During the interwar years, the rapid development of aircraft and aviation technology drew the attention of imaginative military planners.

The idea of aerially inserting a large body of troops inside enemy territory was proposed during World War I by Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, commander of the U.S. Army Air Corps in France.

[2] Though somewhat crude (the Soviet paratroopers had to exit their slow-moving Tupolev TB-3 transporters through a hatch in the roof and then, crawling along the wire, position themselves along the wings and top of the fuselage, and jump together when ordered), the exercise managed to land 1,000 troops through air-drops followed by another 2,500 soldiers with heavy equipment delivered via airlandings.

[4] As Prussian Minister-president and Minister of the Interior, he had ordered the formation of a specialist police unit in 1933, the Polizeiabteilung Wecke, devoted to protecting Nazi Party officials.

The organization of this unit was entrusted to Polizeimajor Walther Wecke of the Prussian Police Force, who had assembled a special detachment of 14 officers and 400 men within just two days.

[8] It carried out airborne operations in the early stages of the war, including the successful capture of Fort Ében-Émael in Belgium.

It later fought in the Battle of Crete but after heavy losses there, Hitler refused to consider using his troops in a significant airborne role again.

The division existed as a fighting unit until the German surrender in Italy of 2 May 1945, one week before the end of World War II in Europe.

Sent to Rome as part of the occupation force when the Italian government began to reconsider its war effort, it later fought in Ukraine and in western France.

A new 2nd Parachute Division was formed in November 1944 and the following year was involved in fighting in Arnhem, during the Rhine crossings and in the Ruhr Pocket with Army Group B.

[citation needed] The RZ 20 Fallschirmjäger parachute only had a single contact point, making control impossible and landing difficult.

[16] The first opposed airborne attacks occurred during the Norwegian Campaign, first during the initial invasion when Fallschirmjäger captured the defended air base of Sola, near Stavanger.

The Fallschirmjäger also had their first defeat in Norway, when a company was dropped on the village and railroad junction of Dombås on 14 April 1940 and was destroyed by the Norwegian Army in a five-day battle.

[28] The Fallschirmjäger were specifically deployed to the east of Leningrad on the River Neva to confront a Red Army effort to relieve the city.

[31] Between November and December 1942, the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 5th Parachute Regiment were flown into Tunisia to protect its airfields and take up defensive positions around the city of Koch during the Allied Operation Torch.

[34] On 26 December 1942, the men of Parachute Company of the Brandenburg Regiment were transported by gliders in an operation to destroy bridges and supply routes used by the British.

[37] On 12 September 1943, the Fallschirmjäger conducted a successful rescue mission of Italian Prime minister Benito Mussolini at the Gran Sasso.

At the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido-Gari, Liri and Garigliano valleys and some of the surrounding peaks and ridges.

Repeated pinpoint artillery attacks on Allied assault troops caused their leaders to conclude the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the least.

[45] The raid failed to achieve its objective, as the Fallschirmjäger occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins.

Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav defenses were assaulted four times by Allied troops, the last involving twenty divisions attacking along a twenty-mile front.

[46] The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses being far fewer, estimated at around 20,000 killed and wounded.

[44] By the last week of the month the Red Army had forced the paras across the Southern Bug River where they would establish defensive positions on the opposite bank.

The Fallschirmjäger utilized the terrain of the so-called bocage and the hedgerows to their advantage to negate American superiority in both firepower and quantity of troops.

[51] On 11 July 1944 the 3rd Parachute Division suffered heavy casualties while attempting to prevent American forces from capturing the city of St.

[57] On 21 September 1944, British and Canadian forces were successful in overcoming defensive positions occupied by the 1st Parachute Corps to capture Rimini.

[58] On 13 October 1944, Axis forces which included the 4th Parachute Division manage to halt an Allied 2nd Corps' advance south of Bologna, Italy.

As they were only equipped for a 24 hour operation, the survivors tried to return to German lines but the majority either became casualties or, including the commander, were captured.

A select group of Fallschirmjäger were chosen, composed of four trucks full of German paratroopers from the III Battalion of Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1 commanded by Oberleutnant Horst Trebes.

Between twenty-three and sixty men were killed in a firing squad while the women and children of the village watched as witnesses to the mass murder which came to be known as the Massacre of Kondomari.