German airdrops in Russia

[rkka]

In many reports of Red Army commanders from the opening stage of the invasion were mentioned German tactical (one-two batallions) airdrops.For example ,in an airdrop participated paratroopers from the 7th Flieger Division and they were airlifted by J52 from the KG rzbV106.
But German sources tell nothing about airdrops in Russia. Can some one comments this facts?

[Prosper Keating]

In many reports of Red Army commanders from the opening stage of the invasion were mentioned German tactical (one-two batallions) airdrops.For example ,in an airdrop participated paratroopers from the 7th Flieger Division and they were airlifted by J52 from the KG rzbV106.
But German sources tell nothing about airdrops in Russia. Can some one comments this facts?

There were some special operations involving parachute drops by parachute-trained commandos of the Brandenburg Regiment in 1941 and by parachute-trained commandos of the SS-Jagdverbände later in the war. These were small operations, similar to the operations of the British SAS and American OSS in North Africa, Yugoslavia and Italy.

Prosper Keating

[Willi Z.]

The 7th Flieger Division and the Sturm Rgt were deployed to Russia in September of 1941, to be used in a role of elite infantry. No airborne operations were conducted in Russia by those formations. Both units were still recovering from the Kreta operation in June of 1941.

The parachute platoon of the Brandenburg Regiment, the Lütke Parachute Platoon of the 4th Kompanie, conducted a jump on the 24th of June near Brest-Litovsk.

Willi

[Prosper Keating]

As Eric Queen and I stated in our article which was published on this website:

The first Brandenburg paras were a small detachment under the command of a sergeant, who reported for jump training in February 1940. They received the Luftwaffe Parachutists’ Badge.

In May 1940, the battalion became the Brandenburg-Lehr-Regiment zbV 800 and the para-trained elements were formed into a platoon, based at Stendal under Leutnant Lütke, as part of the 4th Company of the regiment’s 1st Battalion.

The Brandenburg paras’ first airborne mission as a unit came on June 25th 1941, in the opening stages of the invasion of the USSR, when the parachute platoon jumped and secured two railway bridges on the Lido-Molodechno line.

Increased to company strength that autumn, the platoon became the 1st Battalion’s 4th (Parachute) Company, under the command of Leutnant Kürschner and, later, Leutnant Gerlach.

When I get back to Paris, I may post details of other known German parachute operations in the Soviet Union. There again, I wouldn't want to bore anyone so perhaps it's better if you just read about it somewhere else.

Antonio Munoz refers to these operations in his basic reference work about German special forces of WW2, Forgotten Legions.

But Willi is right. The regular Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger never jumped in Russia.

PK

[Paul-M-FJR2]

I was in contact with a fallschirmjager vet last month (Hans Hurnig) who was a member of Fallschirmjager Reg 2 and then transfered to FJR6, he stated that he had only ever jumped twice, once on Crete and the second time in Russia to give reenforcements to a 'Pocket' of German troops cut of by Russian forces.

Paul M

[Prosper Keating]

This is possible. Your friend might have been referring to a jump made when attached either individually or as a sub-unit in support of one of the units I mentioned above. Elements of FJR2 jumped on Leros in November 1943 alongside Brandenburg paratroopers of 15 (Parachute) Coy. I do not think that FJR2 jumped as such in Russia. But members of the regiment might indeed have jumped in company strength in Russia. There again, several jumps were planned but cancelled at the last minute. Old soldiers' memories sometimes being sketchy, perhaps your friend is running two events together. Perhaps he actually jumped on Leros. You ought to question him more closely about this. Either way the story is bound to be extremely interesting.

PK

[moranimal]

Prosper or Willi will know more, but ...

... didn't the Germans drop reinforcements to the Kholm or Demyansk pockets in 42? Possibly at Velikiye Luki? From the deep - shallow? - corners of my mind, it seems that the Germans did paradrop reinforcements in one of these battles, only to have them perish. Probably Velikiye Luki, but I'm unsure.

[George Harper]

Para drops in the East?

I have found many Russian accounts of German airborne ops.
The Paras in the East were often resupplied from the air. It seems the Russians would see chutes in the air and Paras on the ground and assume a drop had been made.
Sometimes this assumption seems to have been reached even when the troops on the ground are not Paras but normal Heer.
Other accounts must be sheer fantasy. I have read one account based on Russian sources which talks about as many as 10,000 German Paras being dropped in the first 2 months of Barbarosa.

I have found no German accounts of Para drops other than those mentioned above. Having said that, I have spoken to a vet from FJR16(Ost) who claims to have taken part in a platoon sized drop in the East in 1944. It was to support a local counter-attack. He said such drops did happen occasionally. Has anyone else heard about such ops?

Cheers,

George Harper.