The regiment took part in six major parachute assault operations in North Africa, Italy, Greece, France, the Netherlands and Germany, often landing ahead of all other troops.

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops.

[32] On 15 November, the 1st Battalion were ordered to parachute and capture a vital road junction at Béja 90 miles (140 km) west of Tunis.

[32] The 2nd Battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, carried out a parachute drop on Depienne Airfield 30 miles (48 km) south of Tunis.

The battalion headed for the British lines, but lost 266 men under constant German attack by the time they reached safety at Medjez el Bab.

They fought notable actions at Bou Arada and Tamerza against their German counterparts, the Fallschirmjäger, where they earned the nickname "Die Roten Teufel" (the Red Devils).

[53] The division's mission was to capture intact the road, rail and pontoon bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and hold them until relieved, which was expected to occur two or three days later.

[59][60] By dusk, most of the 2nd Battalion and some supporting units, including the Brigade Headquarters, numbering about 740 men, had taken the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge.

[90] To prevent the Germans learning about the evacuation, the plan was kept secret until the afternoon, and some men (mainly wounded) remained behind to give covering fire through the night.

The DZ came under heavy fire from German troops stationed nearby and was subjected to shellfire and mortaring which inflicted casualties in the battalion rendezvous areas.

[99] The brigade was then ordered to move due east and clear an area near Schnappenberg, as well as to engage German forces gathered to the west of the farmhouse where the 6th Airborne Division Headquarters was established.

[102] In a statement on 25 June 1961, President Abd al-Karim Qasim of Iraq claimed that Kuwait was part of his country and announced his intention to annexe it.

[115] The rest of the 3rd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Farrar-Hockley, was also sent to Aden to conduct operations in the Radfan mountains, capturing the Bkri ridge in May 1964.

[117] By 1964, the terrorist attacks had spread to Aden, south of Radfan; to protect British servicemen and their dependents, the 1st Battalion was deployed on security duties throughout the areas of Crater and Khormasker.

For a series of actions in June in the Sheik Othman and Al Mansura districts of Aden, the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael J. H. Walsh, was awarded the DSO.

Sergeant Willetts held open a door allowing members of the public and police officers to escape and then stood in the doorway, shielding those taking cover.

[123] Following Operation Demetrius (the mass arrest and internment of Irish nationalists), soldiers of the Parachute Regiment were involved in an action which came to be called the Ballymurphy massacre, in which 11 innocent civilians were shot dead and dozens wounded between 9 and 11 August 1971.

As a result of the subsequent and more detailed Saville report, even observers who are natural supporters of the British Army are assessed as regarding the Widgery findings as "discredited.

"[130] A more detailed inquiry—chaired by Lord Saville (Bloody Sunday Inquiry) and lasting over a decade—concluded that the Paras had fired on unarmed civilians, most of whom were shot while fleeing or trying to help the wounded.

[131] It found that none of the march participants were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown, and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing.

This sparked angry demonstrations by local Protestants, and a unit of the Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) refused to carry out duties until 1 Para was withdrawn from the Shankill.

[142] The PIRA had studied how the Army reacted after a bombing and correctly guessed that they would set up an incident command point in the nearby gatehouse.

After the first explosion, the soldiers, believing that they had come under attack from the IRA, began firing across the narrow maritime border with the Republic of Ireland, a distance of only 57 m (187 feet).

On that first day, they had to deal with murder, kidnapping, torture, inter-communal gun-battles, house burnings, beatings, weapon finds and looting.

[159] In August 2001, the 2nd Battalion took part in NATO's intervention in the Republic of Macedonia (Operation Essential Harvest) to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army, with the mission planned to last 30 days.

On 25 August, a 12-man vehicle patrol in the Occra Hills was ambushed and forced to surrender by an armed rebel group known as the West Side Boys.

They were part of 3,300 British troops that would be deploying to Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan as a component of the NATO International Security Assistance Force.

[169] In December 2006, it was announced that Corporal Bryan Budd 3rd Battalion had been awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for two separate acts of "inspirational leadership and the greatest valour" which led to his death during actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in July and August 2006.

[173] In 2015, Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey became the third serviceman during the War in Afghanistan to receive the Victoria Cross for showing "complete disregard" for his own safety during a 2013 Taliban attack.

[204] In the British Army, battle honours are awarded to regiments that have seen active service in a significant engagement or campaign, generally with a victorious outcome.