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History of the FJ2K6
In January
1943 the
OKW decided to raise a second élite
German parachute division. The formation commenced in March and would include
the veteran 2nd Parachute Regiment, recently detached from the
1st Parachute division. The division would
also incorporate troops from the remnants of several other airborne units that
had suffered heavy losses in recent battles.
By May the division was still being raised when it was dispatched to
Avignon
France. There it become part of the XI
Flieger Corps along with the 1st Parachute Division. This Corps was to serve as
the reserve for the German Tenth Army in
Italy.
When the
Italian government started to crumble in
September, the 2nd Parachute Division was dispatched to
Italy. It took coast guard duties near the
Tiber estuary. They moved to
Rome on
September 9th and participated in a
subsequent operation to disarm the surrendering Italian army. Within a day the
city was under control and the Division quickly quelled the burgeoning
resistance.
The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Regiment participated in the recapture of
Leros Island in the Dodecanese. The island had recently been taken by the
British following the surrender of Italy. By
November 16th the battle was won and the
island retaken by German forces.
Meanwhile, in October, the 2nd Parachute Division was deployed to the eastern
front in
Russia. By
November 27th the division came under the
command of the German 42nd Corps, west of
Kiev, and joined the effort to stem the
tide of the
Soviet advance. The division fought a
succession of intense battles before the advance was finally halted. On
December 15 the division was airlifted
south toward
Kirovgrad to contain another Russian
breakout. A German counter-attack then commenced against heavy opposition. By
December 23rd the attack had been stymied
and the Division returned to the defensive.
In January
1944, the 2nd Parachute Division remained
on the eastern front, fighting defensive actions against the Russian offensive
around Kirovograd. The Russian advance resumed in March and the Division was
forced into withdrawal by an armored flanking attack. By the end of the month
the Division had withdrawn behind the
Bug river.
The Division fought its last actions on the eastern front in May during a
counterattack against a Russian bridgehead across the
Dniestr river. At the end of May the
much-weakened division was pulled from the line and returned to
Germany for some much-needed recuperation.
During the allied D-Day landing on
June 6th, 1944, the 6th Regiment was
stationed in the
Carentan area of the
Cotentin Peninsula, near the drop zones of
the
US 101st Airborne Division. The regiment
was heavily engaged in the subsequent battles, including defending
Saint-Lô.
On
June 13th the remainder of the Division
departed from the
Cologne area for
Brest in western
France. The division had not fully
recovered its strength from the battles in the east, but the situation could not
wait. They began to arrive in Brittany on
June 19th, but did not complete their
concentration before July.
In July the surviving remnants of the 6th regiment were caught in the Falaise
pocket and destroyed during the allied advance. By
August 9 the remainder of the 2nd Parachute
division was driven back and cut off in the city of Brest. There they remained
until they surrendered on
September 20. This ended the history of the
original division. Only a few remnants survived to withdraw toward Germany.
A new division began forming in Amersfoort, the Netherlands by September, and by
December it was combat ready. The new division consisted of the 2nd, 7th, and
23rd Parachute Regiments. It fought in the defense of Germany in January
1945 and ended the war in the Ruhr pocket
in April.