ELITE paratroopers looked to their regimental history by carrying out a simulated raid on an old radar station.
Colchester's B Company, 3 PARA, carried out the mock attack on Bawdsey Radar Museum, in Suffolk, the site of the world's first operational radar station.
The museum is also home to a Coastguard radio mast.
The training allowed the soldiers to practice knocking out enemy air defence installations - key targets in the early phase of an operation to remove weapons and sensors threatening troop-carrying aircraft.
The action harked back to the February 1942 Bruneval Raid, the first parachute operation by British troops.
Soldiers jumped into Northern France to capture German radar equipment.
RAF Bawdsey, on the Suffolk coast near Woodbridge, opened in 1937, just 18 months after experiments showed how radio waves could be used to detect aircraft.
It played a key role in detecting German bombing raids during the Second World War, was itself bombed a dozen times and was protected from ground attack by a network of trenches and pillboxes.
Major Rich Thorburn, commanding officer, said: “We’ve practised for what is a classic airborne forces operation – striking in the deep to knock out a key enemy installation and enable follow-up operations to take place.
"For our soldiers, training at places like Bawdsey, that are both relevant and unfamiliar to them adds realism and challenge.
“The achievements of the past set the standards we expect of our soldiers today – a message that is reinforced by looking back at Bruneval, its continuing relevance as a potential mission for us and how we would carry it out today.
"In the same era, RAF Bawdsey was positioned and protected against ground attack, and has presented a good practical challenge for our paratroopers to test themselves against.”
Paratroopers executed the raid under the protection of the powerful sensors and weaponry of Apache attack helicopters from Wattisham-based 4 Regiment Army Air Corps.
Once the facility was secured, sappers from Woodbridge-based 51 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers were brought forward to plant demolition charges on the radio mast before the troops withdrew.
3 PARA’s Guardsman Will Smith said: “This is an operation we could be expected to do and where and how we’ve practised for it has been different and interesting.
"We know what’s expected of us as paratroopers, and we did it with speed and aggression.”
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