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The surprising and resourceful ways people caught in the middle of World War II reused US military parachutes

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Army paratroopers World War II WWII

  • Allied aviators carried parachutes with them all over the world during World War II.
  • Though parachutes had just one purpose in combat, civilians on the front lines and at home were able to reuse them for household needs and to make clothes ranging from underwear to formal wear.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Parachutes, manufactured and packed en masse during World War II to accompany Allied aviators on missions, had a very important job to do: open.

Lucky for me, my grandfather's did. He was a 23-year-old US Army Air Corps pilot shot down over France a month before D-Day. He bailed out over central France, after his seven crewmates and moments before their B-24 Liberator exploded in the sky.

Freelancer parachute story

They all hit the ground on better terms than their plane, thanks to their parachutes (and, in a longer story, they all survived their respective journeys through occupied France, thanks largely to French patriots and resistants who helped them).

Freelancer parachute story

I never met my grandfather, but I have his "Caterpillar Club" membership and the packing log of the parachute that saved his life.

Freelancer parachute story

And last May, I traveled to his crash site in Mably, France, for a beautiful 75th anniversary commemoration event. A Frenchman came up to me and explained that he'd been a baby in a village near the crash site during the war, and that his mother recovered one of the airman's parachutes and made it into a swaddle and carrier for him.

He recalled converting the material into a hammock — a swing he played in even after the war, when shortages and hardship from the devastation of the battles, air raids, and Nazi occupation persisted throughout Europe. This is one of many examples of how people made use of the life-saving silk, canvas, and nylon canopy contraptions falling from the sky during World War II everywhere from France and Yugoslavia to Japan and the Philippines.

Here are more ways parachutes' function and form extended beyond the time they hit the ground.

SEE ALSO: How Moe Berg went from playing for 5 MLB teams to being a US spy in WWII who thwarted Nazi efforts to build a nuclear bomb

People in war-torn Europe and Asia during WWII turned parachutes into baby carriers, body bags, and bras.



When the D-Day invasion came, paratroopers cut their way out of their jump harnesses and left thousands of deployed chutes strewn throughout Normandy. Among the uses for the material: burial shrouds for the dead and slings and bandages for the injured.



Some were picked up by French civilians, who, under the Nazi occupation, had been stripped of their belongings and access to supplies, including textiles.



Deconstructed parachutes became a commodity to make things they needed for everyday life, says Toni Kiser, assistant director for collections management at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.



Salvaged parachutes also made their way back to the American homefront.



Practically, parachute material could also be used for luxurious everyday items, like this large quilt:

freelancer parachute post



As war raged in the Philippines and on other Pacific Islands, civilians realized that American troops on the ground wanted souvenirs.



"They essentially sold them back their own things," says Kiser of silk shirts and string bags that locals sewed, painted, and embroidered from parachutes.



At home, salvaged parachutes were made into wedding gowns and other formal event wear.



With the war ending and millions of deployed GIs reuniting with loved ones back in the United States, there was a lot to celebrate.



Americans married in record numbers, though big, fancy weddings remained a rarity; a lot of people still said "I do" in their Sunday best, with white gowns reserved for the upper class.



Especially as new silk from Japan remained unavailable and unaffordable, military men and women returning from war recognized the value of the nylon and silk, which, even after the ration was lifted, remained expensive and hard to come by.



So began a wave of wedding wear constructed from chutes brought back from war, including ones that fellow American women and men had sewn on the homefront and that had saved their and their enemies' lives.

There was the commodity in and of itself, along with the meaning and specialness behind it. Used and surplus World War II parachutes were "a wonderful gift to pass along," Kiser says.




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