4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment


The 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment, is an Army Reserve unit of the British Army. Now recruiting across the United Kingdom originally the Battalion covered the North of England, with its headquarters located in Pudsey, West Yorkshire. Following the Options for Change review in 1993, 4 PARA amalgamated with the 15th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, which was downsized and became 15 Company of 4 PARA. As part of further changes in 1999, the Battalion also merged with the 10th Battalion which then became 10 Company.
Under the Army 2020 plan, it formed a reserve air assault infantry battalion of 16 Air Assault Brigade.

History

The original 4th Parachute Battalion was formed in 1942 and saw service in Algeria and Tunisia. In 1943 Operation Avalanche was launched and the Battalion was in action at Taranto and Cassino. In August 1944, the battalion was part of Operation Rugby in Southern France. In October 1944 the Battalion seized by airborne assault the airfield at Megara near Athens in Greece as part of the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade. The battalion spent the rest of the war supporting the 2nd New Zealand Division. Then from 1945 served with the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine.
The present day Battalion is the successor to several T.A. Parachute Battalions which were all raised in 1947, although these units were raised during the Second World War either as parachute troops or infantry. These are:
All of the TA Parachute Battalions formed part of the 44th Parachute Brigade in 1956. While in this brigade, 12th/13th Battalion and the 17th Battalions of the Parachute Regiment were amalgamated to form the 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment in 1967.
Members of the battalion have since been deployed on various occasions to Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2024, the regiment is due to deploy to Cyprus as part of operation Operation Tosca.

Structure

The battalion is organised as follows:

A Company (Scotland)