Paratroopers Actually Used for Parachute Ops?

except for operation plunder; airborne ops in division+ strength where disasters in WW2 with heavy losses, and massive dispersion... not to be critical in any way of the courage for the men involved; but these ops where often not worth the cost of fielding the divisions (the cost of a para division easily equaled 2+ line divisions)
 
except for operation plunder; airborne ops in division+ strength where disasters in WW2 with heavy losses, and massive dispersion... not to be critical in any way of the courage for the men involved; but these ops where often not worth the cost of fielding the divisions (the cost of a para division easily equaled 2+ line divisions)

In general I agree; regiment-sized para forces certainly had a place, but not entire corps!

Remember also that most armies combed out their best recruits for the paras; if they'd left most of them in the line infantry the performance of those units would have been notably increased.
 
except for operation plunder; airborne ops in division+ strength where disasters in WW2 with heavy losses, and massive dispersion... not to be critical in any way of the courage for the men involved; but these ops where often not worth the cost of fielding the divisions (the cost of a para division easily equaled 2+ line divisions)

I'd say Operation Tonga was a success, it acheived it's main objectives anyway. Mission Albany and Mission Boston were not total successes but wouldn't say they were disasters.
 
I'd say Operation Tonga was a success, it acheived it's main objectives anyway. Mission Albany and Mission Boston were not total successes but wouldn't say they were disasters.

They took heavy losses, and the divisions where massively dispersed, reducing their actual combat power... their bravery and courage secured their objectives BUT the resources for those 3 divisions easily represented 5 regular line divisions... think of how much more secure the general advance would have been with 5 additional mobile line divisions... the war in the west could have ended at Falaise if patton and monty each had an extra corps for flank duty

the german invasion of the netherlands and crete where successful but they took heavy losses and suffered massive dispersion amongst elite troops who were difficult to replace.. the allies could have gotten more bang for their buck going another direction
 
The Germans abandoned bigger airborne operations after Crete cause of the big losses. The losses could have been much lower if Göring had not decided to compromise between the plans of Löhr and Student. I think Löhrs original plan to concentrate all forces at Maleme was better than Students idea to spread the forces to achive maximum surprise. But Göring combined the plans and took the worst of both plans, thereby contributing to the losses.
Other problems of German paratroopers at Crete were the equipment (the Germans only had pistols and hand grenades, the rifles and machine guns were in the canisters, which sometimes landed in hostile positions) and the bad coordination of the waves (the planes had to be refueled by hand because they had not enough pumps at the air fields).
Had two or perhaps even one of these problems be solved the losses would have been lighter, the losses would have been reduced and the idea of airborne forces may not have been discredited. The main use would probably have been in the med as most of the eastern front was too open for light infantry.
 
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