In October 1938, the decision was made to raise the 7th Flieger (Air) Division, which included all of the Fallschirmj?ger divisions and aircraft. This was to be an ?lite paratroop formation intended for vertical envelopment operations against enemy defenses. The commander chosen to lead the 7th Flieger Division was Major-General Kurt Student.
Organizationally, a Fallschirmj?ger Division was intended to be organized along the lines of a German infantry division, with three parachute rifle regiments, an artillery regiment, and divisional support units. However the Division was not brought up to full strength before 1941. Nevertheless, elements of the division played significant roles during the Wehrmacht operations in 1940.
One of the largest operations of the 1st Fallschirmj?ger was at Crete. The conquest of Crete was ultimately successful, but the cost to the Fallschirmj?ger was high in men and aircraft. Too high for Hitler. He decided not to use the Fallschirmj?ger in a large-scale airborne operation again. However that was not the end of their service.
The men of the 1st Fallschirmj?ger Division soon found themselves redeployed to Russia. They weren’t to be thrown into the meat grinder of the Eastern Front, but were used as elite infantry for limited operations where their independence, skills and fighting spirit could be used to the best advantage.
The British Field Marshal Harold Alexander wrote in a memorandum to Winston Churchill in March 1944:
The destruction caused in Cassino to roads and movement by bombing was so terrific that the employment of tanks or any other fighting vehicles has been seriously hampered.The tenacity of these German paratroops is quite remarkable,considering they were subjected to the whole Mediterranean Air Force plus the better part of 800 guns under greatest concentration of firepower which has ever been put down and lasting for six hours.I doubt if there are any other troops in the world who could have stood up to it and then gone on fighting with the ferocity they have.
The 1st Fallschirmj?ger participated in almost all of the major battles on the Eastern and Western front. They were one of the best infantry divisions of the German Army. Their stubborn fighting for every inch of ground earned them the nickname "Green Devils", the "Green" part because they had a specific type of camouflage pattern called Splittarn that was rather green. Every Allied country feared fighting the Fallschirmj?ger. They always fought, they never let up, and they always killed more than they lost.
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