Fallschirmjägers and warcrimes

[kris777]

Hi as a new member I hope this topic is not off limits for discussion. I have searched already to see if it has been discussed before with no luck.

My question is were the Fallschirmjägers ever involved with any war crimes that were committed in WW2 and if so what occurred?

Sorry in advance if this thread causes any problems.

/Kris

[James Patrick]

I know there was one FJ regiment in Italy that tried to get 1st and 3d Bn Rangers to surrender by shooting captured American prisoners.

[David Thompson]

kris777 -- Your topic is what this section of the forum was set up to discuss. We had a similar thread involving German mountain troop units just a little while ago.

[Whisper]

I know there was one FJ regiment in Italy that tried to get 1st and 3d Bn Rangers to surrender by shooting captured American prisoners.

I didnt know this, do ypu have further information, like which unit that did, or if the responsibles have been captured and tried for this?

[James Patrick]

Off the top of my head, it was at the end of January 1944 around Cisterna. The 1st and 3d Ranger Bns conducted an infiltration and were behind enemy lines and under heavy German fire. To try to get them to surrender, the Germans would march American prisoners out to the Rangers front and order them to surrender or the POW's would be shot. The Rangers didn't comply and fired on the Germans. I know the 6th FJ Regt was despised by US Rangers and Paratroopers. So much so that the commander of the 502d PIR made his men swear that they would take no prisoners from the regiment alive. Maybe this could of been the unit, but I don't know. I don't know anything about warcrime charges, either. Cheers.

[Peter H]

The Greeks wanted to charge Student with war crimes on Crete in 1941.This was because of the large number of civilian executions that had occured in June 1941,especially the razing of the village of Kandanos on the 3rd June 1941.Student saw these as legitimate wartime reprisals against an armed civilian force,the British agreed and refused to release him to the Greeks.

The Kandanos reprisal was because of the death of 25 German paras outside the village,attacked in an ambush,their bodies found mutilated.

The famous 'sign of Kandanos',still preserved in Crete..."in retribution for the bestial murder of a paratroop platoon and half an engineer platoon by armed men and women in ambush."

[Peter H]

From Peter Stahl's Kreta, Fallschirmjager firing squad gets ready,Kandanos 1941.

[Marcus]

The Greeks wanted to charge Student with war crimes on Crete in 1941.This was because of the large number of civilian executions that had occured in June 1941,especially the razing of the village of Kandanos on the 3rd June 1941.Student saw these as legitimate wartime reprisals against an armed civilian force,the British agreed and refused to release him to the Greeks.
The Kandanos reprisal was because of the death of 25 German paras outside the village,attacked in an ambush,their bodies found mutilated.
The famous 'sign of Kandanos',still preserved in Crete..."in retribution for the bestial murder of a paratroop platoon and half an engineer platoon by armed men and women in ambush."

Which FJ unit was guilty of these actions?

/Marcus

[Marcus]

Off the top of my head, it was at the end of January 1944 around Cisterna. The 1st and 3d Ranger Bns conducted an infiltration and were behind enemy lines and under heavy German fire. To try to get them to surrender, the Germans would march American prisoners out to the Rangers front and order them to surrender or the POW's would be shot. The Rangers didn't comply and fired on the Germans. I know the 6th FJ Regt was despised by US Rangers and Paratroopers.

Do you have any more details on this incident?

/Marcus

[Peter H]

The Greeks wanted to charge Student with war crimes on Crete in 1941.This was because of the large number of civilian executions that had occured in June 1941,especially the razing of the village of Kandanos on the 3rd June 1941.Student saw these as legitimate wartime reprisals against an armed civilian force,the British agreed and refused to release him to the Greeks.
The Kandanos reprisal was because of the death of 25 German paras outside the village,attacked in an ambush,their bodies found mutilated.
The famous 'sign of Kandanos',still preserved in Crete..."in retribution for the bestial murder of a paratroop platoon and half an engineer platoon by armed men and women in ambush."

Which FJ unit was guilty of these actions?

/Marcus

Marcus,
The III/Sturm Regiment was involved in the shootings in the Kandanos/Kondomari region while Ringel's 95th Gebirgsjager Pioneer Battalion did comparable actions at Kastelli.

More:

"When Crete was taken in late May [1941], similar policies [reprisal actions] were introduced. Outraged by the part the islanders had played in resisting the invasion and attacking German paratroopers, General Kurt Student, commander of the XI Air Corps, ordered 'Revenge Operations', and explained to his troops what these were in terms that left no room for ambiguity: '1) Shootings; 2) Forced Levies; 3) Burning down villages; 4) Estermination (Ausrottung) of the male population of the entire region'. What these instructions led to was captured on film by Franz-Peter Weixler, who photographed an ad hoc firing party shooting the men of Kondomari in cold blood in the olive groves outside their village on 2 June. In Student's words: 'All operations are to be carried out with great speed, leaving aside all formalities and certainly dispensing with special courts.... These are not meant for beasts and murderers.' Greek sources estimate that 2,000 civilians were shot on Crete at this time. This figure is probably exaggerated; but we do know that the village of Kandanos was razed to the ground as a warning, and that large numbers of villagers were summarily shot not only in Kondomari but also in in Alikianos and elsewhere." (Mark Mazower Inside Hitler's Greece , 1993).

Student also incurred the wrath of the British with more war crime findings on Crete:

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/student.htm

[James Patrick]

Off the top of my head, it was at the end of January 1944 around Cisterna. The 1st and 3d Ranger Bns conducted an infiltration and were behind enemy lines and under heavy German fire. To try to get them to surrender, the Germans would march American prisoners out to the Rangers front and order them to surrender or the POW's would be shot. The Rangers didn't comply and fired on the Germans. I know the 6th FJ Regt was despised by US Rangers and Paratroopers.

Do you have any more details on this incident?

/Marcus

The book "Beyond Valor" has a couple of veterans accounts on the incident.

[Marcus]

Thanks.

/Marcus

[Peter H]

Also Major Snowadski on Crete:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=99333

[Peter H]

FJ war crimes in Holland 1940 and 1944 are being discussed here:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... p?t=129645

Major Ulrich Matthaeas who escaped Dutch authorities died in 1994

In Dutch:

http://www.nrc.nl/media/article311533.ece

[Rafal Sawicki]

There is one more thing about the Crete case that should be mentioned. Oberst Bruno Bräuer, the commander of 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment had been accused of war crimes, stentenced to death and executed. He was one of island garrison commanders. It have been said that unlike general of infantry Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (another garrison commander) he was rather gentle and humane. Did he really commit any serious crimes that should be punished by death?