Kurt Student
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Kurt Student (May 12, 1890-July 1, 1978) was a German Luftwaffe General who fought as a fighter pilot during the First World War and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger (parachute) troops during the Second World War.
[edit] Biography
Student was born at Birkholz, a village in the Landkreis of Züllichau-Schwiebus in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, in a region now located in Poland.
Student entered the Imperial German Army as an officer candidate in 1910 and was commissioned a lieutenant in March 1911. After serving initially with a light infantry (Jäger) battalion, he underwent pilot training in 1913. He served from the beginning of World War I until February 1916 with Feldflieger-Abteilung 17 on the Galician front, and then on the Western Front in aerial units of the German 3rd Army, including Jagdstaffel 9 (Jasta 9) (which he commanded from October 1916 to May 1917). He scored 6 victories over the French aircraft in 1916-1917.
During the interwar period Student tried to keep German military aviation from becoming technologically obsolete, since under the Treaty of Versailles Germany was forbidden to maintain an air force. In the immediate post-war years, he was assigned to military research and development. He became involved in gliding, since gliding was not forbidden under the Treaty of Versailles. He also attended the Red Army Air Forces maneuvers, where he first came in contact with the idea of airborne operations.
After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the Luftwaffe was secretly reestablished. Student transferred from the Army to the Luftwaffe and was appointed by Hermann Göring to be the head of the Luftwaffe's training schools, a position which became official when the Treaty of Versailles was renounced in 1935. In July 1938, he was named commander of airborne and air-landing troops, and in September commanding general of the 7. Flieger-Division, Germany's first Fallschirmjäger division.
Although the division played no part in the invasion of Poland, his troops proved their value during the Blitzkrieg of 1940 in the Low Countries, where troops under his command captured the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. He was accidentally shot by other German troops near Rotterdam in May 1940. He was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his leadership and bravery in these operations.
In January 1941 he was named commanding general of the XI. Fliegerkorps, the newly formed command for the expanding German airborne forces. In this capacity he directed the capture of Crete in May 1941. [1] The operation was successful, but incurred so many casualties that Hitler forbade future airborne operations.
In 1943 Student planned Unternehmen Eiche, the successful spectacular raid of a special Luftwaffe unit (landing with gliders and STOL aircraft on a hilltop) to free Benito Mussolini. The well-known Waffen SS commando Otto Skorzeny took part in this operation. Student received the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his role in the operation.
He was transferred to Italy and later to France, where he was involved in the defence of Normandy in 1944. He was put in charge of the First Paratroop Army and took part in countering the allied Operation Market Garden, near Arnhem. After a brief time at the Eastern Front in Mecklenburg in 1945, he was captured by British forces in Schleswig-Holstein in April of that same year. He was held by the British as a POW until freed in 1948.
[edit] References
- ^ In January 1941 he is known to have proposed a similar operation against forces in Northern Ireland along the same lines of Plan Kathleen, at the time Göring told him that his focus should be on the airborne conquest of Gibraltar via Operation Felix.
- http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/student.php
- http://www.bridgend-powcamp.fsnet.co.uk/Generaloberst%20(Luftwaffe)%20Kurt%20Arthur%20Benno%20Student.htm
