German Mobilization in World War II: Parachute Divisions

Although the Soviets were the first to conduct extensive experiments with parachute troops, it was the Germans who first made use of airborne forces in combat.

As was the case in some other nations, German airborne forces formed part of the Air Force, the Luftwaffe, which activated a small parachute force in 1936. In October of 1938 the 7. Flieger-Division was formed. Elements of the division performed with spectacular success during operations in Denmark and Norway in April of 1940, and in the Netherlands and Belgium the following month. The division was earmarked for a major role in Operation Sea Lion, the proposed invasion of Britain later that year, which of course never took place. The division subsequently took part in the invasion of Greece, and performed spectacularly in Crete, despite heavy casualties. The losses in Crete were so horrendous that Hitler decided against mass airborne operations thereafter. The 7. Flieger-Division served as regular infantry in Russia.

In 1943, after the formation of a second parachute division, the 7. Flieger-Division was redesignated as the 1. Fallschirmjägerdivision. By then, however, most of its personnel were not airborne qualified, being trained and equipped as elite infantry, as would prove to be the case for all of the subsequent parachute divisions. By 1944 the parachute divisions were among the most well-motorized and heavily equipped of all German divisions.

As in the case of mountain divisions, parachute divisions were recruited from the best manpower available and kept nearly at full strength. When they suffered severe casualties in combat, even to the point of being virtually destroyed, they were filled up with select recruits, retrained, reequipped, and returned to battle.

In addition to the parachute divisions, early in the war the German Army had some divisions that were air portable, lightly equipped so that they could be moved by air. These included 22. Luftlande-Division (“Airlanding”), which took part in the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 and was also to have been used in Sea Lion, and two mountain divisions, the 5. and 6. Gebirgs-Divisionen, elements of which were airlanded in Crete to support of the 7. Flieger-Division during the invasion in 1941; these are listed on the infantry or mountain division tables.

The Curious Career of General der Kavallerie Karl-Theodor von Wittelsbach

Karl-Theodor von Wittelsbach (1839-1909) was a member of a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, a kinsman of the King of Bavaria, and ranked as a duke in the Bavarian peerage. He was the brother of Empress-Queen Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (1837-1898) and Queen Maria Sophia of the Two Sicilies (1841-1925), and in 1865 he married Princess Sophie of Saxony (1845-1867).

Karl-Theodor was commissioned a lieutenant in the Bavarian Army at the age of 14. During the Austro-Prussian War (1866) he served with some distinction as a major in the 3. Chevaulegers-Regiment (3^rd Light Cavalry). After the war the duke attended the University of Munich, studying medicine. The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) interrupted his studies, as he served as a colonel on the staff of his late wife’s brother, Crown Prince Albert of Saxony, who commanded the Saxon Army Corps and later the German Army of the Meuse.

After the Franco-Prussian War the duke returned to academic pursuits, earned a medical degree in 1872 and then specialized in ophthalmology. He practiced ophthalmology for the rest of his life, in 1895 founding an eye clinic in Munich that still bears his name. The duke was ably assisted in his work by his second wife, the Infanta Marie José de Bragança, a daughter of the King of Portugal, who was a trained nurse.

The duke eventually rose to General der Kavallerie in the Bavarian Army, equivalent to an American lieutenant general, and later became colonel-in-chief of his old regiment, the Bavarian 3. Chevaulegers, which bore his name until 1918, and was also honorary colonel of the Prussian Kürassier-Regiment Nr. 5.

During his medical career, Duke Karl-Theodor performed 5,000 cataract operations, plus thousands of other procedures, and counted among his patients Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

The Ducal Offspring. Duke Karl-Theodor had six children by his two wives, Princess Sophie of Saxony (1845-1867), whom he married in 1865, and the Infanta Marie José of Portugal (1857-1943), whom he wed in 1874.

• Duchess Amalie (1865-1912), married Wilhelm, Duke of Urach, with whom she had nine children.
• Duchess Sophie Adelheid (1875-1957), married Count Hans Veit zu Törring-Jettenbach and had a son who married Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark.
• Duchess Elisabeth (1876-1965), married King Albert I of Belgium. In 1914 she helped her husband compose a message protesting the German invasion of Belgium, and then served her new country loyally throughout the war. She is the great-grandmother of King Philippe of Belgium.
• Duchess Marie Gabrielle (1878-1912), married her distant cousin Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, who commanded the German Sixth Army in 1914 and then an army group during World War I, and during the interwar period became a noted anti-Nazi. They had five children, only one of whom lived to adulthood, becoming heir to the defunct Crown of Bavaria.
• Duke Ludwig Wilhelm (1884-1968), married twice, but having no children of his own, adopted one of his sister Elisbeth’s grandsons, through whom he has several granddaughters.
• Duke Franz Joseph (1888-1912), who never married.

Note that 1912 was a tragic year for the ducal family, three of Karl-Theodor’s children dying, Amélie in childbirth, Marie Gabrielle of renal failure, and Franz Joseph of polio.

Also noteworthy is that in 1914 Karl-Theodor’s son-in-law Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria led a German Army against his other son-in-law, King Albert of the Belgians.