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Authors: John Sadler
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to adhere to a fierce âmoralâ code whose strident tone smacks of the days of chivalry when their mailed ancestors had stamped their presence on the East Prussian landscape:
You are the chosen ones of the German army. You will seek combat and train yourself to endure any manner of test. To you the battle shall be fulfilment. Cultivate true comradeship, for by the aid of your comrades you will conquer or die ⦠Tune yourself to the topmost pitch. Be as nimble as a greyhound, as tough as leather, as hard as Krupp steel, and so you shall be the German warrior incarnate. 7
The lightening victory over Poland in the autumn of 1939 moved with such dazzling rapidity that no opportunity for the Flieger division to demonstrate its mettle arose. It was only with the subsequent campaigns in the west, beginning with the invasions of Norway and Denmark, that Student finally found his chance.
Operation Weserubung was to involve the 1st Battalion, 1 Parachute Regiment under Captain Erich Walter. The Fallschirmjäger were tasked to support the seaborne invasions of both countries by the seizure of certain key objectives; in Norway, Oslo and Stavanger airfields, two further airstrips at Aalborg in Denmark and the capture of a vital bridge at Copenhagen.
Despite adverse weather over Oslo the paratroops, though dispersed, managed to win their objective; the other three were attained without serious opposition. As the campaign in Norway progressed a successful and daring landing on packed ice contributed greatly to operations around Narvik. This was vindication indeed.
It was, however, during the larger campaigns in the west that Studentâs paratroopers were to achieve their most stunning successes, victories that would put Student into personal contact with Hitler himself, a vast increase in prestige and the continuing spite of his less favoured contemporaries.
The operational tasks assigned to parachutists comprised the seizure by a coup de main of the apparently impregnable Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael, together with three vital bridges over the Albert Canal. Even more ambitiously, the 22nd Division was to air-land around the Hague in a dramatic bid to capture the Dutch Royal family and seize a number of airfields. The 7th Flieger division was to take and hold the crossing points necessary for the relief by the advancing Wehrmacht of 22nd Division.
Captain Walter Koch was given the command of Sturmabteilung Koch , responsible for the extremely difficult job of assaulting the fortress and bridges. This was to be a glider borne operation and eleven aircraft under Lieutenant Witzig were to land directly on the roof of the fort.
The mission was a dazzling success, two out of the three bridges were taken intact and the fortâs defences sabotaged by Witzigâs group, even though his glider failed to make the drop, landing inside Germany after the tow parted too soon. The demoralised Belgians surrendered Eben-Emael when the ground forces arrived; the strongest garrison in the west had been reduced by a mere handful of paratroops.
The larger scale landings in Holland, however, were less convincing and revealed the weaknesses of Studentâs theories. Paramount amongst these was the fact that it was nigh on impossible for Student himself acting as divisional commander of the 7th Flieger division also to successfully coordinate the actions of the 22nd (under Lieutenant General Hans Graf von Sponeck) which was landed some distance away.
Determined Dutch resistance foiled the paratroopsâ attempts to seize and hold the airfields which would facilitate the air landing of the remainder of the division. Sponeckâs forces were thus scattered and, at the same time, contained. Kesselring, commanding Luftflotte 2 , correctly assessed the situation and ordered Sponeck to simply consolidate his forces and then break out toward Rotterdam and Student. Though abortive, the landing did disrupt and tie down Dutch forces in
You are the chosen ones of the German army. You will seek combat and train yourself to endure any manner of test. To you the battle shall be fulfilment. Cultivate true comradeship, for by the aid of your comrades you will conquer or die ⦠Tune yourself to the topmost pitch. Be as nimble as a greyhound, as tough as leather, as hard as Krupp steel, and so you shall be the German warrior incarnate. 7
The lightening victory over Poland in the autumn of 1939 moved with such dazzling rapidity that no opportunity for the Flieger division to demonstrate its mettle arose. It was only with the subsequent campaigns in the west, beginning with the invasions of Norway and Denmark, that Student finally found his chance.
Operation Weserubung was to involve the 1st Battalion, 1 Parachute Regiment under Captain Erich Walter. The Fallschirmjäger were tasked to support the seaborne invasions of both countries by the seizure of certain key objectives; in Norway, Oslo and Stavanger airfields, two further airstrips at Aalborg in Denmark and the capture of a vital bridge at Copenhagen.
Despite adverse weather over Oslo the paratroops, though dispersed, managed to win their objective; the other three were attained without serious opposition. As the campaign in Norway progressed a successful and daring landing on packed ice contributed greatly to operations around Narvik. This was vindication indeed.
It was, however, during the larger campaigns in the west that Studentâs paratroopers were to achieve their most stunning successes, victories that would put Student into personal contact with Hitler himself, a vast increase in prestige and the continuing spite of his less favoured contemporaries.
The operational tasks assigned to parachutists comprised the seizure by a coup de main of the apparently impregnable Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael, together with three vital bridges over the Albert Canal. Even more ambitiously, the 22nd Division was to air-land around the Hague in a dramatic bid to capture the Dutch Royal family and seize a number of airfields. The 7th Flieger division was to take and hold the crossing points necessary for the relief by the advancing Wehrmacht of 22nd Division.
Captain Walter Koch was given the command of Sturmabteilung Koch , responsible for the extremely difficult job of assaulting the fortress and bridges. This was to be a glider borne operation and eleven aircraft under Lieutenant Witzig were to land directly on the roof of the fort.
The mission was a dazzling success, two out of the three bridges were taken intact and the fortâs defences sabotaged by Witzigâs group, even though his glider failed to make the drop, landing inside Germany after the tow parted too soon. The demoralised Belgians surrendered Eben-Emael when the ground forces arrived; the strongest garrison in the west had been reduced by a mere handful of paratroops.
The larger scale landings in Holland, however, were less convincing and revealed the weaknesses of Studentâs theories. Paramount amongst these was the fact that it was nigh on impossible for Student himself acting as divisional commander of the 7th Flieger division also to successfully coordinate the actions of the 22nd (under Lieutenant General Hans Graf von Sponeck) which was landed some distance away.
Determined Dutch resistance foiled the paratroopsâ attempts to seize and hold the airfields which would facilitate the air landing of the remainder of the division. Sponeckâs forces were thus scattered and, at the same time, contained. Kesselring, commanding Luftflotte 2 , correctly assessed the situation and ordered Sponeck to simply consolidate his forces and then break out toward Rotterdam and Student. Though abortive, the landing did disrupt and tie down Dutch forces in
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