A good many American fighting men have said that they would like to get a clearer mental picture of German parachutists—what they look like, how they train, what their standard tactics are, and in general how they do their job.
A common mistake is to imagine that the German parachutist is an ordinary infantryman who, on landing, goes into combat as a guerrilla fighter operating by himself, with help from any fellow-parachutists he may have the luck to meet. Actually, a German parachutist is a thoroughly trained specialist who fights as part of a well-organized unit. The German Army teaches him to believe that his is the most important of all jobs—that he is even more valuable than the aces of the German Air Force. After he has had a long, tough training in a parachutists' school, he is prepared not merely to jump well, but also to fight well. In fact, teamwork is the German parachutist's guiding principle.
Read Full Article »