Largo House, like many other mansions across the country, was requisitioned (i.e. its use was demanded by official order) by the Government during the Second World War. Such large houses were used for things like the billeting of military personnel, government operations, hospitals, schools and a range of other uses far removed from the purpose for which they were designed. According to 'Largo - An Illustrated History' by Eunson and Band, the requisitioning of Largo House took place in 1939 and was first occupied by the Middlesex Regiment. Subsequently, Polish military personnel arrived and in the Spring of 1941 the grounds ans some outbuildings of Largo House were converted into a training ground for Polish paratroopers. The 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, as they would become, were led by Major General Stanisław Sosabowski and in his memoirs 'Freely I Served' he records that the training ground was...
"...what some mild-mannered soldiers called "A Hell on Earth"; others were more outspoken. The engineers, with great ingenuity, had built a set of ropes, planks, jumps, walls, cat-walks and leaps in the park and through the woods, which had been christened "The Monkey Grove". [or in Polish "Małpi Gaj"].
Many officers who joined the Brigade had escaped from Poland and survived amazing journeys before reaching Britain. One of them had his recollections of Largo House quoted in Sosabowski's memoirs, as follows...
"...the following day I reported to Monkey Grove....some macabre humorist had painted above the entrance: All hope abandon, ye who enter here. An instructor told us the course lasted two weeks.....For raw recruits, men whose feet had never left the ground, there came P.T.: Jump, skip, hop. Stand, lie, fall. Arms, legs, heads. Swinging, bending, stretching. Aching, sighing, moaning, groaning. Into a mad Monkey Grove, shouted at by monkey-lie men. Jump from fallen trees; somersault forwards, backwards, sideways...fall out of windows, swing from trees, get thrown from trees.... "
"...what some mild-mannered soldiers called "A Hell on Earth"; others were more outspoken. The engineers, with great ingenuity, had built a set of ropes, planks, jumps, walls, cat-walks and leaps in the park and through the woods, which had been christened "The Monkey Grove". [or in Polish "Małpi Gaj"].
Many officers who joined the Brigade had escaped from Poland and survived amazing journeys before reaching Britain. One of them had his recollections of Largo House quoted in Sosabowski's memoirs, as follows...
"...the following day I reported to Monkey Grove....some macabre humorist had painted above the entrance: All hope abandon, ye who enter here. An instructor told us the course lasted two weeks.....For raw recruits, men whose feet had never left the ground, there came P.T.: Jump, skip, hop. Stand, lie, fall. Arms, legs, heads. Swinging, bending, stretching. Aching, sighing, moaning, groaning. Into a mad Monkey Grove, shouted at by monkey-lie men. Jump from fallen trees; somersault forwards, backwards, sideways...fall out of windows, swing from trees, get thrown from trees.... "
The pièce de résistance of the pre-parachute training was 'The Tower', sited at nearby Lundie Tower. According to Sosabowski's memoirs, this had been built with a £500 grant from Headquarters. Standing at 100 feet high, it was a good way to simulate a parachute drop, without the dangers of the real thing. An arm protruded from the top and under it was an iron circle on a cable upon which a parachute canopy was stretched.
"After climbing the long ladder to the top, a man was fitted into a harness and then hung under the stretched silk, the top of which was attached to a cable. At the press of a button, the cable ran out and the man floated down, just like a normal jump, but without the initial sensation of falling. The instructor could stop the cable halfway, or whenever he pleased, correcting faults during flight and preparing the men for landing."
"After climbing the long ladder to the top, a man was fitted into a harness and then hung under the stretched silk, the top of which was attached to a cable. At the press of a button, the cable ran out and the man floated down, just like a normal jump, but without the initial sensation of falling. The instructor could stop the cable halfway, or whenever he pleased, correcting faults during flight and preparing the men for landing."
Many of the techniques and ideas used at Largo were later copied with success at Ringway parachute training school near Manchester. Indeed, upon completion of the two week pre-parachuting course at Largo House, the trainees were sent to Ringway, for a four-week course. This course included actual jumps from planes and ended with being awarded your wings - in the case of the Polish paratroopers, a silver diving eagle badge.
The Sikorski Archives in London hold images of the 'Monkey Grove' at Largo House, some of which can be seen on the following blog:
http://marysiaphotos.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/sikorski-archivesmuseum/
By July 1941, 5,470 troops had been trained at Largo - mostly Poles, but also trainees from several other countries. After the pre-parachute training work had been completed, Polish personnel continued to be based at Largo House throughout the war - both within the house and in huts within the grounds. The Polish Military Geographical Institute remained until 1946.
The Sikorski Archives in London hold images of the 'Monkey Grove' at Largo House, some of which can be seen on the following blog:
http://marysiaphotos.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/sikorski-archivesmuseum/
By July 1941, 5,470 troops had been trained at Largo - mostly Poles, but also trainees from several other countries. After the pre-parachute training work had been completed, Polish personnel continued to be based at Largo House throughout the war - both within the house and in huts within the grounds. The Polish Military Geographical Institute remained until 1946.
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