self-aggrandisement. Having established a corridor to the seat of authority and resources Student, formally appointed on 4 June 1938, set to work with a will.
His first task was to weld the various fledgling detachments into a whole, the 7th Flieger division of the Luftwaffe. The development of the type DFS 230 glider 4 provided just the type of aircraft necessary to facilitate the creation of a glider borne arm. Although the Sudeten crisis of 1938 was averted by frantic diplomacy, Student took the chance to mount a full-scale exercise deploying 250 Ju52s over open ground. A carefully staged performance which, whilst it impressed Goering, failed to make an equal impression on the Generalâs more sceptical Wehrmacht colleagues, already tainted by jealousy at his easy access to the fat Reichsmarschall .
The army withdrew its personnel from the airborne division which was left bereft of men. Undaunted, Student continued to preach his tactical doctrine and when control of the rump of the airborne arm came under full Luftwaffe control at the end of the year, it seemed his moment had come. With a second Fallschirmjäger regiment being raised in 1939, Student perfected his blueprint for airborne operations. His elite would operate on the ground like a conventional brigade with integral signals, mortar and light artillery. 5
From the beginning admission into the ranks of the parachutists conferred special status. These young recruits were subject to a gruelling training regime and frequently came through the Hitler Youth, the very ideal of the Aryan warrior, fit descendants of Teutonic Knights and torch bearers of the Nazi ideology.
These young lions were marked by their distinctive uniforms, originally a blue-grey coverall over which they wore a rush green smock with zip breast pockets. This reached to just below the knee but could be fastened up around the upper thighs so as to prevent the parachute harness from fouling. With their trousers tucked into black calf length jump boots and their equally unique round padded helmets, every facet of their appearance marked them as an elite.
Specialist troops required specialist weapons and whilst many Fallschirmjäger went into battle carrying the standard infantry rifle, the KAR-98K, 7.9 mm and with a five round box magazine, others carried the MP-40 machine pistol, a 9 mm weapon with a 32 round magazine. This, developed from the earlier MP-38, was primarily designed as a paratroopersâ weapon; light and with a high rate of fire it was ideal for airborne operations.
Additional and heavier fire support was provided by the 7.92 mm MG 34. Defined as a light machine gun, but extremely well designed, robust and versatile, it could be used by one man as a section support or by a crew of three as a medium machine gun. It could fire 800 - 900 rounds per minute.
All small arms and machine guns were packed in containers for the jump and it was vital the troops accessed these as soon after landing as possible. When they left the plane the individual paratroops carried only a fighting knife and a 9 mm Walther P-38 semiautomatic pistol.
Their British adversaries, encountering these elite warriors for the first time on Crete, were impressed:
Superbly equipped, on the whole elite troops, they were young, they were fit, they had brains, military brains, which is not as dismissive as it may sound, and their morale was terrific, they were very good soldiers ⦠They had some sort of outer garment like a kind of mackintosh which they got rid of as quickly as possible and they were in an all purpose uniform with pockets and fasteners â a very advanced looking battle-dress. They had pockets for carrying their magazines, for instance. Someone had obviously thought out the function of a paratrooper, how they should be dressed in every conceivable detail had clearly been gone into. 6
Student would have been gratified, his men were imbued with the ethos of Teutonic mastery, expected
His first task was to weld the various fledgling detachments into a whole, the 7th Flieger division of the Luftwaffe. The development of the type DFS 230 glider 4 provided just the type of aircraft necessary to facilitate the creation of a glider borne arm. Although the Sudeten crisis of 1938 was averted by frantic diplomacy, Student took the chance to mount a full-scale exercise deploying 250 Ju52s over open ground. A carefully staged performance which, whilst it impressed Goering, failed to make an equal impression on the Generalâs more sceptical Wehrmacht colleagues, already tainted by jealousy at his easy access to the fat Reichsmarschall .
The army withdrew its personnel from the airborne division which was left bereft of men. Undaunted, Student continued to preach his tactical doctrine and when control of the rump of the airborne arm came under full Luftwaffe control at the end of the year, it seemed his moment had come. With a second Fallschirmjäger regiment being raised in 1939, Student perfected his blueprint for airborne operations. His elite would operate on the ground like a conventional brigade with integral signals, mortar and light artillery. 5
From the beginning admission into the ranks of the parachutists conferred special status. These young recruits were subject to a gruelling training regime and frequently came through the Hitler Youth, the very ideal of the Aryan warrior, fit descendants of Teutonic Knights and torch bearers of the Nazi ideology.
These young lions were marked by their distinctive uniforms, originally a blue-grey coverall over which they wore a rush green smock with zip breast pockets. This reached to just below the knee but could be fastened up around the upper thighs so as to prevent the parachute harness from fouling. With their trousers tucked into black calf length jump boots and their equally unique round padded helmets, every facet of their appearance marked them as an elite.
Specialist troops required specialist weapons and whilst many Fallschirmjäger went into battle carrying the standard infantry rifle, the KAR-98K, 7.9 mm and with a five round box magazine, others carried the MP-40 machine pistol, a 9 mm weapon with a 32 round magazine. This, developed from the earlier MP-38, was primarily designed as a paratroopersâ weapon; light and with a high rate of fire it was ideal for airborne operations.
Additional and heavier fire support was provided by the 7.92 mm MG 34. Defined as a light machine gun, but extremely well designed, robust and versatile, it could be used by one man as a section support or by a crew of three as a medium machine gun. It could fire 800 - 900 rounds per minute.
All small arms and machine guns were packed in containers for the jump and it was vital the troops accessed these as soon after landing as possible. When they left the plane the individual paratroops carried only a fighting knife and a 9 mm Walther P-38 semiautomatic pistol.
Their British adversaries, encountering these elite warriors for the first time on Crete, were impressed:
Superbly equipped, on the whole elite troops, they were young, they were fit, they had brains, military brains, which is not as dismissive as it may sound, and their morale was terrific, they were very good soldiers ⦠They had some sort of outer garment like a kind of mackintosh which they got rid of as quickly as possible and they were in an all purpose uniform with pockets and fasteners â a very advanced looking battle-dress. They had pockets for carrying their magazines, for instance. Someone had obviously thought out the function of a paratrooper, how they should be dressed in every conceivable detail had clearly been gone into. 6
Student would have been gratified, his men were imbued with the ethos of Teutonic mastery, expected
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