During WWII, Germany was the first country to use paratroopers on a larger scale, they were employed during the invasion of Denmark and the Low Countries in 1940, for example during the famous assault on Fort Ében-Émael in Belgium on May 10th, where around 500 German paratroopers used gliders to land inside the fortress and capture it.
But their most famous operation was the invasion of Crete, where over 14,000 German paratroopers landed on the island and managed to conquer it in May/ June 1941.
However, the Germans suffered heavy losses during these landings, both in men and planes, which prompted Hitler to believe the age of large-scale paratrooper landings is over, and no further use of airborne landings was planned.
Unlike the Germans, the Allies were impressed with the German landings on Crete, and began to form their own tactics for large-scale airborne operations, which were successfully employed on Sicily, in Normandy and during the famous Operation Market Garden.
Germany, on the other hand, only used paratroopers after 1941 as regular ground troops, mostly on focal points on the front that were under high pressure. The German paratroopers, still considered elite formations, were famous even amongst the Allies, and paratroopers often offered heavy resistance, both in Italy and on the Western Front in 1944/45.
Actual paradrop training was continued until early 1944. This video is a short clip from German paratroopers conducting training in June 1943, shown in propaganda newsreels. It shows them boarding planes, dropping and advancing on their mock target.
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Subtitles made by me.
Негізгі бет Propaganda Footage from German Paratrooper Exercise- 16 June 1943 [Full HD]
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