Jump into hell : German paratroopers in World War II

403 Pages·2010·8.13 MB·English

by  Kurowski

JUMP INTO HELL
JUMP INTO HELL
German Paratroopers in World War II

Franz Kurowski
Published in Great Britain in 2010 by
Pen and Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright © Franz Kurowski, 2010

ISBN 978 1 84884 316 5

The right of Franz Kurowski to be identified as Author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Chapter 1 From Paratroopers to Airborne Forces, the Buildup
Chapter 2 Paratroopers at War
Chapter 3 Put to the Test
Chapter 4 Between the Campaign in the West and Crete
Chapter 5 Hell was a Place Called Crete
Chapter 6 Paratroopers in the Soviet Union
Chapter 7 Rebuiding the Airborne Corps
Chapter 8 Sicily and Italy
Chapter 9 The End in the West
Rank Comparisons
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
CHAPTER 1
From Paratroopers to Airborne
Forces, the Buildup
W
hen the former commander of the American Air Corps in France during the First
World War, Major General William “Billy” Mitchell, published his memoirs in
1930, attentive readers were captivated by one of his chapters. They read about the
planning for an offensive from the air against Ypres. Major General Mitchell had
proposed the parachuting of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division when the Allies failed to
break through the German front at Menin-Roselare.
It was intended to parachute the infantry behind the front. This first airborne force
was to be supplied with ammunition, machine-guns and rations from the air by means
of giant cargo chutes. All of the aircraft of the Allies—some 2,000 machines—were to
support the offensive from the air by bombing and strafing the German front.
Major General Mitchell was firmly convinced that such an attack, which had never
before been attempted, would force the breakthrough at Roselare and cause the German
front to collapse. But the operation was postponed to February 1919. Thus, the end of
the war thwarted the first operation from the “third dimension.”
Many declared the general—even twelve years after the war had ended—as crazy.
That wasn’t the case in the Soviet Union, however. There, the first airborne formations
were activated as early as 1928. The Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army at the time,
Marshall Tuchatschewskij, was a strong proponent of the new concept. In the process,
he was also strongly supported by the Minister of Defense, Woroschilow.
During the maneuvers of 1931, the Soviets attempted the first jump of a group of
paratroopers in the area around Woronesch. The group consisted of a lieutenant and six
men. They jumped with a heavy machine-gun from an Antonov 14, which had
transported them to their jump zone. The group pressed forward to a corps command
post and took it prisoner.
At the time, the interwar German military, the Reichswehr, was also acquainted
with the idea of using paratroopers as an attack force, but it never went beyond the
theoretical stage.
The Soviet maneuvers were followed a year later by the first actual operation,
when the Soviet military needed to overpower a group of bandits from Basmach, who
had heretofore been able to escape capture by the military. A platoon of paratroopers
jumped in with a few machine-guns and blocked the area behind the bandits. Once the
escape route had been sealed, the ground forces were able to advance and eliminate
them.
The Ossawiachim—a club for those interested in aviation and related matters—
established parachuting clubs in all of the larger cities of the Soviet Union. All different
parachute types throughout the world were brought in and tested. The best of the
designs were then copied—without permission, of course.
In the winter of 1931, Marshall Tuchatschewskij ordered that all aviators were to
be trained to parachute. The idea of air-transporting forces for landing them in the rear
of the enemy seemed to have caught hold in the Soviet Union. That thought was
conveyed in France in 1932 when the Soviet air general Schtscherbakow visited. He
was guided through the Maginot Line, where Marshall Pètain, full of pride, told him
that it was impregnable.
The Soviet general replied: “These facilities and fortresses will be completely
superfluous in the future. When an enemy takes to heart the recommendations of
General Mitchell, he can simply jump past them. Parachute divisions will land to the
rear of these gigantic fortifications and cut them off from their lines of communication.”
Marshall Pètain was taken aback momentarily, but he then regained his composure
and smiled: “That, my dear general, most assuredly will never happen.”
Despite that assurance, the aged French Marshall soon issued a directive that air
defenses were to be constructed in the vicinity of the Maginot Line and heavy
antiaircraft batteries to be positioned near all fortress facilities.
The training for airborne warfare continued in Moscow. In the Aero-
Hydrodynamic Central Institute, aircraft and power plants purchased abroad were taken
apart and reverse engineered. By 1932, some 1,500 airframes had been constructed. By
1937, the Soviet Commander-in-Chief wanted to have 8,000 aircraft on hand. In order
to man those aircraft, the military branch of the Ossawiachim had all of its members—
both male and female—trained as pilots, observers, radio operators and parachutists.
The Air Academy and the Training Institute for Navigation—in all, a total of 20
aviation preparatory schools and 32 schools for mechanics, maintenance personnel and
meteorologists—provided the ground personnel. In the large amusement park in
Moscow, a parachute tower, from which young people could jump with parachutes, was
constructed in 1932.
During the Moscow Aviation Days of 1933 and again in 1934, some 400
parachutists jumped from around 5,000 meters, free fell some 4,000 meters and then
opened their chutes simultaneously at 1,000 meters.
It was not until 1935, however, that there was a massed jump by a larger parachute
formation. This was done during the summer maneuvers in the Ukraine. No fewer than
1,000 parachutists jumped at the same time. They then secured an airfield for the air
landing of 5,000 additional forces.
The Soviet demonstration had deeply impressed the military forces of the world.
Colonel Archibald P. Wavell, the future senior commander in the Near East and Africa,
wrote the following to his government: “If I had not personally witnessed this
operation, I would have never believed that such a thing were possible.”1
The German military attaché in Moscow also reported the massed jump of
parachutists to Berlin. Although the formation of an airborne force had already been
contemplated in Germany, the attache’s report gave urgency to the matter. It was
something like the spark that set off the fire for the development of German airborne
forces.
It was intended in 1936 for 1,500 parachutists of the Red Army to force a river
crossing during an exercise and then open up an avenue of advance for an attacking
corps. That maneuver also succeeded and it appeared as though the Soviet Union would
be the first country in the world to have a fully formed and trained airborne force. But
with the fall of the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army (Marshall Tuchatschewskij
fell victim to a purge on the part of Stalin), the thought also disappeared—a thought that
had almost been transformed into practice—of having an operational airborne force.
Even during the Second World War there were few Soviet airborne operations and those
were largely unsuccessful.
After the Soviet summer maneuvers of 1935, Oberstleutnant2 Jakoby, the
commander of Luftwaffe Regiment “General Göring”—which had been formed on 1
April from Landespolizeigruppe “General Göring” 3,—was summoned to report to the
Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe at Romintern. Goring told the officer: “My
regiment will be transferred into the Luftwaffe on 1 October. Jakoby, you need to form a
parachute battalion from volunteers from the regiment. The battalion will be used to
form the cadre for the future German airborne forces.”
Regiment “General Göring” was moved to the Altengrabow Training Area in
October 1935. The soldiers of the regiment were then witness to a parachute jump at the
Döberitz Training Area. When the assembled soldiers saw how the parachutist was
injured upon jumping and remained motionless in the jump zone, there were a few long
faces in the crowd. Despite that, some 600 men from the regiment volunteered,
including almost all of the officers. The 1st Battalion of the regiment was then
designated as its airborne battalion. The names found on the list of senior duty positions
of the battalion would later become well known during the first operations of the
airborne forces in World War II:
Battalion commander: Major Bräuer
Adjutant: Oberleutnant Vogel
Signals Officer: Leutnant Dunz
1st Company: Oberleutnant Walther
2nd Company: Oberleutnant Kroh
3rd Company: Oberleutnant Schulz
4th Company: Hauptmann Reinberger
During the reorganization of the regiment in November 1935, the paratrooper
battalion was redesignated as the 4th Battalion. The future General der
Fallschirmtruppe Bräuer wrote the following about the organization’s first few months
of existence:
When I was given the mission of establishing the first paratrooper battalion in
September 1935, it was a mission that seemed monumental in the scope of it.
I did not have the slightest amount of professional abilities in the area of
flying. Up to that point, I had never even flown before nor seen a parachute
jump. As was the case with me, it was also the case with all of the members
of the battalion.
After discussing things with the regimental commander, I was initially
under the impression that perhaps 30 or 40 men would volunteer. The
regimental commander was no less surprised than I was when the regiment
put out the word for volunteering and the reports started to come in from the
individual companies. There were between 30 and 60 men from each
company who volunteered.
In one fell swoop, the battalion had 24 officers and 800 men.4
The first airborne school was established at Stendal and soon the first jumps were
being conducted. Two officers from the Luftwaffe, Hauptmann Immans and Hauptmann
Kuhno, provided the instruction. Technical issues were addressed by Major Bassenge.
The three-month training session was conducted with guidelines he established.
After the birthing pangs were over, the young airborne force was “baptized” on 29
January 1936. It came in the form of the first order issued by the Commander-in-Chief
of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring:
The Reich Minister for Aviation and the Commander-in-Chief of the
Luftwaffe
Berlin, 29 January 1936
LA No. 262/368 III, 1 A (SECRET)
TO: Military Air District II5, Berlin.
In order to prepare Regiment “General Göring” for parachuting, the following
is ordered:
As future instructional personnel, 15 volunteer officers, senior
noncommissioned officers and junior noncommissioned officers are to be
identified and trained.
To be considered are personnel weighing less than 85 kilograms, who are
in physically good shape and must be medically examined for aviation
suitability.
Start of the training: Most likely on 1 March 1936. Length: 8 weeks, of
which 4 weeks are devoted to parachute maintenance under the tutelage of
Luftwaffe equipment inspectors and 4 weeks of hands-on training in jumping
out of aircraft. The airfield at Neubrandenburg is being considered for these
purposes. A Ju 52 will be provided by the Reich Air Ministry (LC). The Reich
Air Ministry (LA III) will provided suitable instructors.
Guidelines for the training will be provided in a timely manner by Reich
Air Ministry (LA III).
Military District II will report the following by 15 March:
1. Name and rank of the volunteers.