1st Paratrooper Division (Wehrmacht)
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1st Fallschirmjäger Division / 7th Flieger Division |
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 Troop identification: parachute |
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| Lineup | September 1, 1938 as 7th Air Division , renamed May 1, 1943 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | air force |
| Branch of service | Paratroopers |
| Type | Paratrooper Division |
| structure | structure |
| garrison | Berlin |
| Second World War | Weser exercise company |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 1. Fallschirmjäger-Division (short: 1. Fsjg.-Div. ) ( 7th Flieger-Division until May 1, 1943 ; short: 7th Flieger-Div. ) Was a major unit of the German Air Force during the Second World War .
history
Lineup
The Reich Minister of Aviation and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Hermann Göring issued the order on January 29, 1936 to train a number of soldiers from the General Göring regiment as instructors in parachuting and parachuting on the basis of voluntary reports. In the course of 1936, the first German parachute school was established at the Stendal Air Base. The officers , NCOs and men entered - with the exception of the USSR, which had set up a parachute troops already in 1928 - military territory. The task of the paratroopers should be sabotage behind enemy lines as well as testing suitable equipment.
On September 1, 1938, the 7th Aviation Division was formed, to which all paratrooper associations were subordinate. Its first commander was Major General Kurt Student . However , the major association only reached its regular division strength after its deployment in Crete . At the beginning of the Second World War, the division had only two regiments with five battalions. During the attack on Poland , the paratroopers were therefore only deployed in company strength or were held back because the attacking tank units had already achieved their goals.
Norway and Denmark 1940
- Oslo and Stavanger airports
During the first hours of the Weser Exercise Company (April 9th) an attempt was made to drop the 1st and 2nd Companies of I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1 at the Oslo-Fornebu airfield . Thick fog prevented this. After the fog broke up, German low-level pilots fought down the defenders of the airfield and enabled the Ju 52 to land with the soldiers on board. The 3rd Company had the order to take the Stavanger airport in a jump operation , which succeeded after a short time.
- Denmark
The 4th company of I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1 was deployed in Denmark. Their destination was the bridge between the islands of Zealand and Falster . The Danish bridge guards were surprised and disarmed after a brief resistance.
- Dombås
After the situation had been resolved, one of the companies that had been deployed in Oslo boarded the machines again on April 14 and was deployed east of Dombås . It was there to prevent the unification of the allies who landed in Namsos with the Norwegians. In addition, the railway line should be interrupted and the road further south blocked. The company was headed by Oblt. Schmidt. However, three of the 15 machines were shot down on the approach, and when the paratroopers dropped down another five. The railway line was blown up, but the enemy formations were too strong, so that the road was only blocked for a short time. After five days the remainder of the troop, consisting of only 34 men, had to surrender to the English who had arrived. Shortly before being transported via Narvik , they were freed by soldiers from their own division.
- Narvik
After the German mountain troops landed in Narvik, heavy fighting developed with the French and British forces landed in Namsos . The supply situation for the German troops turned out to be difficult because the overland route was blocked. In order to reinforce the troops fighting there, units of the division that were no longer needed were deployed to jump over Narvik. On June 8th, after almost two months of fighting, Narvik was finally occupied.
West 1940
- Maasbrücken and Eben Emael
Bridge from Kanne (Riemst)
Bridge from Vroenhoven
Paratroopers on duty at Fort Eben-Emael
At the beginning of the western campaign , the division's assault detachment formed four combat groups in order to enable the tank troops to cross the Albert Canal with a surprise attack .
- Combat group concrete (Hauptmann Koch) - capture and occupation of the Vroenhoven bridge
- Combat group Stahl (Oberleutnant Altmann) - capture and occupation of the bridge of Veldwezelt
- Combat group iron (Leutnant Schächter) - capture of the bridge of Canne
- Combat group Granit (Oberleutnant Witzig) - Turn off the fortress Eben-Emael
The first two bridges were captured after the jump and held until the tanks arrived. However, the bridge at Canne had been blown up before the hunters arrived. Fort Eben-Emael surrendered on the afternoon of May 11th after the Granit Combat Group (56 parachute pioneers) landed at dawn on May 10th with initially seven gliders and blown up some of the fortress domes and observation posts with shaped charges . Six of the 56 attackers died and around 20 were injured.
- Fortress holland
In the Netherlands , the important bridges over the Meuse and the airfields near the big cities were the priority targets. The bridges near Dordrecht and Moerdijk , which were important for the advance , were taken by troops of Paratrooper Regiment 1 and until they were relieved by the 9th Panzer Division held. Heavy fighting broke out at the airfields around The Hague. The operation against the airfield of Ypenburg (Rijswijk / Den Haag) ended in a fiasco, the Dutch queen and her government could not be eliminated and fled to England to continue the war. The soldiers who landed on the airfields were immediately involved in fierce fighting and had to surrender because of a lack of ammunition after the parts of the 22nd Airborne Infantry Division intended for reinforcement did not get through. Motorcyclists and infantry from this division were brought in by air transport. The 1,200 paratroopers captured by the Dutch were immediately transported to Great Britain as a prisoner of war after the first fighting. There was also heavy fighting at the Rotterdam airfield . Here German tank troops were able to relieve the paratroopers and enclose the city together. The landings in the hinterland preoccupied the Dutch troop command so much that they hardly offered any resistance to the armed forces' attacking leaders. In the further course of the campaign, no further parts of the division were used. The Netherlands capitulated on May 15, one day after the heavy air raid on Rotterdam .
After the end of the western campaign, the division was expanded to three regiments, and the support companies were reinforced to form battalions. The Koch Sturmabteilung was expanded into an independent airborne storm regiment which, in addition to parachute jump training, could also be landed with gliders. The division thus had four paratrooper regiments and additional combat support battalions. In the XI. Fliegerkorps included the Ju-52 transport squadrons and combat and attack aircraft for immediate battlefield support.
Greece 1941
- Corinth
After the German divisions broke through the Metaxas Line in the first days of the Balkan campaign , the Allied troops fled south. On April 25, 1941, the three battalions of FJR 2 under the command of Colonel Sturm jumped down on both sides of the Corinth Canal . A paratrooper pioneer company followed with gliders. The aim was to quickly cross the canal in order to prevent the Allied troops from building a line of defense in the Peloponnese . After a brief firefight, the bridge was stormed and a demolition prevented. However, the central part was destroyed by a chance hit in the ammunition that had been piled up. In a spectacular operation, a company commander managed to take 1,400 British soldiers prisoner with captured trucks.
- Crete
The Allied troops gathered on the island of Crete after they withdrew from mainland Greece. In order to eliminate the threat on its southeast flank, combat units of the Axis powers attacked the island in the airborne battle for Crete on May 20, 1941 . The division landed divided into several combat groups to first take possession of the airfields on the island. These should then be used to land parts of the 5th Mountain Division .
- West ( Chania and Maleme ), Commander Eugen Meindl with Airborne Assault Regiment and Paratrooper Regiment 3.
With the storming of the height 107 the Germans controlled the airfield of Maleme. Mountain troops could now be brought in by the air force transport squadrons.
- Mitte ( Rethymno ) under Colonel Sturm FJR-2 without the 2nd Battalion
- East ( Heraklion ) under Colonel Bräuer FJR-1 with the II./FJR-2.
The Allies then had to withdraw and left Crete via its southern part.
The 7th Air Division remained in Crete until July 1941 and was then replenished with replacement troops at home. Due to the failures during the air landing on Crete, there will be no deployment at the beginning of the Russian campaign.
Eastern Front and France 1941–43
From September 1941, the division, divided into several combat groups, was deployed on the Eastern Front, including in the area around Schlüsselburg and Stalino . Parts of the division took part in the fight against partisans in the Smolensk area in 1942 .
In the summer of 1942, parts of the division in France were made available for the Hercules company for the planned conquest of Malta , but this was canceled after Rommel's successes in North Africa. Instead, the Ramcke paratrooper brigade was formed from them, which was deployed in ground combat in the Africa campaign from August .
In the course of the reorganization of the paratrooper troops in 1942/43, the FJR 2 was handed over to the establishment of the 2nd Paratrooper Division and replaced by the newly established FJR 4.
Italy 1943-45
- Sicily
Shortly after it was renamed the 1st Paratrooper Division on May 1, 1943, the division was relocated from Avignon to Sicily . She arrived there on July 10, 1943. The unit was used there after the Allies landed in the Catania area as a rapid reaction force. After the decision of the army command to break away from Sicily because of the uncertain political situation in Italy, the division covered the withdrawal of German troops and left the island on August 17th as the last association of the Axis powers. After that, the division and the 2nd Parachute Division participated in securing Italy. After the Allies landed in Salerno , the division was integrated into the defensive front of the 10th and 14th Armies.
- Battle for Ortona
The battle for Ortona from 20.-28. December 1943 was an extremely bitter battle between the German paratroopers of the III. Battalion , the 3rd Paratrooper Regiment of the 1st Paratrooper Division under Lieutenant General Richard Heidrich and attacking Canadian forces of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division under Major General Christopher Vokes in the town of Ortona on the Adriatic Sea during "bloody December". The battle was also called "Little Stalingrad " or "Italian Stalingrad" because of the deadly house-to-house fighting .
- Monte Cassino
After the turbulent events with the change of government in Italy, the German armed forces managed to form a united front. With the extended positions of the Gustav Line , the advance of the Allies was stopped. In January 1944 the Americans and British tried to undermine this front by landing at Anzio . In the battle of Monte Cassino that followed, the division was once again the focus of events.
- Battle for Rimini
The Battle of Rimini took place between September 13 and 21, 1944 for Rimini . The city on the Adriatic was a corner point of the Rimini line, which was part of the Gothic position . The 1st Paratrooper Division faced the attacking 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade under Colonel Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos (set up in Lebanon by the Greek government in exile on July 1, 1944), supported by tanks and infantry of the B-Squadron, 20th New Zealand Armored Regiment, and the 22nd New Zealand Motor Battalion, each part of the 2nd New Zealand Division.
In the first attack on September 13th, the Greeks attacked two small farming settlements on Marano Street. The two settlements (Monaldini and Monticelli) were defended by the 1st Parachute Division and some Eastern troops (probably a Turkestan battalion of the 162nd (Turk.) Division ). The Germans were well prepared and were able to repel the attacks by the Greeks. Fights for houses, churches and the airfield ensued, resulting in great losses on both sides.
As soon as the airfield was taken, the Greek mountain brigade turned their attention to Rimini. On September 18, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions advanced into Rimini, towards the city's coastal suburbs. They met again with strong resistance from the German paratroopers, but were finally able to advance into the outskirts of the city on September 20 with the support of New Zealand and Canadian units. They advanced into central Rimini from the south, only to be found abandoned by the Germans who had been forced to retreat due to the threat posed by the fall of San Fortunato to the Canadian 1st Division.
On the morning of September 21, the 2nd Greek Battalion crossed the Ausa River into the city center and hoisted the Greek flag on the balcony of the City Hall. At 9:45 p.m. on September 21, the mayor handed over the city. The Greek brigade was nicknamed the " Rimini Brigade" for its success .
- retreat
After the heavy fighting over Cassino, the fighting in Italy subsided again. With the position of the Goths , the German troops were able to rebuild a stable front line. Previously, the paratroopers, together with the 334th Infantry Division, managed to prevent enemy tanks from breaching. During the winter and spring of 1945, the unit south of Bologna faced the enemy. There was only sporadic fighting. On April 8th, the Allies succeeded in continuing their advance.
The 1st FJD was withdrawn to the Po River and was the last to cross it. With the other German troops there was a retreat towards the Alps. On May 2, the fighting on the Italian front ceased and on May 8, 1945 the general surrender of the German Wehrmacht. In addition to the division staff, most of the members of the division left for Switzerland.
War crimes
Members of various units of the division were involved in numerous war crimes in Italy between 1943 and 1945. A real massacre by members of the Paratrooper Regiment 1 occurred on November 21, 1943 near Pietransieri, a district of Roccaraso in Abruzzo . 125 civilians were killed in the Pietransieri massacre , most of them women and children. After they refused to leave their farms, the buildings were set on fire, some of them blown up and the residents shot. According to the project Atlante degli Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia, which was financed by the German Federal Government and led by a historians' commission, by the end of the war in Italy, members of the 1st paratroopers had killed almost 400 people. Division killed.
structure
The organizational structure and structure of the large association has been changed at every point in time since it was first set up and flexibly adapted to the tactical requirements.
7th Aviation Division
The following overview shows the division of the division on May 10, 1940, at the time of the air raid on Fortress Holland . The division staff also acted as corps staff , which is why the division commander also acted as the commanding general (KG).
| 7th Aviation Division | |||||
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| Division staff (also corps staff) | |||||
| 1st General Staff Officer , Ia Head of Management Department (Major i. G. Heinz Trettner ) |
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| 2nd General Staff Officer , Ib Head of the Quartermaster's Department (Captain Osterroth) | |||||
| 3rd General Staff Officer , Ic Enemy Officer (First Lieutenant Lampertsdörfer) | Ic AO, Defense Officer (Major Bock) | ||||
| IW , meteorologist (Government Councilor Dr. Brand) | |||||
| IIa , division adjutant (Lieutenant Colonel von Fichte) | IIb , representative of the division adjutant (Major Ehrlich) | ||||
| IVa , Divisional Director (Amtmann Vitztum) | IVb , Division Doctor (Senior Field Doctor Dr. Knebel) | ||||
| Weapons and equipment (Hautmann Käthler) | Aviation Engineer (Aviation Engineer Stock) | ||||
| News Leader (Major Schostag) | |||||
| Division troops | |||||
| Reconnaissance Squadron (First Lieutenant Langguth) | Transport squadron (First Lieutenant Schäfer) | ||||
| Gun battery 7 (First Lieutenant Schram) | Luftnachrichten - Company 7 (First Lieutenant Schleicher) | ||||
| Transport Company 7 (Captain Roloff) | Medical company 7 (Chief Medical Officer Dr. Neumann) | ||||
| Light Flak Battery 106 (First Lieutenant Timm) | Anti-tank gun company (Captain Götze) | ||||
| Motorbike rifle platoon (Lieutenant Geyer) | |||||
| Paratrooper Regiment 1 | |||||
| Regimental Commander (Colonel Bräuer) |
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| I. Battalion | |||||
| Battalion Commander (Major Walther) |
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| II Battalion | |||||
| Battalion Commander (Captain Prager) |
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| III. battalion | |||||
| Battalion Commander (Captain Schulz, Karl-Lothar) |
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| 13th Company (not yet deployed) | 14th Panzerjäger Company (First Lieutenant Retzenstein) | 15th Company of Parachute Pioneers (First Lieutenant Rudolf Witzig) | |||
| Paratrooper Regiment 2 | |||||
| Regimental staff not yet set up | |||||
| I. Battalion | |||||
| Battalion Commander (Captain Noster) |
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| II Battalion | |||||
| Battalion Commander (Captain Pietzonka) |
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- annotation
Airborne Corps structure (May 10, 1940): 7th Flieger Division, 22nd Infantry Division and two transport squadrons.
1st Paratrooper Division
The following overview shows the division of the division in February 1944 for the 2nd Cassino battle in Italy.
| 1st Paratrooper Division | ||
|---|---|---|
| Division commander (Lieutenant General Heidrich) | ||
| Division staff | ||
| 1st General Staff Officer Ia , Head of the Management Department (Major i. G. Heckel) | ||
| 2nd General Staff Officer Ib , Head of the Quartermaster's Department (Captain G. Stangenberg) | ||
| 3rd General Staff Officer Ic , enemy situation officer (First Lieutenant Driver) | ||
| Division physician (Senior Staff Physician Dr. Eiben) | Divisional Director (Chief Staff Director Dr. Ehlers) | |
| Parachute News Department | ||
| Department Commander (Captain Graf) | ||
| 1st company = radio company | 2nd company = telephone company | |
| Paratrooper Regiment 1 | ||
| Regimental Commander (Colonel Schulz) | Regimental Headquarters Message Train | |
| Pioneer train | Bicycle train | |
| 13th company = grenade launcher company | 14th Company = Panzerjäger Company | |
| I. Battalion | ||
| Battalion Commander (Major Graf vd Schulenburg) | Battalion Headquarters Message Train | |
| 1st to 3rd company = hunter companies | 4th company = machine gun company | |
| II Battalion | ||
| like 1st Battalion (Commander Major Gröschke) | ||
| III. battalion | ||
| like 1st Battalion (Commander Major Becker) | ||
| Paratrooper Regiment 3 | ||
| Regimental Commander (Colonel Heilmann) | like Paratrooper Regiment 1 | |
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| Paratrooper Regiment 4 | ||
| Regimental Commander (Major Grassmehl) | like Paratrooper Regiment 1 | |
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| Parachute Artillery Regiment 1 | ||
| Regimental Commander (Major Schram) | ||
| Regimental Headquarters Message Train | ||
| I. Department | ||
| Department commander (Captain Scheller) | ||
| 1st to 3rd battery | 7.5 cm mountain guns | |
| II. Department | ||
| not involved in the second battle of Cassion | ||
| 4th to 6th battery | ||
| III. Department | ||
| Department commander (Hauptmann Tappe) | ||
| 7th to 9th battery = 10 cm light guns (custom-made for parachute troops) | ||
| Parachute Engineer Battalion 1 | ||
| Battalion Commander (Hauptmann Frömmig) | Battalion Headquarters Message Train | |
| 1st to 3rd company | Engineer Company | |
| 4th company | Machine gun company | |
| Parachute tank destroyer division 1 | ||
| Department Commander (Major Brückner) | Department staff news train | |
| 1st to 4th company | 7.5 cm anti-tank guns in the motorized train | |
| 5th company | 7.5 cm anti-tank guns from self-propelled guns | |
| Parachute Machine Gun Battalion 1 | ||
| Battalion Commander (Major Schmidt) | Battalion Headquarters Message Train | |
| 1st to 3rd machine gun company | ||
| Parachute medical department 1 | ||
| Department commander (Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eiben) | ||
| 1st medical company | 2nd medical company | |
Commanders
| Rank at that time | Surname | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant General | Kurt student | September 1, 1938 to May 16, 1940 |
| Lieutenant General | Richard Putzier | May 16, 1940 to January 21, 1941 |
| Lieutenant General | Wilhelm Süssmann | January 21 to May 20, 1941 |
| Major general | Alfred Sturm | May 20 to June 1, 1941 |
| Lieutenant General | Erich Petersen | June 1 to August 1, 1942 |
| Lieutenant General | Richard Heidrich | August 1, 1942 until renaming |
| Rank at that time | Surname | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant General | Richard Heidrich | Renaming until November 16, 1944 |
| Major general | Hans Korte | January 4 to February 21, 1944 (deputy) |
| Major general | Karl-Lothar Schulz | November 18, 1944 until the surrender |
Well-known members of the division
- Conrad Ahlers (1922-1980), was from 1972 to 1980 for the SPD , Member of the German Bundestag
- Walter Gericke (1907-1991), was from 1962 to 1965, as a major general , commander of the 1st Airborne Division of the Army of the Armed Forces
- Hans Kroh (1907–1967), was from 1957 to 1962, as major general, commander of the 1st Airborne Division of the German Army
- Harald Quandt (1921–1967) was a German industrialist from the Quandt family
- Max Schmeling (1905-2005), was a German heavyweight boxer and between 1930 and 1932 heavyweight boxing world champion
- Alfred Schwarzmann (1912-2000), was a German gymnast and three-time Olympic champion at the 1936 Summer Olympics
- Bert Trautmann (1923–2013) was a German soccer player who was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world during his playing days
- Heinz Trettner (1907-2006), was from 1964 to 1966, as Lieutenant General , Inspector General of the Bundeswehr
literature
- Volkmar Kühn: German paratroopers in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01044-5 .
- Chris McNab : Paratrooper. Kaiser Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3-7043-6051-1 .
- Franz Kurowski: German parachute hunters 1939-1945. Contemporary history edition, without ISBN (special edition 1994).
- Werner Haupt: Paratroopers 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas, 2000, ISBN 3-7909-0677-8 .
- Hartmut Buch: History of the Airborne Forces. Bechtermünz, 1998, ISBN 3-8289-5382-4 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 14. The Land Forces. Name associations. The air force. Flying bandages. Flak deployment in the Reich 1943–1945 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1980, ISBN 3-7648-1111-0 , p. 374 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Mark Zuehlke: Ortona Street Fight . Raven Books, Victoria (British Columbia) 2011, ISBN 978-1-55469-398-6 , pp. 122 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Pietransieri Roccaraso November 21, 1943 (L'Aquila - Abruzzo). In: straginazifasciste.it. Retrieved October 28, 2019 (Italian).
- ↑ Carlo Gentile : I crimini di guerra tedeschi in Italia from 1943 to 1945. Einaudi, Turin 2015 ISBN 978-88-06-21721-1 pp. 111-112
- ↑ 1st Paratrooper Division. In: straginazifasciste.it. Retrieved October 28, 2019 (Italian).
- ↑ Fallschirmjäger, illustrated book and chronicle 1939–1945, Rudolf Böhmler and Werner Haupt, revised edition, Verlag Hans-Henning & Podzun, Dornheim 1971, p. 264
- ^ Rudolf Böhmler, Werner Haupt: Fallschirmjäger, illustrated book and chronicle 1939-1945. Revised edition, Verlag Hans-Henning & Podzun, Dornheim 1971, p. 270.
