4JAS WW2 RE-ENACTMENT AND
LIVING HISTORY ASSOCIATION

History of the 101st Airborne Division in WWII

1. Before the 101st

The idea of an Airborne Assault force was not new when the 101st was activated in 1942. Although far fetched ideas existed since the 19th Century the first realistic plans originated with the famous American General, William “Billy” Mitchell in 1918. He proposed an airborne invasion of Metz by the 1st U.S. Infantry Division to be dropped by British Handley Page 0/400 bombers. Planning for this operation fell to a young officer by the name Lewis H. Brereton (later famous for his planning role in Operation Market Garden). The operation was approved by the Expeditionary Force commander, General Pershing, but was shelved for deployment until 1919. Of course the war ended before it could be expedited.

After WWI interest in airborne assault almost vanished until the mid twenties when a craze for parachuting developed in Italy. In 1925 the first military parachute training school opened in Tarquinia and by 1927 military trial jumps were being recorded near Milan. Despite the death of the founder of the Italian Airborne forces, General Allesandro Guidoni in a parachute accident in 1928, Italian airborne activity grew with even donkeys and goats being parachuted in support of their Ethiopian campaign in 1937. Marshal Balbo, Governor of Libya saw the potential in this and established a second parachute training school in Libya in March 1938 mostly training local paratroopers.

Meanwhile in Russia the Red Army staged an international display of air power by deploying 1500 paratroops from Antonov ANT 6 aircraft near Minsk in 1936. The drop was made at 600 ft with the paratroopers having to egress the planes by climbing out of a roof hatch, rolling off the wing and manually pulling a rip cord. This resulted in a considerable spread of the teams when they reached the ground. Interestingly the display engendered two completely different opinions in two of the officers observing. Heading the British delegation was General Wavell who considered the display impressive but saw no potential future in paratrooper warfare in a modern army and a German observer, General Kurt Student (who had toyed with the idea of airborne troops as far back as the mid twenties) who was completely captivated by the potential. On his return to Germany he talked Reichsmarshall Herman Göring into forming the 1st Fallshirmjäger battalion. Hand in hand with the was the development of the assault glider and full scale production of the DFS230 commenced a year later in 1937. By the following year, 1938 Student assumed command of the whole airborne forces in Germany and cajoled high command including Hitler himself into investing heavily in its build up (despite much scepticism from some other Generals). Although they were ready to take part in the invasion of Poland in 1939 the war ended before they could be deployed. However, 1940 would see widespread use starting with the invasion of Norway and Denmark.

Artists illustration of German Fallschirmjäger taken from Adler Magazine showing one of the strikes into Belgium.

The 10th May was when the World sat up and took notice of the capabilities of airborne invasion when 16,000 German airborne soldiers spearheaded the invasion of Belgium and Holland. Most notable here was the invasion of the fortress Eben Emael. This recently completed fortress covering the approaches to the Maas River and Albert Canal. It was considered impregnable and was designed to withstand a siege of up to 2 months without re-supply. It featured 75mm howitzers, machine gun cupolas, 60mm anti tank guns and was manned by 1200 men in gas tight underground bunkers. It fell to 7 gliders manned by a total of 55 airborne combat engineers.

So great was the panic at this display of airborne power that newly appointed British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill immediately ordered the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) with the express purpose of defending Britain against airborne attack.

The final straw came a year later, shortly after General Wavell had inspected the defences of Crete when, on 20th May, 1941 the German Luftwaffe launched Operation Merkur (Operation Mercury), the successful airborne invasion of that island. There were two opposite outcomes from this invasion. On the one hand Hitler was appalled at the cost in men and materiel and forbade widespread use of airborne assault from that moment on. On the other hand the Allies were awed by the potential of airborne assault and there began a desperate scrabble to establish equally potent airborne forces. In the U.S. this was spearheaded first by the activation of the 82nd Airborne Division on 25th March 1942 and then the 101st on the 16th August.

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