their mission was to support the police in keeping the peace between the Arab and Jewish populations. In November, the 3rd Parachute Brigade had to intervene during Arab-Jewish riots in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that had persisted for a number of days. The division also conducted a 48-hour search of Tel Aviv called Operation Shark in response to the King David Hotel bombing. While in Palestine, the division was subjected to numerous attacks by Jewish fighters; in one such on 25 April 1947, Lehi killed seven men of the 5th Battalion.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Palestine was a time of change for the Paras. With the reduction in the army after the war, the 1st Airborne Division had been disbanded and the 1st Parachute Brigade (1st, 2nd and 17th Battalions) joined the 6th Division on 1 April 1946 to replace the 6th Airlanding Brigade. In August, the 5th Parachute Brigade (7th, 12th and 13th Battalions) rejoined the division from the Far East, but was soon disbanded and its men reassigned to the other battalions in the division. Further reductions saw the disbandment of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in October 1947, leaving just the 1st and 2nd Brigades in the division. On 18 February 1948, news that the division was to be disbanded was received, leaving only one regular army parachute brigade, the 2nd, soon renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: For most of the next 20 years, the Parachute Regiment was involved in numerous peacekeeping and small scale operations associated with the withdrawal from empire. In 1951, the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, seized the oilfields in Abadan. The 16th Parachute Brigade was sent out to Cyprus in June to be ready to intervene should it be required. They were soon sent to reinforce the British troops in the Suez Canal Zone in response to Egyptian nationalists threatening the bases there. The brigade returned to Cyprus between January and July 1956 because of attacks on British forces by EOKA insurgents.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 5 November 1956, the 3rd Battalion conducted what would become the last British battalion-sized parachute assault. The objective was the El Gamil airfield in Port Said during the Suez Crisis. The battalion secured the airfield and dug in to wait the arrival of the rest of the assault forces by sea. The 1st and 2nd Battalions arrived at Port Said by Landing Ship Tank, the 2nd Battalion were delayed in starting to advance towards Ismailia. The battalion was supported by the tanks of the 6th Royal Tank Regiment, but due to the delay, they were still short of their objective when a ceasefire was announced. On 14 November, the brigade returned to Cyprus.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In a statement on 25 June 1961, President Abd al-Karim Qasim of Iraq claimed that Kuwait was part of his country and announced his intention to annexe it. On the strength of a formal defence commitment between the two countries, Kuwait appealed for help from Britain. A force was assembled (Operation Vantage) which included armour, artillery, commando, and infantry battalions, one being the 2nd Battalion, based in Cyprus. The battalion was not involved in any combat and remained just long enough for the Arab League to take over from them. All British forces had withdrawn by 19 October.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In 1960, Britain decided to withdraw from Aden, which was then part of the Federation of South Arabia, with independence scheduled for 1968. This decision started a campaign by the local tribes against the regular army. Supported by Egypt, communist infiltration reached a head in 1963 when Britain was forced to take action in support of the local government in what was called the Aden Emergency. The British force, known as Radforce, comprised a mixture of troops including a company from the 3rd Battalion. The rest of the 3rd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Farrar-Hockley, was also sent to Aden to conduct operations in the Radfan mountains, capturing the Bkri ridge in May 1964. Farrar-Hockley was awarded the bar for his Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this operation. The rest of the battalion were awarded two Military Crosses (MC) and one Military Medal (MM), and a number were mentioned in dispatches. By 1964, the terrorist attacks had spread to Aden, south of Radfan; to protect British servicemen and their dependents, the 1st Battalion was deployed on security duties throughout the areas of Crater and Khormasker. In January 1967, the 1st Battalion returned to Aden on an emergency tour to cover the final withdrawal of British troops from the region. For a series of actions in June in the Sheik Othman and Al Mansura districts of Aden, the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael J. H. Walsh, was awarded the DSO. The rest of the battalion were awarded three MCs and one MM, and a number were mentioned in dispatches.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In 1965, the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, was sent to Singapore for jungle training in response to the threat of invasion from Indonesian President Sukarno. By March, the battalion was established along the Malaysia–Indonesia border in Borneo and conducting 10-day patrols in the jungle. On 27 April, 'B' Company's base on the hilltop village of Plaman Mapu, consisting of company headquarters, a mortar section, and one weak platoon of young soldiers, was attacked by 150 Indonesians supported by rocket launchers, mortars, rifle grenades, and machine guns from the surrounding hills. The accurate fire caused several casualties amongst the defenders. The Company Sergeant Major (CSM), John Williams, was in command of the defence. He kept moving around the base, attending to the wounded, reorganising the defenders to counter each attack, and firing illumination rounds from a 2-inch mortar. The Indonesians penetrated the wire, taking out a mortar position. CSM Williams crossed the open ground under fire to man a machine gun, which he used to engage the Indonesians inside the perimeter. Covered by the machine gun, the Paras counter-attacked and forced the Indonesians back. The Indonesians had located CSM Williams's machine gun, and in a second attack, it was subjected to heavy fire at point-blank range. Wounded and blinded in one eye, CSM Williams returned fire, defeating the second attack. He then led a fighting patrol to attack two groups of Indonesians seen approaching the base.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: For the successful defence of the base, CSM Williams was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM); in the same action, Corporal Malcolm Baughan was awarded an MM.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The British Army during Operation Banner spent 38 years in Northern Ireland, during which the 2nd Battalion spent more time there than any other infantry battalion. Between 1971 and 1996, 51 men of the Parachute Regiment were killed while serving in Northern Ireland.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The first was Sergeant Michael Willetts, 3rd Battalion. On 24 May 1971, he was killed during a bombing incident at the Springfield Road Police Station in Belfast. A hand-carried bomb in a suitcase was left at the front of the station. Sergeant Willetts held open a door allowing members of the public and police officers to escape and then stood in the doorway, shielding those taking cover. For his actions, he was awarded the George Cross.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Following Operation Demetrius (the mass arrest and internment of Irish nationalists), soldiers of the Parachute Regiment were involved in an action which came to be called the Ballymurphy massacre, in which 11 innocent civilians were shot dead and dozens wounded between 9 and 11 August 1971. At the Ballymurphy inquest in 2019, Sir Geoffrey Howlett, who in 1971 was a lieutenant colonel and commander of the Parachute Regiment's Second Battalion, gave evidence in which he acknowledged that "most, if not all" of those killed were not members of the IRA, and that a regimental note from 1971 indicating that the incident inflicted "severe casualties" on the IRA may have been a mistake. Howlett added that he had "enormous sympathy" toward the families of those killed.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In what has become known as "Bloody Sunday", the 1st Battalion were sent to Derry on 30 January 1972 to help to police a civil rights march demanding an end to internment. The Paras shot dead 13 unarmed civilians and wounded another 17 (one of whom later died of his wounds).


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The first inquiry into the Bloody Sunday events, produced by Baron Widgery in April 1972, largely cleared the Paras of blame. It denoted some of their shooting as "bordering on the reckless" but mostly accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen and bomb-throwers. As a result of the subsequent and more detailed Saville report, even observers who are natural supporters of the British Army are assessed as regarding the Widgery findings as "discredited."


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: A more detailed inquiry—chaired by Lord Saville (Bloody Sunday Inquiry) and lasting over a decade—concluded that the Paras had fired on unarmed civilians, most of whom were shot while fleeing or trying to help the wounded. It found that none of the march participants were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown, and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The soldiers denied shooting the victims named or anyone else by mistake. The inquiry found that soldiers had been fired at by members of the 'Official IRA' but concluded that the Paras had fired the first shots and that none of the soldiers had fired in response to attacks or to threatened attacks by gunmen or bomb-throwers, although two soldiers suffered slight injuries from acid or a similar, corrosive substance. This inquiry identified failures of leadership and command by the commanding officer, and failures by individual soldiers involved.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Representatives of the soldiers involved criticised the report as "one-sided". Prime Minister David Cameron, addressing the House of Commons in 2010 after the publication of the report, stated that the Paras' action overall was "both unjustified and unjustifiable, it was wrong".


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 1972 Aldershot bombing was carried out by the 'Official IRA' as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday. On 22 February 1972, a car bomb was left outside the officers' mess of the 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot. When the bomb exploded, a Roman Catholic priest serving in the army and five female kitchen staff were killed while 19 others were injured.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The 1st Battalion was involved in another controversial shooting incident on 7 September 1972. The Paras raided houses and the headquarters of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in the Protestant Shankill area of Belfast. Two Protestant civilians were shot dead and others wounded by the Paras, who claimed they were returning fire at loyalist gunmen. This sparked angry demonstrations by local Protestants, and a unit of the Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) refused to carry out duties until 1 Para was withdrawn from the Shankill.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 27 August 1979, 16 men of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, and two from the Queen's Own Highlanders (QOH) were killed in the Warrenpoint ambush. The first six Paras were killed while travelling in a small convoy of three vehicles. As it passed a roadside bomb hidden in a lorry by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the bomb exploded. The PIRA had studied how the Army reacted after a bombing and correctly guessed that they would set up an incident command point in the nearby gatehouse. A second bomb detonated 32 minutes later, killing 10 Paras and two men from the QOH, one being Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair, their commanding officer. After the first explosion, the soldiers, believing that they had come under attack from the IRA, began firing across the narrow maritime border with the Republic of Ireland, a distance of only 57 m (187 feet). An uninvolved civilian, Michael Hudson (an Englishman whose father was a coachman at Buckingham Palace) was killed as a result, and his cousin Barry Hudson wounded. According to RUC researchers, the soldiers may have mistaken the sound of ammunition cooking off from the destroyed Land Rover for enemy gunfire from across the border. The Paras were under orders not to pursue their attackers into the Republic to avoid causing any diplomatic incidents. The death toll in the Warrenpoint ambush is the highest suffered by the British Army in a single incident in Northern Ireland.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 2 April 1982, the Falklands War began when Argentine forces began the invasion of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced on 3 April that a naval task force was being sent to the South Atlantic to "restore British administration to the Falkland Islands". On 20 April, the British war cabinet ordered the repossession of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The force dispatched to carry this out was based on the 3 Commando Brigade, reinforced by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment. At 04:40 21 May, the 2nd Battalion was the first major unit to land in the Falklands, just south of San Carlos on the eastern side of San Carlos Water. They immediately moved south to the Sussex Mountains to cover the landings. By daylight, all troops had landed with little opposition.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The first battle in the campaign was the Battle of Goose Green, undertaken by the 2nd Battalion on 28 May. After a day long battle the Argentine commanders, agreed to surrender at 09:30 29 May. The battle had cost the battalion 15 dead and 37 wounded. The Argentinians had lost 55 dead, about 100 wounded and 1,500 were taken prisoner. Lieutenant-Colonel H. Jones was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross; amongst other awards were one DSO, and two DCMs.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Over the night 11/12 June, the 3rd Battalion fought the Battle of Mount Longdon. Longdon is a prominent feature to the north-west of the island's capital, Port Stanley, which dominates the surrounding area. During the battle Sergeant Ian McKay, was killed in a single handed attack on a machine gun position. For his actions, he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the second of only two such awards during the war. Other members of the battalion received a DSO, two DCMs.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The last battle of the war was the Battle of Wireless Ridge by the 2nd Battalion. The ridge was taken with minimal casualties and an Argentinian counter-attack defeated. The Argentines now had their backs to the sea, and only the capital, Stanley, remained to be liberated. Later that day, 14 June 1982, General Menéndez surrendered all Argentinian forces. The cost to the two battalions was 40 dead and 93 wounded, the highest death toll of any British regiment on land in that conflict.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In May 1999, the British government decided to send a force of 17,400 troops to take part in operations in Kosovo, saying that the troops would be needed to rebuild the infrastructure after the Kosovo War. An additional 12,000 troops joined the force of 5,400 already stationed in the Republic of Macedonia. On 6 June, the 5th Airborne Brigade, including the 1st Battalion and other units, were flown to Macedonia. On 12 June, the brigade spearheaded Operation Joint Guardian the advance into Kosovo by KFOR. The 1st Battalion and other brigade units secured the high ground above the road from Bace to Pristina. With the road covered, NATO forces could start their advance into the country.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 12 June, British paratroopers and other NATO forces had a tense standoff against Russian paratroopers over the Russian occupation of the Pristina Airport. The incident was peacefully resolved.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 24 June, the 1st Battalion Battle Group assumed control of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. On that first day, they had to deal with murder, kidnapping, torture, inter-communal gun-battles, house burnings, beatings, weapon finds and looting. The number of incidents reported required all the battalion's subunits. By the afternoon, there were no reserves left. To relieve the problem, an ad hoc patrol of headquarters staff, including the padre, was formed to assist.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In August 2001, the 2nd Battalion took part in NATO's intervention in the Republic of Macedonia (Operation Essential Harvest) to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army, with the mission planned to last 30 days.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In May 2000, Operation Palliser was the name given to the evacuation of British, Commonwealth and European Union citizens from Sierra Leone. At the time, rebel activity was increasing and the capital city Freetown was in danger. A task force including the 1st Battalion, less 'A' Company but reinforced by 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, and the Pathfinder Platoon, elements of the Special Air Service (SAS), the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force were dispatched to the country.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: A forward operating base at Lungi Airport, to be used in the evacuation, was seized by 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, arriving by C-130 Hercules.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On 17 May, the Pathfinder Platoon in the village of Lungi Lol, from the airport, were attacked by the rebels. The fight lasted several hours, killing over 30 rebels without loss to the Pathfinders.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: At the end of May, the Parachute Regiment was relieved by 42 Commando and returned to the United Kingdom.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The British Army agreed to provide a unit to train government forces and carry out foot and vehicle mounted patrols designed to ensure the security of areas where training bases were located. In August, this unit was based on the Royal Irish Regiment. On 25 August, a 12-man vehicle patrol in the Occra Hills was ambushed and forced to surrender by an armed rebel group known as the West Side Boys. Negotiations led to the release of six of the men. The remainder were rescued during Operation Barras by a combined team from A Company of the 1st Battalion and the SAS.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In January 2003, the British government announced that the 1st Armoured Division would be sent to the Persian Gulf for potential operations in Iraq. The division units would be the 7th Armoured Brigade, 3 Commando Brigade, and the 16 Air Assault Brigade with the 1st and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. The invasion began on 19 March. The battalions' first objective was to secure the Rumaylah oilfields before heading north to secure the main supply route north of Basra. By the end of the month, the 3rd Battalion had entered Basra unopposed. The other two battalions crossed the Euphrates River and occupied El Qurna. As the fighting ended, the 1st Battalion occupied Maysan province and Al Amarah, less one company sent to Baghdad to secure the British Embassy. By July, the 16 Air Assault Brigade had returned to Britain.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: During the war, Sergeant Gordon Robertson became the first Para to be awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for service in Al-Majar on 24 June 2003.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In May 2006, as part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the 3rd Battalion were sent to Afghanistan for Operation Herrick. They were part of 3,300 British troops that would be deploying to Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan as a component of the NATO International Security Assistance Force. Not expecting to be involved in any fighting, they were the only infantry unit in the brigade involved.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In December 2006, it was announced that Corporal Bryan Budd 3rd Battalion had been awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for two separate acts of "inspirational leadership and the greatest valour" which led to his death during actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in July and August 2006. In the same deployment, Corporal Mark Wright 3rd Battalion was awarded a posthumous George Cross. Wright was killed after entering a minefield near Kajaki Dam to save a wounded colleague that had stepped on an old Russian mine.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The brigade returned to Afghanistan from April to October 2008. This time, the three parachute battalions were reinforced by reservists from the 4th Battalion.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In October 2010, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, reinforced by the 4th Battalion, 16 Air Assault Brigade, returned to Afghanistan for their third tour.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Parachute Regiment consists of three regular army battalions, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and an Army Reserve battalion, the 4th. The 1st is based at St Athan, Wales, and is permanently attached to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). They receive further training on additional weapons, communications equipment and specialist assault skills. All men within the Parachute Regiment can expect to serve with the SFSG on rotation. This ensures that the advanced military skills taught to the SFSG are maintained in the other two regular battalions. The 2nd and 3rd battalions are the parachute infantry component of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the army's rapid response brigade, and are based at Colchester Garrison. The reserve 4th Battalion has its headquarters at Thornbury Barracks, near Pudsey in Leeds, and companies in Glasgow, Liverpool and London.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Volunteers for the Parachute Regiment are invited to a 3-day insight course at the Parachute Regiment Assessment Course (PRAC) at Catterick Garrison. Over the three days, they have to pass a series of physical fitness assessments. Adult entry recruit training is then undertaken over a 30-week course with 2nd Infantry Training Battalion at the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick. Junior soldiers enlisted for roles in the Parachute Regiment receive initial training which is held at the Army Foundation College. Junior soldiers are also enrolled on the Operation Achilles pathway during their last 12 weeks of phase 1 training, before they transfer to phase 2 training at the Infantry Training Centre. P company puts recruits through a number of physical assessments designed to test fitness, stamina and teamwork skills. At the end of P Company, recruits take part in eight pre-parachute selection tests. Those who are successful are awarded their maroon beret.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Currently, recruits for the Parachute Regiment must be aged 16 to 35 years and 6 months for the regular Army, or 18 to 40 for the Army Reserve (4 PARA).


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Potential Officers must be aged 18 to 29. After the British government removed the ban on women serving in Ground Close Combat (GCC) roles, women are permitted to join all infantry units, including the Parachute Regiment.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: On completion of basic training and entry into a battalion, recruits are posted to RAF Brize Norton for a Basic Parachute Course. Since 1995, all parachute jumps are carried out from powered aircraft. Prior to 1995, the first jump in the Basic Parachute Course was undertaken from a modified Barrage balloon, but this has since been replaced with the Skyvan. Recruits must complete a minimum of five jumps in order to qualify as a military parachutist, with the last two jumps required to be from a C130 Hercules.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The last time a British battalion-sized unit parachuted into combat was in 1956 during the Suez Crisis, but it is still considered a valid method of deployment.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: Details of operations for the 1st Battalion are not known, as the British government does not comment on special forces but it is believed that in 2010 a company group from the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) parachuted operationally into Afghanistan.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The Band of the Parachute Regiment is one of many British Army bands in the United Kingdom, representing the Parachute Regiment, as a component of British Army Bands Colchester, it is administratively under the Royal Corps of Army Music. Over the years, the band has visited nations like the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Qatar, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands and Norway. It has a variety of smaller ensembles that include the brass quintet and the fanfare team. On certain occasions, the regimental mascot leads the marching band on parade.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: The regiment did not have any formal musical activity until 1947, when 1st and 2nd Battalion Bands were formed in Aldershot, with a 3rd Battalion band being formed a year later. As a result of a Defence Review in 1985, the battalion Bands were disbanded and reformed to produce two larger regimental bands, the Falklands and Pegasus Bands.


title: Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

text: In the British Army, battle honours are awarded to regiments that have seen active service in a significant engagement or campaign, generally with a victorious outcome. The Parachute Regiment has been awarded the following honours.


title: Ornithology

text: Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.


title: Ornithology

text: While early ornithology was principally concerned with descriptions and distributions of species, ornithologists today seek answers to very specific questions, often using birds as models to test hypotheses or predictions based on theories. Most modern biological theories apply across life forms, and the number of scientists who identify themselves as "ornithologists" has therefore declined. A wide range of tools and techniques are used in ornithology, both inside the laboratory and out in the field, and innovations are constantly made. Most biologists who recognise themselves as "Ornithologists" study specific categories, such as Anatomy, Taxonomy, or Ecology lifestyles and behaviours. Though this can be applied to the range of all biological practises.


title: Ornithology

text: The word "ornithology" comes from the late 16th-century Latin "ornithologia" meaning "bird science" from the Greek ὄρνις "ornis" ("bird") and λόγος "logos" ("theory, science, thought").


title: Ornithology

text: The history of ornithology largely reflects the trends in the history of biology, as well as many other scientific disciplines, including ecology, anatomy, physiology, paleontology, and more recently, molecular biology. Trends include the move from mere descriptions to the identification of patterns, thus towards elucidating the processes that produce these patterns.


title: Ornithology

text: Humans have had an observational relationship with birds since prehistory, with some stone-age drawings being amongst the oldest indications of an interest in birds. Birds were perhaps important as food sources, and bones of as many as 80 species have been found in excavations of early Stone Age settlements. Waterbird and seabird remains have also been found in shell mounds on the island of Oronsay off the coast of Scotland.


title: Ornithology

text: Cultures around the world have rich vocabularies related to birds. Traditional bird names are often based on detailed knowledge of the behaviour, with many names being onomatopoeic, and still in use. Traditional knowledge may also involve the use of birds in folk medicine and knowledge of these practices are passed on through oral traditions (see ethno-ornithology). Hunting of wild birds as well as their domestication would have required considerable knowledge of their habits. Poultry farming and falconry were practised from early times in many parts of the world. Artificial incubation of poultry was practised in China around 246 BC and around at least 400 BC in Egypt. The Egyptians also made use of birds in their hieroglyphic scripts, many of which, though stylized, are still identifiable to species. Early written records provide valuable information on the past distributions of species. For instance, Xenophon records the abundance of the ostrich in Assyria (Anabasis, i. 5); this subspecies from Asia Minor is extinct and all extant ostrich races are today restricted to Africa. Other old writings such as the Vedas (1500–800 BC) demonstrate the careful observation of avian life histories and include the earliest reference to the habit of brood parasitism by the Asian koel ("Eudynamys scolopacea"). Like writing, the early art of China, Japan, Persia, and India also demonstrate knowledge, with examples of scientifically accurate bird illustrations.


title: Ornithology

text: Aristotle in 350 BC in his "Historia Animalium" noted the habit of bird migration, moulting, egg laying, and lifespans, as well as compiling a list of 170 different bird species. However, he also introduced and propagated several myths, such as the idea that swallows hibernated in winter, although he noted that cranes migrated from the steppes of Scythia to the marshes at the headwaters of the Nile. The idea of swallow hibernation became so well established that even as late as in 1878, Elliott Coues could list as many as 182 contemporary publications dealing with the hibernation of swallows and little published evidence to contradict the theory. Similar misconceptions existed regarding the breeding of barnacle geese. Their nests had not been seen, and they were believed to grow by transformations of goose barnacles, an idea that became prevalent from around the 11th century and noted by Bishop Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) in "Topographia Hiberniae" (1187). Around 77 AD, Pliny the Elder described birds, among other creatures, in his "Historia Naturalis".


title: Ornithology

text: The earliest record of falconry comes from the reign of Sargon II (722–705 BC) in Assyria. Falconry is thought to have made its entry to Europe only after AD 400, brought in from the east after invasions by the Huns and Alans. Starting from the eighth century, numerous Arabic works on the subject and general ornithology were written, as well as translations of the works of ancient writers from Greek and Syriac. In the 12th and 13th centuries, crusades and conquest had subjugated Islamic territories in southern Italy, central Spain, and the Levant under European rule, and for the first time translations into Latin of the great works of Arabic and Greek scholars were made with the help of Jewish and Muslim scholars, especially in Toledo, which had fallen into Christian hands in 1085 and whose libraries had escaped destruction. Michael Scotus from Scotland made a Latin translation of Aristotle's work on animals from Arabic here around 1215, which was disseminated widely and was the first time in a millennium that this foundational text on zoology became available to Europeans. Falconry was popular in the Norman court in Sicily, and a number of works on the subject were written in Palermo. Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194–1250) learned about an falconry during his youth in Sicily and later built up a menagerie and sponsored translations of Arabic texts, among which the popular Arabic work known as the "Liber Moaminus" by an unknown author which was translated into Latin by Theodore of Antioch from Syria in 1240-1241 as the "De Scientia Venandi per Aves", and also Michael Scotus (who had removed to Palermo) translated Ibn Sīnā's "Kitāb al-Ḥayawān" of 1027 for the Emperor, a commentary and scientific update of Aristotle's work which was part of Ibn Sīnā's massive "Kitāb al-Šifāʾ". Frederick II eventually wrote his own treatise on falconry, the "De arte venandi cum avibus", in which he related his ornithological observations and the results of the hunts and experiments his court enjoyed performing.


title: Ornithology

text: Several early German and French scholars compiled old works and conducted new research on birds. These included Guillaume Rondelet, who described his observations in the Mediterranean, and Pierre Belon, who described the fish and birds that he had seen in France and the Levant. Belon's "Book of Birds" (1555) is a folio volume with descriptions of some 200 species. His comparison of the skeleton of humans and birds is considered as a landmark in comparative anatomy. Volcher Coiter (1534–1576), a Dutch anatomist, made detailed studies of the internal structures of birds and produced a classification of birds, "De Differentiis Avium" (around 1572), that was based on structure and habits. Konrad Gesner wrote the "Vogelbuch" and "Icones avium omnium" around 1557. Like Gesner, Ulisse Aldrovandi, an encyclopedic naturalist, began a 14-volume natural history with three volumes on birds, entitled "ornithologiae hoc est de avibus historiae libri XII", which was published from 1599 to 1603. Aldrovandi showed great interest in plants and animals, and his work included 3000 drawings of fruits, flowers, plants, and animals, published in 363 volumes. His "Ornithology" alone covers 2000 pages and included such aspects as the chicken and poultry techniques. He used a number of traits including behaviour, particularly bathing and dusting, to classify bird groups.


title: Ornithology

text: William Turner's "Historia Avium" ("History of Birds"), published at Cologne in 1544, was an early ornithological work from England. He noted the commonness of kites in English cities where they snatched food out of the hands of children. He included folk beliefs such as those of anglers. Anglers believed that the osprey emptied their fishponds and would kill them, mixing the flesh of the osprey into their fish bait. Turner's work reflected the violent times in which he lived, and stands in contrast to later works such as Gilbert White's 1789 "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" that were written in a tranquil era.