Airborne troops
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The term airborne troops (Engl. Airborne forces ) referred troops that can be dropped from the air. A distinction is made between parachute jump units, whose equipment can also be parachute- dropped , and airborne troops , whose equipment must be flown in by transport aircraft or deposited by helicopter . In the past, gliders were also used for this . The core of the airborne troops are the paratroopers and airborne infantry as infantry, but there are also combat support troops such as airborne airborne artillery , airborne tanks and airborne anti-tank units such as the German Wiesel or the Russian BMD, as well as airborne engineers and the logistics force, etc. a. with airborne supply and airborne medical units.
Airborne troops are mostly deployed behind enemy lines in order to clear the way for their own troops to take and hold operationally important areas of the terrain.
Well-known airborne units are today z. For example, the Rapid Forces Division of the German Armed Forces , the US 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions , which were set up in World War II , the Russian Airborne Forces , which form an independent armed forces there, or the French 11th Paratrooper Brigade.
During World War II were u. a.
- on the German side the 7th Flieger-Division (later 1st Fallschirmjäger-Division ) and
- the 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions known on the British side .
Other light infantry forces such as mountain fighters and hunters are also capable of air transport and are conditionally airborne, but not parachute jumping, but mostly without their heavy weapons, especially artillery and vehicles. These were used as reinforcement forces as in the airborne battle of Crete.
history
Deputy Sergeant Rudolf Windisch carried out the first known airborne command company in military history with Oberleutnant Maximilian von Cossel as a pilot in 1916 .
Second World War
- German Empire
The airborne troops of the Wehrmacht consisted of the parachute hunter divisions and the elite association of the air storm regiment (also Sturmabteilung Koch ) which u. a. the Fort Eben-Emael occupied and by glider was deposed. The paratroopers were part of the air force . This was supplemented by the 22nd Infantry (Airborne) Division of the Army , which had light, air-transportable equipment for air deployment. At the end of 1942, parts of the division were airlifted to the north of Tunisia and participated in the Tunisian campaign. From 1944 onwards, the division was replaced by the 91st Infantry Division as a quickly deployable Luftlande division .
- Italy
The Royal Italian Army formed the 80 bild Divisione fanteria “La Spezia” in 1941 , which was to play an important role in the Hercules company .
- Empire of Japan
The Imperial Japanese Army put down November 1941 own Army paratroops on, among other things, at the Battle of Palembang , the operation Te and an air landing on Okinawa took part. In November 1944, the army set up the Dai-1 Teishin Shūdan , the 1st Air Storm Division. Parallel to the army, the Imperial Japanese Navy deployed the naval parachute troops that were deployed in the Battle of Menado and Battle of Kupang .
National Peoples Army
The Air Storm Regiment 40 of the Land Forces of the National People's Army was the only association of the airborne troops in the German Democratic Republic .
In the East German NVA there were some troops and units that were trained to parachute and, in the event of a war, would certainly have parachuted into the rear of the enemy (rGG).
The largest unit was the FJB-40 (from 86 LStR-40). In addition, special reconnaissance companies 3 and 5, subordinate to Military District III and V, as well as reconnaissance groups of the divisional long-distance reconnaissance platoons, were capable of parachuting.
In the People's Navy, the Combat Swimmer Command-18 (KSK-18) as well as specially trained male and female forces in the MfS .
At the officers' college of the land forces of the NVA , there was a section of motorized rifle troops, a company in which reconnaissance and paratrooper officers , from the second year of study, received specialized training. These officer students completed a parachute jump course each academic year, where, in addition to packing their jumping equipment, they also performed parachute jumps with automatic opening (i.e. immediate opening). The program included 5 - 10 parachute jumps per year. This ensured that all young lieutenants who were transferred to the service were able to demonstrate at least 10 to 20 (later 20 to 30) jumps.
Air landings by landing by helicopter could several units in the NVA. In every motorized rifle regiment (MSR) of the NVA there was a battalion that was trained or at least instructed in the operations involved in an air landing.
armed forces
In the Bundeswehr, the airborne forces were combined in the 1st Airborne Division , which emerged as the Air Mobile Forces Command , subsequently the Special Operations Division and today the Rapid Forces division through reclassification and renaming.
The paratroopers of the Bundeswehr troops belonging to the genus composite infantry of Armed forces army .
Russia
The Russian airborne troops or VDW (Vosduzduschno-dessantnyje woiska; Russian : Воздушно-десантные войска = ВДВ, English VDV) are a special branch of arms (Russian: Отдельный род войска, which puts the armed forces directly under the rod of the Russian armed forces род войск / is.
They include large associations that can be deployed by parachute jumping and dropping as well as by helicopter (air storm tactics ).
Web links
- Literature on airborne troops in the catalog of the German National Library