35127 WWII DUTCH INFANTRYMAN WITH CAPTURED FALLSCHIRMJAGER HOLLAND 1940

After the announcement of general mobilization at the beginning of World War II, the Dutch armed forces numbered about 280,000 people, most of whom served in the land army. The basic operational unit of the Dutch infantry was a division of approximately 10,000 men and a brigade of 6,000 to 7,000 men. The infantry division was made up of three regiments ranging from 2,200 to 2,600 line troops each. In addition, there were one or two artillery regiments and back-up units. One Dutch infantry regiment included three infantry battalions, an artillery battery of 4 57mm guns, an anti-tank artillery company with 6 47mm anti-tank guns, and a mortar company with 6 81mm mortars. The infantry battalion included a heavy machine gun company with 12 7.9 mm machine guns and three infantry companies with a total of 12 light machine guns. The basic infantry weapon of the infantryman was the Dutch Mannlicher model 1895 rifle. The artillery mainly used Krupp and Bofors cal. 75, 84, 125 and 150 mm weapons. It is worth adding that in 1940 - at the time of the German invasion of the Netherlands - the Dutch armed forces had a negligible number of tankettes or tanks, mainly of British production.Fallschirmjäger is the collective term for German airborne units from the interwar period and World War II. The first parachute unit was organized in Nazi Germany in 1936 - perhaps as a result of observations made during the Soviet maneuvers of the previous year. The first paratroopers squad was created on the initiative of Herman Göring and was assigned to the Luftwaffe. A year later (1937), the first unit of this type was subordinated to the Wehrmacht, and more precisely to the land forces. In 1938, these units were combined and expanded to form the 7th Aviation Division under the command of General Kurt Student. It consisted of parachute infantry, troops trained to transport gliders and infantry transported to the battlefield by airplanes. In the course of World War II, more Fallschirmjäger units were created, incl. in 1943, on the basis of the 7th Aviation Division, the 1st and 2nd Parachute Divisions were established. In the period 1939-1941, the German Fallschirmjäger was used for its intended purpose (e.g. during the fighting in Western Europe in 1940), but after the heavy losses suffered in the course of the fighting in Crete in 1941, the German parachute troops began to be used primarily as elite infantry units, in which role they proved to be very successful, earning the nickname "Green Devils" among the Allies.