Fallschirmjäger translated means Paratrooper Hunter. They were the elite airborne and ground units of the Luftwaffe. On 11th May 1936, Major Bruno Oswald Brauer made the first parachute jump from a wing of a Klemm KL25 sporting aircraft and became the first German Fallschirmjager to be given a Fallschirmschutzenschein (parachuting licence).The German military was among the first to drop soldiers into battle far behind enemy lines. They would take this concept to new levels and use these airborne soldiers in the first operations of WWII.
The Fallschirmjager Ten Commandments
1. You are the chosen ones of the German Army. You will seek combat and train yourselves to endure any manner of test. To you, the battle shall be fulfillment.
2. Cultivate true comradeship, for by the aid of your comrades you will conquer or die.
3. Beware of talking. Be not corruptible. Men act while women chatter. Chatter may bring you to the grave.
4. Be calm and prudent, strong and resolute. Valour and enthusiasm of an offensive spirit will cause you to prevail in the attack.
5. The most precious thing in the presence of the foe is ammunition. He who shoots uselessly, merely to comfort himself, is a man of straw who merits not the title of Parachutist.
6. Never surrender, to you death or victory must be a point of honour.
7. You can triumph only if your weapons are good. See to it that you submit yourself to this law - first my weapon and then myself.
8. You must grasp the full purpose of every enterprise, so that if your leader is killed you can fulfil it.
9. Against an open foe, fight with chivalry, but to a guerrilla, extend no quarter.
10. Keep your eyes wide open. Tune yourself to the top most pitch. Be nimble as a greyhound, as tough as leather, as hard as Krupp steel and so you shall be the German warrior incarnate.
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