 The success of the first British airborne raid , Operation Colossus , prompted the War Office to expand the airborne force through the creation of the Parachute Regiment , and to develop plans to convert several infantry battalions into parachute and glider battalions . On 31 May 1941 , a joint army and air force memorandum was approved by the Chiefs @-@ of @-@ Staff and Winston Churchill ; it recommended that the British airborne forces should consist of two parachute brigades , one based in England and the other in the Middle East , and that a glider force of 10 @,@ 000 men should be created . 
