3rd Parachute Division (Germany)

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The 3rd Fallschirmjaeger division or 3rd FJ was a German Airborne division in World War II. It was put together during 1943-44 and formed at it's core by a veteran parachute battalion of the Italian campaign. Training was intensive and emphasised initiative and improvisation. It was superbly equipped with 930 MG42s per company it had 20 MG42s and 43 sub machine guns while at squad level it had 2 MG42s and 5 smgs.In comparison its chief opponent, the 29th Infantry Division had just 2 M1919 machine guns 9 BARS while per squad it had just one BAR. The 3rd FJ had 3 times as many mortars and heavier ones. So it had between six and twenty times more firepower^[1]. It arrived in Normandy on June 10th by truck after night drives from Brittany. It was a full strength division made up of young German volunteers, and numbered 15,976 men and officers. It's level of training and excellent weapon systems prompted one 29th Battalion commander to remark, "Those Germans are the best damned soldiers I ever saw. They're smart and they don't know what 'fear' means. They come in and they keep coming until they get their job done or you kill 'em"^[2].