Propaganda Footage from German Paratrooper Exercise- 16 June 1943 [Full HD]
During WWII, Germany was the first country to use paratroopers on a larger scale, they were employed during the invasion of Denmark and the Low Countries in 1940, for example during the famous assault on Fort Ében-Émael in Belgium on May 10th, where around 500 German paratroopers used gliders to land inside the fortress and capture it.
But their most famous operation was the invasion of Crete, where over 14,000 German paratroopers landed on the island and managed to conquer it in May/ June 1941.
However, the Germans suffered heavy losses during these landings, both in men and planes, which prompted Hitler to believe the age of large-scale paratrooper landings is over, and no further use of airborne landings was planned.
Unlike the Germans, the Allies were impressed with the German landings on Crete, and began to form their own tactics for large-scale airborne operations, which were successfully employed on Sicily, in Normandy and during the famous Operation Market Garden.
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