Paratrooper (armed forces)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paratrooper (armed forces)

Paratrooper Badge of the Air Force

Paratrooper Badge of the Air Force
active January 29, 1936 to May 8, 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces air force
Branch of service Paratroopers
management
High command Reich Ministry of Aviation /
High Command of the Air Force (Berlin)
German paratroopers landing on Crete, 1941

The paratroopers of the Wehrmacht were a branch of the German Air Force . Your list began in 1935/36 from the police department z. b. V. Wecke / State Police Group General Göring and parts of the SA standard "Feldherrnhalle" .

The day of deployment of the paratrooper troops is January 29, 1936 , when 600 officers and paratroopers for the 1st Jägerbataillon Regiment General Göring under Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Bräuer together with the 15th parachute pioneer company were deployed at the Döberitz military training area.

During the Second World War 1939-1945, the paratroopers were used in 1940 in the attack on Denmark and Norway and in the western campaign in Belgium and the Netherlands with the capture of airfields and bridges on marching roads in cooperation with the 22nd Infantry Division, and in 1941 in the Balkan campaign in Greece both in a tactical airborne operation, with the capture of the bridge of Corinth in order to enable subsequent army units to advance further, as well as in the largest airborne company, the operational airborne battle for Crete on the island of the same name , in which the entire 7th Air Division works together were used with the 5th Mountain Division as air transportable infantry for reinforcement in the second airborne wave.

Lineup

German paratrooper before jumping out of the Ju 52

On 29 January 1936, began Air Force of the Armed Forces , the first recruiting volunteers for the preparation of the German airborne troops. The first parachute school was the Stendal-Borstel Air Base , where the first German paratroopers were trained. Starting in November 1936, these Luftwaffe soldiers were awarded the Luftwaffe parachute rifle badge after their jump training and successful completion of the parachute training course .

At the same time, the army also set up a parachute fighter battalion. Soldiers who had completed the parachutist course were awarded the Army Paratrooper Badge from September 1937 . This battalion was later taken over as a further battalion in the Air Force for the establishment of the Paratrooper Regiment 1 . With the establishment of the Fallschirmjäger Regiment 2 , both parachute fighter regiments under the command of Major General Kurt Student were combined to form the 7th Flieger Division , which was subordinate to the Air Force . After the western campaign, the Parachute Regiment 3 and the Air Storm Regiment were set up. The main difference to parachute associations of other nations was that Major General Student could not deploy the troops tactically , but operationally .

The parachute troops were supplemented by the 22nd Infantry (Airborne) Division of the Army , which had light, air-transportable equipment for air relocation with the limited transport space of a Ju-52. In this function, the division was replaced by the 91st Infantry Division from 1944. However, no deployment took place in Rotterdam for either of the two divisions with this order.

Within the paratrooper troops, judo was taught as hand-to-hand combat .

equipment

A striking part of the equipment was the M38 paratrooper helmet . The standard M42 helmet of the Wehrmacht was because of its shape and the foam liner for the parachute jump unsuitable because of its wide projecting edge suspension lines or static line could easily get stuck. The paratrooper helmet, heavily padded with foam rubber and firmly attached to the head with a neck band, had a tight-fitting edge and did not lead to jerky movements that would strain the neck when the parachute was opened or when landing. Paratrooper helmets from other nations were based on its shape and were similar to it.

Paratrooper with RZ20 and full jump equipment with knee pads

The paratroopers were equipped with the “bone bag”, officially known as a parachute blouse , which was worn over the outer clothing and equipment so that the suspension lines could not get caught in the uniform during the parachute jump. The M38 parachutist wool trousers were issued as uniform trousers, into which knee pads could be inserted through two side pockets in knee reinforcements. Served as a stable boots combat boots , beginning with rubber soles, the laces initially was still on the outside and in later versions was in front. Padded knee and elbow pads as well as special paratrooper gloves with long gauntlets were used to avoid injuries during landing .

When " Jump parachute for parachute troops ", as the parachutes were officially named, the RZ series of parachutes, which were specially developed for automatic jumping from low heights and made of silk, were used for forced deployment of the back parachute . While these were originally white until 1941, camouflage-colored round-cap parachutes were introduced in the further course of the war and the harness was changed from a central back suspension at RZ 1, which only allowed a rolling forward landing, to an attachment to shoulder straps, which allowed everyone to land in the direction of the wind Pages made possible. The last troop parachute introduced was the Kohnke triangular parachute RZ 36, which allowed a soft landing in the event of slight sinking even in stronger winds.

The paratroopers used a parachute knife as an edged weapon , which should also serve as a safety knife during parachute jump in case the jumper got stuck with his feet in the pull-up line or the suspension lines while jumping from a pike.

Originally only hand grenades and pistols were carried as armament when jumping , and therefore all soldiers were equipped with them. The other armament, equipment, ammunition and supplies were dropped on cargo parachutes using drop containers . Only after Crete and the high losses incurred there, also due to weapons drop containers landing off the beaten track, was the man jumping with a submachine gun . The proportion of submachine guns was therefore higher than that of the infantry . The Paratrooper Rifle 42 was developed especially for the paratrooper troops - a combination of a light machine gun and a precision rifle .

In order to give the paratroopers greater firepower after an airborne operation , artillery , anti-tank and automatic cannons were introduced for air defense . Different versions of the 3.7 cm PaK 36 and the 2 cm Geb-Flak were used . In order to make the 2.8 cm heavy anti-tank rifle 41 usable for the paratroopers, the weapon was placed on the light field tripod 41. The weight was reduced by half.

Due to their construction, grenade launchers proved to be useful from the start. Of the models used in different calibers , the barrel of the 8 cm grenade launcher 42 was shortened so that it could fit into the dropping container. The 7.5 cm mountain gun 36 , which can be dismantled and whose design has always been optimized for low weight, was predestined . Light guns, which came to the troops in calibers 7.5 cm and 10.5 cm from 1940, were also particularly suitable for air transport . Due to the low recoil construction and the use of aluminum, the 7.5 cm light gun 40 weighed only 175 kg and could be dismantled into several parts. The individual loads could either be dropped on a parachute or the entire gun landed with a glider . The latter was replaced from 1942 by the 10.5 cm light gun 42 . However, both guns developed a strong cloud of smoke when fired due to the gun principle and could therefore be quickly cleared up.

As a means of pulling all heavy weapons, sidecar wheels or chain wheels were used, which were either dropped with parachutes or flown in with cargo gliders DFS 230 or Ju-52 transport aircraft. As a means of transport for heavy infantry weapons, equipment and ammunition after parachute jump, but also on the battlefield, IF8 infantry carts were used by the troops by hand.

The paratrooper regiments and their division troops were fully motorized with trucks and had Wehrmacht trucks Opel Blitz 3,6 (Wehrmacht) or other manufacturers.

From 1942 the Messerschmitt Me 323 was used for the air transport of heavy weapons and light armored vehicles. This first heavy-duty transport aircraft emerged from the Messerschmitt Me 321 cargo glider . The Heinkel He 111 , which was also used as a transport aircraft for parachute jump, and the Arado Ar 232 were added as a further transport machine. However, there were only a few airborne operations.

Later in the war, when the paratroopers were only used as infantry, the artillery regiments, as well as the tank destroyer and flaka divisions, increasingly received artillery like those used by other army units and were not suitable for air landings. These units and associations were then only nominally paratrooper associations and no longer fully trained for jump operations. For the reorganization, the new divisions were subordinated to individual parachute fighter regiments from established large units and these were replaced by new units in the "old" divisions, for example the 2nd parachute fighter regiment which was subordinated to the newly established 2nd parachute fighter division by the 1st parachute fighter division, and that was supplemented with the new formation of Parachute Fighter Regiment 6 and 7. The same happened with the reorganization of the other parachute fighter divisions.

structure

According to the basic structure of the Wehrmacht was a paratrooper division in three paratroop regiments each with three battalions with battalion headquarters with three paratroopers companies and an MG - Company divided with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. The regiment has a 13th and 14th heavy arms company with light guns and anti-tank guns, which were subordinated to the battalions in sub-units. To support the regiments , the division had combat support, command and logistics departments in battalion strength, which were divided between the regiments by company. The supply was brought in through the logistics section and not brought in as it is today. For the basic structure of a regiment and the superordinate division, see Structure of an Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht .

Operational use

These units were used for the first time in the course of the occupation of the Sudetenland , when German airborne troops landed near Freudenthal behind the Czechoslovak lines in autumn 1938 .

Air landings 1940/41

During the Second World War there were numerous deployments of airborne troops. The first was carried out by the Red Army during the Winter War (1939/40) in Finland and during the occupation of Bessarabia . However, these companies failed with great losses because the troops were only locally deployed in small groups.

German airborne troops played an important role in the attack on Denmark and Norway in April 1940 (→ Enterprise Weser Exercise ). Their operational assignments were to capture airfields and traffic hubs in order to enable further German associations to land.

The next missions of the airborne units took place in May during the western campaign . Objectives were the capture of operationally important bridges in the Netherlands and the Belgian lock fort Eben-Emael by parachute pioneers under Rudolf Witzig . This tied up large parts of the Dutch armed forces.

During the operation Marita , which was carried out in the following year , German paratroopers captured the passage over the Corinth Canal on April 26, 1941 in tactical deployment in order to enable the following German troops to cross the canal.

The climax of the operational airborne missions of the German airborne troops was the loss-making conquest of the island of Crete with the (→ Company Merkur ) from May 20 to June 1, 1941 . The paratroopers in the 7th Flieger-Division and the Luftlande-Sturmregiment as well as the 5th Mountain Division and the 22nd Infantry Division with the air transport forces from I. and II./KG z. b. V. 1 ; I. and II./KG z. b. V. 172 ; KGr. zbV 60; KGr. z. b. V. 101; KGr. z. b. V. 102 ; KGr. z. b. V. 40; KGr. z. b. V. 105 ; KGr. z. b. V. 106 ; I./LLG 1 in the XI. Air corps grouped under student . The company was supported by the VIII Air Corps, both of which were subordinate to Air Fleet 4. The Crete cuff was awarded for participating in the operation .

Following the fighting or the fight against partisans, there were “atonement measures” against the civilian population, for example the Kondomari massacre , which was justified by the participation of Greek civilians in the fighting. As with other crimes committed by Wehrmacht associations , paratroopers not only killed male civilians, but sometimes also took (female) hostages from the civilian population to take them with them on transports in the hope of being safe from attacks by partisans .

End of the air landings

Paratroopers in Italy, October 1943

After this mission, on July 17, 1941, Hitler expressed the opinion that the days of the parachute troops were over because their surprise effect had vanished. The high losses could not be compensated until the beginning of the Barbarossa case (attack on the Soviet Union). For this reason, too, the originally planned deployment of paratroopers on the Eastern Front did not take place.

In the following years, still more paratroop major units as were 2nd Parachute Division , under the general of paratroops Hermann Bernhard Ramcke , along with Italian paratroopers for the planned for 1942 Operation Herkules for taking the island of Malta , as part of the North African Campaign on the theater of war in the Mediterranean . However, the company was canceled because of the supposed general good development on the African war scene. The individual regiments were used as regular infantry and "fire brigade" at hot spots in the east and in Africa. The other paratrooper divisions newly established in the course of the Second World War did not all receive parachute jump training and often bore the name for reasons of prestige.

German paratroopers during the Battle of Anzio January 1944

In the further course of the Second World War, paratroopers of the 2nd Paratrooper Division were deployed in parachute jump during the Allied Operation Husky in July 1943 to reinforce the German forces in Sicily . A battalion near the city of Catania , during which there was fighting with British paratroopers.

At the Fall Axis company to occupy the Italian High Command in September 1943, paratroopers of the 2nd Paratrooper Division were released from the command post.

Another air landing after a parachute jump occurred on November 13, 1943 during the Leopard operation in the Dodecanese 1943 on the island of Leros .

The oak operation for the liberation of Benito Mussolini was carried out by paratroopers of the parachute training battalion under the command of Major Mors with gliders and on land march. In the further course of the war in Italy there was heavy local and house fighting in December 1943 in the Battle of Ortona , which is therefore also called Klein Stalingrad, and from January to May 1944 in the course of the Gustav Line around the mountain monastery and the village Montecassino in the Battle of Monte Cassino , in which paratroopers in particular were used for defense, suffered heavy losses, but achieved a defensive success.

During the invasion of Normandy , among others, paratroopers of the 2nd Paratrooper Division and the Paratrooper Regiment 6 of the 91st Airborne Infantry Division defended the beaches in Normandy and the subsequent fortress of Brest. During the Allied landing in Normandy during Operation Overlord , "Diestelfink" was reinforced with a Würzburg giant radar system, which was important for the reconnaissance and combat of enemy air forces, also for the Reich air defense, at Douvres-la to reinforce the air force radio base -Délivrande a tactical reinforcement by air landing after a parachute jump.

The last major parachute jump took place from December 17-22, 1944 during the Ardennes offensive with the Stößer company by a paratrooper combat group under Colonel Friedrich August von der Heydte . However, the enterprise had only temporary psychological effects on the Allied side.

motivation

During the Second World War, the American Military Intelligence Division , which was tasked with enlightening the enemy, tried to obtain information about the internal cohesion of the German Wehrmacht by questioning prisoners of war. They found their assumption confirmed many times that a hard core of National Socialists held the military units together ideologically and militarily. The size of the hard core was 10% to 15%. However, the paratrooper and Waffen SS divisions had a much higher proportion of convinced National Socialists, often the entire group questioned. This was also due to the recruitment, as the soldiers of the paratrooper troops were mostly very young and they were recruited directly from the Flieger-HJ or from the SA standard "Feldherrnhalle" .

Trivia

The former Luftlandebrigade 31 from Oldenburg carried out the annual brigade jump bivouac in the years from 2009 in the area of ​​the Stendal-Borstel airfield, i.e. exactly where the first German paratroopers were trained. But the same location was a coincidence. The place was chosen exclusively because the general conditions were very favorable.

See also

To special equipment

To special people paratroopers

literature

  • Federal Archives (Hrsg.): Europe under the swastika - The occupation policy of German fascism in Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, Italy and Hungary (1941-1945) , Vol. 8, Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft. ISBN 3-7785-2338-4 .
  • Roger Edwards: German paratroopers and airborne troops 1936-1945 , Verlag Stalling, Oldenburg 1976. ISBN 3-7979-1348-6 .
  • Albert Merglen: History and future of the airborne troops , Verlag Rombach, Freiburg / Breisgau 1970.
  • Günter Roth / Hans M. Stimpel: The German parachute troop 1936-1945 - leadership in the German parachute troop and the corps spirit of the paratroopers , Verlag Mittler, Hamburg 2008. ISBN 3-8132-0864-8 .
  • Günter Roth: The German parachute force 1936–1945. The Commander in Chief Kurt Student. Strategic, operational head or war craftsman and the soldiery ethos Verlag ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg 2010 ISBN 978-3-8132-0906-8 .

Web links

Commons : Fallschirmjäger (Wehrmacht)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Merglen: History and Future of Airborne Troops , Freiburg / Breisgau 1970, pp. 19-22.
  2. ↑ Karl-Heinz Golla: The German Parachute Troop 1936–1941 - Their structure and their use in the first military campaigns of the Wehrmacht , Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg, 2006, p. 21 ff.
  3. ↑ IM Baxter, Ronald Volstad: Fallschirmjäger - German Paratroopers from Glory to Defeat 1939-1945 , Concord Publications, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 26.
  4. ↑ Chris McNab: Die deutscher Fallschirmjäger , Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2010 p. 157 ff.
  5. ↑ not heavy weapons like artillery
  6. ^ Albert Merglen: History and future of the airborne troops , Freiburg / Breisgau 1970, p. 22.
  7. ^ Albert Merglen: History and Future of Airborne Troops , Freiburg / Breisgau 1970, p. 26.
  8. ↑ To this in detail: Hans-Martin Ottmer: "Weser Exercise" - The German attack on Denmark and Norway in April 1940 , Munich 1994.
  9. ↑ An overview can be found in: Hans Umbreit: The struggle for supremacy in Western Europe , in: The German Reich and the Second World War , Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1979, pp. 284–307.
  10. ↑ To this in detail: Hans-Otto Mühleisen: Kreta 1941 - The company "Merkur" May 20 to June 1, 1941 , Freiburg / Breisgau 1968.
  11. ↑ Federal Archives (Ed.): Europe under the Swastika - The Occupation Policy of German Fascism in Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, Italy and Hungary (1941–1945) , Volume 8, Hüthig Verlagsgemeinschaft, p. 300.
  12. ^ Albert Merglen: History and future of the airborne troops , Freiburg / Breisgau 1970, p. 40.
  13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KdhPy2kjUE
  14. ↑ Rafael A. Zagovec: "Conversations with the 'Volksgemeinschaft'" in: Bernhard Chiari [among others]: "The German War Society 1939 to 1945 - Exploitation, Interpretations, Exclusion", on behalf of MGFA ed. by Jörg Echternkamp , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2005, Volume 9/2 ISBN 978-3-421-06528-5 , pp. 360–364.
  15. ↑ [1]