Dutch Paratroopers Integrated Into German Army

Philadelphia Trumpet ^ | May 27, 2013 | RICHARD PALMER

[JerseyanExile]

A brigade of Dutch paratroopers will be integrated into a new German division of rapid reaction forces, German newspaper Rheinische Post reported on May 22. The 11th Airmobile Brigade—a mobile force of 4,500 troops that is equipped with light vehicles, mortars and anti-aircraft systems—will join 8,600 German soldiers to form the new division under German command.

With paratroopers and special forces, as well as combat and transport helicopters, the group is designed to respond quickly to new threats and help evacuate endangered German and Dutch citizens. Until now, only Britain and America had a similar type of military structure.

The Dutch brigade could be deployed anywhere in the world within 20 days. The new force will presumably have a similar sort of response time.

The Dutch De Telegraaf newspaper revealed that drastic cuts to the Dutch military budget were partially responsible for the merger. The Dutch forces won’t leave their bases in the Netherlands, but the joint procurement and training with Germany will save money.

The merger is seen as a major step for the Netherlands. However, the Netherlands has only one Airmobile Brigade. If it needs to deploy troops in a hurry, it will only be able to do so with German cooperation.

This is not the first Dutch-German initiative. The I. German/Dutch Corps is made up of one Dutch and one German division. The corps is a high-readiness land force designed to be able to deploy within 20 to 30 days.

[CodeToad]

All but heavy equipment like tanks, however, we can deploy tanks within 30 day no problemo. Most countries don’t have the heavy lift C-17 number that we have.

Most areas can be controlled with simply leg troops backed by solid logistics and that can be accomplished in a few weeks.

[CodeToad]

Still can! :)

[Carriage Hill]

Thanks.

Open a small hole in the tunnel, drop in some peanut butter w/ K+ (or d-Con), and it’s toast. A night-prowling tomcat is the best vole-mole hunter-killer. Mine at the (now closed) Family Farm Business would get 4-5/ night, eat the head and bring the body into my office to ‘share’.

[Carriage Hill]

Thanks; got it.

[jospehm20]

I was thinking the same thing.

[elpadre]

is this the same unit of boys, girls and gays who laid down their arms in Kosova (or was it Serbia?)and allowed their opponents to kill or kidnap all of the town's males.

[DesertRhino]

“Why is this an affront?”

It’s really kind of an arcane unknown story. But back in the 1940s the Germans invaded Holland and did a mass murder of lots of normal peaceful Dutch citizens. Then the Germans actually created an SS unit from Dutch traitor collaborators.

So if an elderly Dutchman today heard that a Dutch army unit was being integrated into the German army, some might consider it an “affront”. But i’m not really sure, it was some thing that happened in Europe back then. Guess it was kinda a big deal at the time.

[ansel12]

Many of the vets here already know how we younger guys get along with each other among the different nations who fought each other in WWII.

My dad fought Germans but I wore German jump wings on my American uniform and loved being with them, and we all liked comparing stories of our dads and their war, including open discussion of bad things and atrocities.

The Dutch soldiers are probably very pleased with being attached to the Germans.

[wally_bert]

Too bad Sheridan really didn’t work out.

http://tysonneil.smugmug.com/Military/M551-Sheridan-Tank/12993910_K8vC8m#!i=940273551&k=dpT8MxK

[T-Bird45]

The small arms range administrator at our local training area near Wiesbaden was fallschirmjaeger that jumped into Crete. He became a POW there and was probably why he survived WW2 to tell some interesting stories when you could get Herr Frank talking.

[jmacusa]

I don’t have a military background either but friend, if the enemy is sending rounds(bombs, missiles,etc) hot and heavy in your direction, his air assets pretty much own your sky and his ground forces and armor are barreling down the main street of your town, 20 or 30 minutes is too long. You would think the Dutch might have learned that lesson. After all, there are for certain a number of these German airborne troops who’s grandfathers and great-grandfathers dropped out of the sky and into their little country one fine May morning 73 years ago last month.

[ansel12]

The small arms range administrator at our local training area near Wiesbaden was fallschirmjaeger that jumped into Crete.

In 1972, all of the black hats at the jump portion of jump school who met the bus on the first day, were Germans with heavy accents, it was an interesting thing to hear the accented yelling, when one was kind of caught up in the historical feeling of joining the Airborne of WWII fame, a little jarring.

[Jim Noble]

Austria is next.

[jmacusa]

Worked for a man here in NJ 30 years ago who owned a pvc pipe producing plant, damn if I can’t remember his name. He was German, a little rolly-polly guy, always smiling, he was a good boss. He served in the Luftwaffe as a machine gunner/wireless operator in a Heinkel 111 twin-engine bomber.In August of 1940 his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over southern England. It crashed landed in a field and he was captured. It was his first mission. Later he was sent to a POW camp in Scotland and when America entered the war, he was transffered to a camp in Arizona. He ended up staying here. “I was one of the lucky ones’’ he always used to say. He sure seemed to love America. Years after I left the company a friend I worked with told me before the war his father had been a trade unionist and was sent to a concentration camp in 1939 and was never heard from again. His mother and his only sister were killed in an air raid. “No wonder he stayed’’ my friend said. “He had nothing to go back to.’’’ Apparently he came from somewhere in eastern Germany. No point in going back to no family and Soviet occupation.

[Carriage Hill]

I’m thinking that the Dutch didn’t have any good intel, back then, to see it coming.

[Argus]

Was under impression Charlemagne Div drew volunteers from Benelux countries as well.

[jmacusa]

Could be but German newsreels of the day were seen across Western Europe and the Germans weren't shy about showing off their latest military hardware. You make a valid point however. As goes the old saw about when a new war breaks out, the generals look to the books on how to fight the previous one. I don't think the French and the English armies, at the time the two biggest and best equipped in the West had any real clue as to what the Germans had done in debuting the idea of ‘’combined arms’’ warfare, i.e using tanks, mobile artillery,motorized assault infantry and tactical air support in a massive, fast-moving, one-two punch. Got to hand it to the Krauts, if war were a literary exercise only, Germany, with it's ''blitzkreig'' would still have the number one best seller of all time.

[T-Bird45]

Airborne Germans @ Benning reminds me that the sergeant major at my college’s ROTC detachment (1973-76) was a veteran of the 173d ABN in VietNam. I guess your story fills in a little bit about how that came to be. He retired from the Army while there but remained in the college town in a civilian job. His son was a cadet at the time and went on to a long Army career in Special Forces.