The Parachute Regiment Free Fall Team
The Red Devils
'What manner of men are these that wear the Red Beret?'
'They are firstly volunteers..... toughened by hard physical training......
'They have jumped from the air and by doing so have conquered fear......
'Their duty lies in the van of the battle; they are proud of this honour and have never failed......
They are, in fact, men apart - every man an emperor!'
Field Marshall, The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
The Red Devils Free Fall Team 1st Cutaway Man
Peter Gowens
(Charlie Gowens - The Cutaway Man). The Red Devils very 1st Cutaway jumper)Charlie was the team's cutaway expert with over 50 cutaway jumps, he was one of - if not the most experienced cutaway jumper in the world at the time.
The Red Devils & The Golden Knights
The Red Devils & The Golden Knights
parachute display Queens Avenue Aldershot
7th April 1965
Bobby Jarrett tells a tale of when Charlie has a DZ miss and has quite an eventful landing
Well this one is about Charlie Gowens the first Cutaway Jumper on the team. I wasn’t on this demo but Charlie dropped short of the DZ and landed in the show car park. He was wearing two orange smoke bombs one for free fall and the other for under canopy so it was still burning when he went through the cloth sunroof of a car! He had difficulty in extracting himself from the car resulting in the upholstery taking on a new colour, bright orange! Obviously once free from the motor he legged as fast as his feet could carry him!
Charlie's comment to this was:
You missed out the best part of the tale. That is we contacted the owner of the car and explained that we were fully insured and that if he had the car repaired it would be met in full.
Oh no he said.
I want to show every one that I had a Red Devil land in my car.
No way was he going to have it repaired.
He claimed it would be a status symbol amongst his mates.
Well it takes all sorts. (o:
Peter sent in these stories shortly before he passed away
Yeovilton and Southampton
One bright and sunny day.
Two shows to do.
It is open day for the Royal Navy at Yeovilton.
A great jump for me.
I spotted to the right of the incoming clouds and managed to jump from 10,000.
The others had to come down to 2,500.
A quick repack and of in the Rapide to Southampton.
The second ground crew has gone straight to the show ground.
We are joined on this display by Jacko from 9RE Para detachment.
None of us has seen the DZ. Not unusual.
Jacko’s comments on seeing it for the first time from the air just sent the air a very dark shade of blue. He was not used to jumping into a such a small area with all the surrounding buildings.
He was jumping on the last pass as part of the four man. Just follow the others we said.
However it was not him who was to have problems.
No! It was the team leader Sherdy who ended up having a problem.
On opening due somehow to friction of his harness over his jumpsuit it ignited a box of matches in his pocket.
There he was jumping into a small arena and trying to put out a fire in his pocket.
Well he managed it but not without suffering a very large burn on his thigh.
What you might call a hot jump.
Never mind we were only interested in getting back to Southampton airport as we had been invited to the festivities back at Yeovilton.
One small problem then arose.
The airport wanted its landing fees before they would allow us to take off.
They would not accept a cheque.
Well you know the finances of us in those days, no spare pennies.
After a long debate it was at last sorted out and we got back to Yeovilton for a great night.
Bath and West Show.
We had a great three days.
Jumped in front of the Queen on the second day.
The odd thing that happened at this show was that in the beer tent on the second night we had a very odd request.
That we were approached and ask if one of us could miss the arena when jumping the next day.
Who would have believed it but the bookies were offering very good odds for a miss.
However the upshot was we all landed in the arena and our mates the fence builders, although getting short odds, made a packet.
Still they had seen us jump at many a show.
We also noticed as time went on they were removing fewer and fewer fences from the arena’s.
A backhanded compliment I suppose, or just idleness on their part.
Farnborough and Aylesbury
Farnborough
A three day show.
The first day, although there was cloud, was able to track to the opening point. Went into the cloud while streamering the cutaway. Still had enough height on leaving the cloud to open and land safely.
Second day no problems.
Jumped, repacked, and set off to do a display at Aylesbury.
We had sent a second ground crew there.
They had every thing set up and we had contact by radio.
Sherdy and Ernie jumped on the first pass.
I jumped on the second doing a Cut Away.
No Problem.
Ah!
Wait a minute.
There are two arenas. Which one am I supposed to land in.
Just look for the cross laid out.
Can’t see one.
Down to 200 feet make out Sherdy on the ground and aim for the arena he is in.
The right one.
With three displays on that day our ground crew at Aylesbury had to take the Red Cross with them.
Well me being colour blind I could not see the red cross against a green background.
Still it ended up well as I won the cash prize put up by the organizer for accuracy.
How little did they know?
To read more about Peter's involvement with the formation of The Red Devils
go to www.red-devils-fft.com
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