OPERATION FALL WEISS

Author: Stephan Janzyk

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Year published: 2017

Pagination: 176pp, numerous b/w & colour photos

Condition: New in d/w

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An account of German Paratroopers in the Poland Campaign, 1939. Although the fledgling paratroop operations in Belgium and the Netherlands in 1940, and on Crete in 1941, attracted worldwide attention, less well-known is that the use of airborne forces had been planned for the invasion of Poland in 1939, in an act that began the Second World War. On several occasions the men of Parachute Regiment 1 were sitting ready in their Ju 52 'Tante Ju' transports, fully equipped and ready to go. Many of these young and in-experienced paratroopers would go on to experience the full horrors of warfare and for some of them, the Polish Campaign would end in a ‘hero’s death’. The author uses war diaries, maps, contemporary documents and photographs, including those from various private collections around the world.