Fallschirmjäger
InfantryWikipedia
26
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
3
PODCASTS
Search complete. 26 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Fallschirmjäger".
Oct 5, 2026
Al MurrayHOST
And that is, uh, V- I was ventriloquizing there, if you're, uh, interest and hopefully delight.
Al MurrayHOST
Siegfried Bear from Fifth Company, Third Fallschirmjäger Regiment, in his, uh, funny helmet, his smock, and his dark blue trousers, holed up in Au- Autona, um, in the winter of 1943.
Al MurrayHOST
In fact, Christmas Day.
Al MurrayHOST
Merry Christmas, Jim.
James HollandHOST
Yes.
Al MurrayHOST
To the Fallschirmjäger, I think we're saying, aren't we?
James HollandHOST
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
James HollandHOST
Well, again, you know, he's another of these, these characters.
JoeHOST
But-
NateHOST
Well, it's kinda like, we've made this comment before that, uh, y- the way that people look at the stuff based on how the operation goes also deter- it depends on who's looking at it, in the sense that the Allies saw the Nazi Fallschirmjäger inva- operation and the invasion of Crete, and they were like, "All right, paratroopers are where it's at." Whereas the Nazis were like, "Fuck that shit." [laughs]
JoeHOST
"That did not work."
NateHOST
"That's a nightmare." Yeah, exactly.
JoeHOST
Same when the Nazis jumped on, uh, The Hague, uh, during their invasion of the Netherlands.
JoeHOST
Their Fallschirmjäger operation went fucking terribly.
JoeHOST
[laughs] The parachute landings required thousands of planes, over 20,000 men, American, British, and Canadian, all meant to be dropped over a wide swath of Normandy, France prior to the beach landings.
JoeHOST
The point was to gun for several important points in order to destroy important Nazi defense infrastructure, take towns, seize bridges, set up blocking positions, and just generally make the beach landings easier.
James HollandHOST
Um, it's just about light at that point.
James HollandHOST
It's a fairly suicidal order, but, but, but actually, this is even [laughs] only a diversion from the main event, which is an attack by the Third Brigade, and you may remember that they had been at, at, uh, Castel di Sangro, attacking the Fallschirmjäger on the top of that castle, on the top of that very high, high one-
Al MurrayHOST
Mm
James HollandHOST
... .1009.
9 MINS LATER
James HollandHOST
A- and there's four counterattacks the next day.
James HollandHOST
Go on, keep going, keep going, keep going, and then comes down the rain again.
James HollandHOST
A- a- and, you know, the Germans counterattack, then on the 13th, the Germans counterattack again, but they get nowhere, and now they're up against the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment, who, like the Canadian 3rd Infantry Brigade, have also moved up from Castel di Sangro.
James HollandHOST
And this is, you know, King Ludwig Heilman's regiment that he's commanded since Sicily, and he's one of the most sort of gung-ho, dynamic regimental commanders that there are.
AndyHOST
Yeah.
GauravGUEST
A-adding to that, uh, about the planned Italian invasion, the problem was they were unwilling to launch such an invasion unless the Germans committed at least- Uh, two divisions worth of, uh, Fallschirmjäger or the paratroopers for the invasion.
GauravGUEST
And the Germans, with the exception of Kesselring, sorry, took a moment to remember the commander of the Luftwaffe there.
CraigGUEST
Yeah.
Al MurrayHOST
But, but, but this is, this is the case with so much of the Italian landscape.
Al MurrayHOST
So what's gonna happen? Well, defending it are, uh, men of Oberst Ludwig Heilman's 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment, who, um, they were...
Al MurrayHOST
He, he was a busy bee in Sicily, wasn't he? Obviously, Fallschirmjäger come with a sort of whiff of, whiff, whiff of a reputation of being, uh, of being flinty, and they're gonna dig in and stick to it and make things hard for everybody.
Al MurrayHOST
This is on the 23rd of November, isn't it? So after the planned start of the Sangro crossing.
James HollandHOST
Yep.
James HollandHOST
And, so a second ago, you know, "You gotta do it again, boys." And everyone's sort of going, "Oh, my God.
James HollandHOST
Really?" And so up they go again the following night, the 24th of November, before which, in time-honored, honored fashion, the artillery has absolutely pounded it to hell, 5,000 rounds flung into the [laughs] Castle hill in just one half-hour period, which is qu- that's quite a heavy barrage, to put it mildly.
James HollandHOST
And that night, the Fallschirmjäger do what they usually do in these circumstances.