The Irony of War, by Pete Daggett

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Gian
Any truth in this statement??
Mon Nov 17 09:28:57 2003
192.92.126.137

<<
The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops that WERE capable of airborne operations.
>>

From: The Irony of War http://www.rglobal.net/user/padagge/WWII.htm

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Ruy Horta
Re: Any truth in this statement??
Mon Nov 17 17:53:29 2003
194.109.243.112

The statement is simply false...

The Green Devils were part of the Luftwaffe and were deployed in the air drops.

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Juha
Re: Any truth in this statement??
Tue Nov 18 17:23:30 2003
80.222.36.207

Hello
I would say that the statement is otherwise correct but some of the 11 paratrooper divisions, the older ones, were, or had been before mid 44, capable of airborne operations. Late 44 and early 45 formed paratroops divs were incapable of airborne operations, but that didn't matter because German didn't have airlifting capacity or enough fuel to perform big airlanding operations. And not all of those divisions listed were in existance under the LW in any one time. The big increase in the number of paratroop divs happened after most, if not all, LW field divisions (meaning the 22 infandry divisions) were disbanded or incorporated into the Army (Heer).
And the German Army's paratroopers, which were capable of airborne operations, were incorporated to the LW before the war or at least before April 1940. And there were never many of them, maybe a coy or couple of coys. SS had during the war some paratoop battalions which were used in airborne operations.
The existence of LW field divs or the LW armoured Corps cleary shows how stupid system the Third Reich was. Because Göring wanted a Panzer Division and because he was politically so powerful, he got his "paratroop" Panzer Div "Hermann Göring".

Juha

[Richard T Eger]

Pete Daggett's webpage is a collection of WW II oddities, comments on things that would not be expected. As to their voracity, this is definitely a time for buyer beware. The commentary, though, makes for some fun light reading.

Regards,
Richard