For the first time in English, a concise but fact-packed account of the organization, equipment, and all operations of Japan's small but elite wartime parachute forces.Correcting and amplifying previous accounts based on wartime intelligence, it traces the Imperial Army's Raiding Regiments and the Imperial Navy's parachute-trained Yokosuka 1st & 3rd Special Naval Landing Forces from the first trials units, through their successful assaults in early 1942, to the last desperate battles and raids of 1944–45.Gordon Rottman and Akira Takizawa's text is illustrated with rare photographs, and meticulously reconstructed color artwork of the men and their gear.