Fallschirmjäger

Fallschirmjäger, often rendered Fallschirmjager in English, is the German word for paratrooper. (Fallschirm means 'parachute', and Jäger means 'hunter' or 'ranger', and is a traditional German term for light infantry.)

During World War II the Luftwaffe raised a variety of Fallschirmjäger units. Unlike practice in the Commonwealth and USA, these infantrymen were part of the air force rather than the regular army. Starting from a small collection of Fallschirmjäger battalions at the beginning of the war, the Luftwaffe built up a division-sized unit of three Fallschirmjäger regiments plus supporting arms and air assets, known as the 7th Air Division.

Later in the war the 7th Air Division's Fallschirmjäger assets were reorganized and used as the core of a new series of elite Luftwaffe infantry divisions, numbered in a series beginning with the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division. These formations were organized and equipped as motorized infantry divisions, and often played a "fire brigade" role on the western front. Their constituents were often encountered on the battlefield as ad hoc battlegroups detached from a division or organized from miscellaneous available assets. In accord with standard German practice these battlegroups were called by their commander's name, such as Group Erdmann in France and the Ramcke Parachute Brigade in North Africa.

After mid-1944 Fallschirmjäger troops were no longer trained as parachutists due to the realities of the strategic situation, but they still retained the Fallschirmjäger honorific. Near the end of the war the series of new Fallschirmjäger divisions extended to over a dozen, with a concomitant reduction in quality in the higher-numbered units of the series. (These divisions are not to be confused with the Luftwaffe Field Divisions, a poorly organized and managed series of infantry divisions raised from excess Luftwaffe personnel early in the war.)

Fallschirmjäger participated in many famous battles, including the airborne seizure of Fort Eben-Emael and airdrops in Norway in 1940, and the defense of Carentan during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. Their most famous airdrop was in the Battle of Crete in 1941, where the entire 7th Air Division division was deployed along with other assets such as the German 22nd Air Landing Division. The operation was successful in terms of capturing Crete, but the high casualties among the Fallschirmjäger convinced Hitler that such mass airdrops were no longer feasible. (The Allies would come to a similar conclusion near the end of the war, as each successive large-scale airdrop resulted in higher and higher casualties.)

During the Battle of Monte Cassino, the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, operating as ordinary infantry, held out for months against repeated assaults and heavy bombardment and earned the nickname "Green Devils" by the Allied forces for their tenacious defense, though they were finally forced out of the position by Polish and French Morrocan forces.

Germany also raised other small airborne units not associated with the Luftwaffe, such as parachute and commando units in the Waffen SS and the Brandenberger commandos under the direct control of OKW.

Fallschirmjäger were among the first combat units to use recoiless rifles in warfare.

See also

• German 1st Parachute Division, German 2nd Parachute Division, Ramcke Parachute Brigade
• Battle of Crete, Battle of Monte Cassino
• Airborne forces, Luftwaffe, Wehrmacht

External links

• Fallschirmjäger 1936-1945
• "Fallschirmjagers of The Luftwaffe"