as the Battle of Arnhem. The company did not see any further action in the war. Towards the end of the war the 21st Independent Parachute Company went with the 1st Airborne Division as part of Operation Doomsday to disarm the German forces in Norway between May and October 1945. It was then attached to the 6th Airborne Division serving in Mandate Palestine where it was still serving in September 1946, when it was disbanded. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company were the lead elements of the 6th Airborne Division's drop into Normandy as part of Operation Tonga in the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944. The company, together with the rest of the division, remained in Normandy, acting as standard line infantry, until the 6th Airborne Division advanced to the River Seine in August, returning to England in September but was sent to Belgium in December, due to the German Ardennes offensive, again fighting as standard infantrymen. The company then participated in Operation Varsity, the airborne component of Operation Plunder, the British assault crossing of the Rhine in late March 1945 and then the subsequent Western Allied invasion of Germany. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company was sent with the 5th Parachute Brigade, part of the 6th Airborne Division but temporarily detached, to the Far East in mid-1945, remaining there until disbanded in July 1946. Post war the Regular Army's parachute force was reduced to the 16th Parachute Brigade. To provide this formation with a pathfinder capacity the Guards Independent Parachute Company was formed in 1948 on the disbandment of Composite Guards Parachute Battalion. The Company deployed on a wide variety of operations between 1948 and 1977. It was deployed to Borneo during the Borneo Confrontation where it was used provide reinforcement to the SAS and its professional performance resulted in the formation of G Sqn of that regiment in 1966. The pathfinder role in the Territorial Army (TA), the British Army's part-time reserve, was continued by 16 (Lincoln) Independent Parachute Company as part of 44th Parachute Brigade (V). The 16 Air Assault Brigade employs elite pathfinders in their Pathfinder Platoon. United States During World War II, the pathfinders were a group of volunteers selected within the Airborne units who were specially trained to operate navigation aids to guide the main airborne body to the drop zones. The pathfinder teams (sticks) were made up of a group of eight to