500th SS Parachute Battalion

The 500th SS-Parachute Battalion (500. SS-Fallschirmjägerbatallion) was the parachute unit of the Waffen-SS.

The idea to form a paratrooper unit within the Waffen-SS, allegedly, came directly from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.

Creation

Himmler supposedly got the idea in September 1943, after Operation Oak ("Unternehmen Eiche"). Operation Oak was launched on 12 September and included an airborne raid on Gran Sasso. The operation was planned by Kurt Student. During this raid, a group of German parachutists freed deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Otto Skorzeny took part in the raid by command of German dictator Adolf Hitler. The raid included a daring glider-based assault on the Campo Imperatore Hotel at Gran Sasso and managed to rescue Mussolini with only firing a single round.

Organization

Considering that the new Waffen-SS unit of parachutists had to be employed in dangerous actions beyond the enemy lines, it was decided to extend enlistment to those in the SS disciplinary units which were formed from officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers who had had problems with the military law: an order of the SS-FHA (the SS High Command) fixed a percentage of 50% for the coming from volunteers from Waffen-SS units and the rest for volunteers from the disciplinary units.

Per Massimiliano Afiero, in "The Crusade against Bolshevism; European Voluntary Legions" (1941-1944), Vol.1, states that many witnesses and historians, placed excessive emphasis on the presence of these in the unit, mainly because of the number of identification of same unit (500) assigned to SS-Bewährungsbataillon 500, a penal unit of the SS. The gathering of the personnel for new unit was in Chlum in Czechoslovakia in October 1943. As first commander of the battalion was SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gilhofer, coming from from the 21st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment of the 10th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. In November 1943 the battalion began its training in Madanrushka-Banja (Mataruška banja), close to Sarajevo, with the Luftwaffe Fallschirmschule number 3. The training was completed in the area around Pápa, Hungary in the beginning of 1944.

Organization (early 1944)

* Battalion Headquarters Company
** Supply Platoon
** Communications Platoon
** War-reporter Squad
** Motorcycle-dispatch Squad
** Maintenance Platoon
** Parachute Rigger Platoon
* Three Parachute Companies
** Three Parachute Platoons
*** Three Rifle Squads
*** Three Sub-machinegun Squads
*** Mortar Squad
** Communications Squad
* Parachute Heavy Weapons Company
** Machine-gun Platoon
** Mortar Platoon
** Flamethrower Platoon
** Anti-tank Platoon (4x 75 mm LG-40 recoilless rifles)

Raid on Tito's HQ

The 500th was led by Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka during its daring parachute and glider-borne assault on Tito's headquarters outside of Drvar on 25 May 1944. The raid, called Operation Knight's Leap ("Unternehmen Rösselsprung"), was reported in the 6 June issue of the German armed forces's daily report ("Wehrmachtbericht"). Two companies were dropped directly on Tito's headquarters while the other two were landed by DFS 230 glider.

The operation turned out to be a complete disaster. The first wave of paratroopers, following heavy bombardment by the Luftwaffe, fell in between the area of the cave, Tito's hideout, and the town of Drvar. The paratroopers landed on open ground and many were gunned down by members of the partisan HQ Escort Battalion, a company numbering less than 100 soldiers. The second wave of paratroopers missed their target and landed a few miles out of town. Tito was long gone when the paratroopers captured the cave. Right next to the cave's exit there was a path leading to a railroad where Tito boarded a train that took him to safety to the town of Jajce. Tito had been forewarned and evaded capture while the numerically superior partisan forces drove off the SS paratroopers. Over 800 of the 1000 personnel who participated in the operation were killed or injured.

After the Raid

The survivors were at first sent to Petrovac then later to Ljubljana, where they remained until the end of June. They were then transferred to Gotenhafen (Gdynia), West Prussia to take part in the planned occupation of the Finnish-controlled Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea, but this was cancelled. They were then sent to join III. SS-Panzerkorps at Narva, but were ordered to be flown to Kaunas, Lithuania on 9 July. There they formed a kampfguppe with I./Panzerregiment GD to relieve the trapped German forces at Vilnius. Subsequently they often acted as 3rd Panzer Army's 'fire brigade' in its defense of the Baltic States. By 20 August 1944 they were down to a strength of 90 men [Munoz, Anthonio J. Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen-SS, p. 42] , but remained in combat for the next several months as the Germans were desperate for any and all combat troops to stave off the Soviet offensives.

The paras were finally relieved in late October and were flown to Deutsch-Wagram, Austria where they were incorporated into the SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 600 after a week's rest.

The SS-Fallschirmjäger never fought in France. It is sometimes stated in histories of the French Resistance that SS paratroopers carried out a parachute assault in July 1944 against French partisan forces on the Vercors plateau in the French Alps where hundreds of partisans had created a stronghold from which they were mounting operations against the German occupiers. However, they were not Waffen-SS but Luftwaffe special forces from the secretive Kampfgeschwader 200. These para-trained commandos of II./KG 200 remain a little-known arm of Germany's WW2 parachute forces and were listed on II./KG 200's ORBAT as the 3rd Staffel.

The 600th SS-Fallschirmjäger Battalion

The second Budapest mission, Operation Panzerfaust, it can be said to have been, officially, the 600's first mission although the new battalion was not formally mustered until November 9th 1944 in Neu-Strelitz, their garrison town. The soldiers of the 500th who survived long enough to see the formation of the 600 were also given back their previous ranks and the right to wear the siegrunen on November 9th 1944.

Two companies of the newly forming SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 were then attached to Otto Skorzeny's Panzerbrigade 150 in December 1944 for the Ardennes. It was the only occasion on which SS paratroopers faced the Western Allies until, fleeing the Soviets, they surrendered to US forces early in May 1945. After the Ardennes, the 600th fought on the Oder Front in the Schwedt and Zehden bridgeheads and in various rearguard actions across Northern Germany at the very end of the war. The battalion was virtually wiped out three times in its eighteen-month existence.

Uniforms and equipment

Published photographs show them to be wearing Luftwaffe standard jumpsuits complete with Luftwaffe breast eagles and the Luftwaffe fallschirmjager pattern steel helmet. It was worn with the standard fieldgrey fallschirmjager trousers with either front lacing paratroop boots or cleated mountain boots.Jumpsuits published from photographs also show distinct SS-pattern camouflage.

Commanders

*"SS-Sturmbannführer" Herbert Gilhofer (October 1943 - April 1944)
*"SS-Hauptsturmführer" Kurt Rybka (April 1944 - 26 June 1944)
*"SS-Sturmbannführer" Siegfried Milius (26 June 1944 - October 1944)

Literature

* Adolf Kunzmann, Siegfried Milius (Mitarb.): "Fallschirmjäger der Waffen-SS im Bild." Munin-Verlag, Osnabrück 1986, ISBN 3921242673. ("Bildband")
* Rolf Michaelis: "Das SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500/600." Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-930849-35-6.
* Munoz, Anthonio J. "Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen-SS". Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1991 ISBN 0-87364-646-0
* Jerzy Woydyłło: "Desant na Drwar." MON, a.a.O. 1965. ("polnische Monografie")
* Massimiliano Afiero, "SS - Fallschirmjäger. The Battalion Parachutists SS", Lupo Editorial, 2004, 96 pages 14,00 euro.To order to: Lupo editorial, Post office box them 10, 50039 Vicchio (FI) Telephone [phone] email: [e-mail]

Notes

Wikilinks

*Fallschirmjäger

External links

* [http://www.cedynia.pl/strony/menu/38.dhtml Official Internetsite of the State Archives (Cedynia) zu den Kämpfen vom 25.-27. März 1945 an der unteren Oder]
* [http://www.centrostudilaruna.it/ssfalschirmjaeger.html Articolo sul Battaglione Paracadutisti SS] in Italian
* [http://www.avalanchepress.com/AirPollution.php Avalanche Press article]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ss500600/SS_Fallschirmjager.html Reenactment Fotos]
* [http://www.ssfj.co.uk/ UK Re-enactment Photos]
* [http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10599 Feldgrau Topics page]
* [http://www.ssfallschirmjager.com/ 2. Kompanie SS Fallschirmjager 600 (Reenacted)]