The Blitzkrieg campaigns in Europe in 1939-40 were to prove that the Fallschirmjäger could play a vital part in the Germany Army's plans. Though they saw limited action in Poland, Student's men were to prove their worth in Scandinavia and would be pivotal in giving Hitler victory over the British and French in May 1940, when they unlocked Holland and Belgium's defence lines.

At the end of August 1939, the 7th Flieger Division was far from complete. True, rifle battalions and divisional troops had been added to the formation, but it would not be until after the campaign in the West in 1940 that it would approach full strength.

The German Blitzkrieg was unleashed on Poland on 1 September 1939. By the second day the Polish Air Force had been destroyed on the ground, and Germany's panzers were streaming east. The combination of surprise, speed and terror tactics destroyed the Polish armed forces of 3,000,000 men at a cost of 10,000 German dead. Warsaw surrendered on 27 September and the last Polish troops ceased fighting on 6 October. Though the Fallschirmjäger were briefed for a number of airborne missions, the speed of the German advance made such operations superfluous. Nevertheless, elements of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 1st Parachute Regiment engaged Polish troops in a number of small but hard-fought ground actions between 14 and 24 September. In addition, troops of the 2nd Parachute Regiment also fought in Poland, seeing action at Deblin and the Dukla Pass. Following the Polish surrender all paratroopers returned to their depots in Germany.

Hitler next turned his attention to Norway and Denmark. Germany's iron ore came via two sources: via the Baltic Sea and down the coast from Narvik in northern Norway. The British Royal Navy had established a naval blockade that threatened the latter route. German possession of Norway would not only allow land-based aircraft to be used against the blockade, but would also provide a springboard for aerial attacks against the British Isles themselves. The invasions of Denmark and Norway were carried out with great daring, and not a little audacity. An example of the latter occurred in February 1940, when a German transport aircraft landed at Fornebu airport in Norway. Around 30 passengers disembarked and began taking photographs, making sketches and writing notes. This episode, which took place at the height of the so-called Altmark incident (when British warships violated Norwegian neutrality to capture a German vessel holding British prisoners), went almost unnoticed. But the intelligence gathered was later put to good use.

The invasion of the two countries began on 9 April 1940, the aim being to overwhelm resistance by bold initial strikes and to quickly seize airfields and ports to deny any Allied assistance to the two states. Throughout, the campaign was characterised by excellent army, navy and air force cooperation, though interestingly it violated the principle of concentration and invited the German forces to be defeated in detail (though only if the Allies could react quickly). Denmark and Norway had to be attacked simultaneously because the use of Denmark's air bases and the control of her coastal waters would facilitate the occupation of Norway.

The first Fallschirmjäger drops

The first airborne operations of the war were carried out by men of the 1st Battalion, 1st Parachute Regiment, under the command of Major Erich Walther. The objectives in Denmark were seized effortlessly: one company (the 4th Company under the command of Hauptmann Walther Gericke) less a platoon dropped to seize the Vordingborg bridge linking Copenhagen with its ferry terminal; the remaining platoon parachuted onto the two airfields at Aalborg and secured them without a fight.The next day Denmark surrendered. Things went less smoothly for the paratroopers in Norway, though.

The 2nd Company was ordered to take Fornebu airfield near Oslo and hold it until troops of the 163rd Infantry Division could be airlanded. The 3rd Company, commanded by Oberleutnant von Brandis, was ordered to secure the Sola airfield at Stavanger. At Fornebu thick fog obscured the target and the paratroopers had to abort the drop. By the time the transport aircraft carrying the airlanding units reached the airfield the fog had started to clear and they were able to land. They suffered heavy casualties but took the objective. At Sola the paratroopers successfully dropped close to the airfield. Though they met resistance they secured the airfield with the assistance of fighter-bombers, and the airfield was ready to receive Ju 52s containing infantry within 20 minutes of the airborne assault. The most costly Fallschirmjäger operation in the Norwegian campaign involved the 1st Company under the command of Oberleutnant Herbert Schmidt, which was dropped 144km (90 miles) north of Oslo. The men landed among strong Norwegian defensive positions and took heavy casualties, including Schmidt himself. Surrounded and fighting in appalling weather conditions, the Fallschirmjäger were forced to surrender after four days when their ammunition ran out.

Notwithstanding this setback, the Blitzkrieg in Norway had been a stunning success, and by 5 May the Germans under the overall command of General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst occupied the whole of southern Norway. Though French and British forces had been landed at Namsos, Andalsnes and Narvik, the German attack against France and the Low Countries which began on 10 May 1940 made the Norwegian deployment a luxury the Allies could ill afford. The last Fallschirmjäger operation in Norway was undertaken by a battalion of the 1st Parachute Regiment, when it was dropped into Narvik to reinforce General Dietl's besieged forces located there. A few days later the 137th Regiment of the German 3rd Mountain Division was dropped around Narvik following a crash-course in parachute jumping. There were a number of jump injuries and a wide dispersion on the ground, but amazingly most of the men linked up with the German forces at Narvik. Dietl withdrew from Narvik at the end of May, but between 7-9 June the Allies pulled their forces out of the town, and by 9 June Norway had been cleared of all organised Allied resistance. The Germans had seized a state of three million people in a campaign that had lasted two months. The campaign had also demonstrated to the world the viability of using small parachute detachments to seize airfields as a prelude to the landing of large numbers of troops from aircraft.

The greatest success of Germany's parachute arm was arguably the campaign in the West in May 1940. Though only comprising one division - 7th Flieger Division - the skilful use of the airborne troops played a large part in the German victory. In fact, Hitler's armies were inferior in numbers to those opposing them, and he had fewer tanks and less powerful ones than his opponents had. Only in the air were his forces superior. But the campaign would be decided by only a fraction of his units - 10 armoured divisions, one parachute division and one airlanding division - out of the 130 which the Wehrmacht had for the campaign. A vital part of the German attack was an assault against key points in the defences of Holland and Belgium, which would focus the Allies' attention away from the main thrust: through the wooded country of the Ardennes. To make the secondary threat convincing and lure the British and French to the Belgians' aid, the Germans would have to overcome the Belgian and Dutch defences. To do so Student only had 4500 trained paratroopers. Of these, 4000 were used against Holland and the rest against Belgium. The key to cracking the defences in Belgium were the bridges over the Albert Canal and the fortress of Eben Emael, which was constructed of concrete and steel and whose artillery dominated the whole area. Against Holland Student deployed the majority of his 7th Flieger Division and General Graf von Sponeck's 22nd Airlanding Division. Dutch defences rested on three successive lines: a lightly fortified delaying position at the border; the main "Grebbe-Peel line", which made use of natural defensive barriers; and "Fortress Holland" - Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and The Hague - which was protected by estuaries, rivers and flooded areas.

Bearing in mind that there had never been a large-scale airborne operation in warfare before, Student may have been tempted to minimise risks by using his men to support the ground attack directly. However, what he proposed was radical: to use his men to crack open "Fortress Holland" and paralyse the nerve centres of the Dutch government, thereby destroying the Dutch will to continue fighting. Though this plan was opposed by Luftwaffe Chief of Staff Jeschonnek, it was approved by a delighted Hitler.

Student's plan

The operation against Holland had two elements. First, von Sponeck's division would land at the airfields at Valkenburg, Ockenburg and Ypenburg after they had been taken by parachute assault, then two infantry regiments would enter The Hague and capture the government and royal family, or at least disrupt Dutch defence plans. Second, south of Rotterdam Student's division would land by parachute to seize crossings over the major water obstacles that protected "Fortress Holland's" southern flank. An infantry regiment would also airland at Waalhaven to provide a reserve.

The campaign in the West began on 10 May, and wherever the Fallschirmjäger landed in Holland they encountered stiff resistance from a Dutch Army determined to defend its country. However, Student's well-trained men captured all but one of their objectives, and the unit that landed at Waalhaven captured the bridge intact. Paratroopers landed in Rotterdam's football stadium, and then advanced and captured the Meuse bridge. The Dordrecht and Moerdijk bridges were captured intact and held in the face of heavy resistance. After two days the leading panzers of General Georg von Küchler's Eighteenth Army reached the intact Moerdijk bridge - "Fortress Holland" had been cracked.

Von Sponeck's 22 Division had a tougher time north of Rotterdam. He had just enough paratroopers to take the three airfields, and only 15 minutes between the parachute drops and the arrival of Junkers bringing in his infantry. Things began to go wrong from the start. The flat, patchwork landscape confused the pilots, who dropped the paratroopers wide of their objectives. Thus when the Junkers touched down at Valkenburg they did so in the face of intense fire. The aircraft got bogged down in soft sand and couldn't be moved, thus successive waves had to turn back. At Ypenburg, 11 of the 13 Junkers carrying the first assault company of the 65th Regiment were shot down by antiaircraft fire. Wrecks of aircraft littered the ground at Ockenburg, where a similar story unfolded. Nevertheless, enough troops had been landed to adversely affect Dutch morale and contribute to their surrender on 14 May.

The fortress of Eben Emael and the bridges over the Albert Canal had to be taken to allow the advancing German Sixth Army to pass unhindered into Belgium. Student later wrote: "The Albert Canal venture was Hitler's own idea. I used 500 men under Captain Koch. The commander of the Sixth Army, General von Reichenau, and his chief of staff General Paulus, both capable generals, regarded the undertaking as an adventure in which they had no faith." A parachute assault against Eben Emael had been ruled out due to the limited space and the chance of some men missing the drop zone. It was thus carried out in gliders. The attack on the fortress and bridges was planned and practised in utmost secrecy.

The assignment went to Hauptmann Walter Koch, who was to form a Parachute Assault Detachment from men of his 1st Battalion, 1st Parachute Regiment, and Oberleutnant Rudolf Witzig's pioneer company from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Parachute Regiment. Group Granite would assault the fortress. This unit consisted of two officers and 83 men, 11of whom were glider pilots. Group Granite's 11 gliders and their Ju 52 tows took off from two airfields outside Cologne at 04:30 hours on the morning of 10 May 1940. They were released inside German territory and were left to glide to their target. Only nine gliders landed on top of Eben Emael at 05:20 hours, the other two, including Witzig's, had to abort shortly after take-off and land back in Germany. Witzig later reached the target with a new tow.

Success at Eben Emael

The defenders were taken completely by surprise, which turned to consternation when the paratroopers started to blow open the gun emplacements with hollow-charge explosives. They blasted their way through the concrete, disabled the guns and neutralised the garrison.

Meanwhile, paratroop drops secured the bridges at Vroenhoven, Cannes and Veldvezelt with relatively small losses, thereby breaching the Belgian defence line and allowing the Sixth Army's units to pour across. The breakthrough in Belgium was not the decisive stroke in the campaign in the West, but it had a vital effect: it drew the Allies' attention in the wrong direction and attracted the most mobile part of their forces to the area, which meant they could not be deployed to meet the greater threat that then developed in the south.

For the Fallschirmjäger the campaign had been a vindication of their doctrine and training. This was especially true in Belgium, where on the entire invasion front the bridges were blown up by the defenders except where airborne troops were used. But the campaign had an unhappy footnote. General Student and his staff had flown to the captured Waalhaven airfield and had then proceeded into Rotterdam on 14 May, where he conducted peace negotiations before the Dutch capitulation on the same day. It was during these negotiations that Student suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound to the head inflicted by a passing unit of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, which was unaware of the surrender and raced into the city firing wildly at all and sundry. And as the Dutch were signing the surrender terms, Rotterdam was bombed due to a breakdown in communication between ground forces and the Luftwaffe. Nevertheless, the campaign in the West had been a resounding triumph for Hilter's sky warriors.