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I wanted to bounce the idea I have for my Fallschirmjager army.

I was thinking about following the splittermuster 41 pattern, and doing helmets without covers in standard fieldgrey. For my pioneer FJ platoon, I was going to use a dark yellow for the bare helmets.

I'm shooting for a Tunis/Italy period look. From the limited research Ive done, splittermuster 41 seems to have been the most common (made from 1941-43). Later in the war, newer FJ camo was produced, but limited supply created more of a patchwork of camo schemes rather then a standard one. So, Im assuming based on this, the splittermuster 41 could have even been seen as late as Normandy, and it would be fine for late war.

For the armor/at guns I want to just spray primer, spray 1 coat and then ink them to shade. Because of the time period, Im thinking Id use the North Africa color scheme (and actually match it with the pioneer's helmets to tie it together).

Are these colors accurate?

IIRC they are. However, I am not a 100% sure. Personally it has never really matter in any of the games I have played. Hell technically you can paint them bright pink it doesn't matter 9 times out of ten as long they are WYSIWYG.

You can paint them bright pink if you want to be hounded to hell by the souls of dead Fallschirmjager... and me.

Phydox,

What you are suggesting sounds excellent. Also I have seen yellow painted helmets in use in Normandy and also with a green camo pattern painted over the yellow in both Italy and Normandy if you want a bit of variety.

Also you can do some in tropical sand trousers too to reinforce the look for Tunisia or Italy.

As for vehicles... Plain yellow works anywhere for me.

Just want to say thanks for this, Phydox. I'm close to having a fully-painted British Rifle Company-based force, and I'll be starting on my friend's Fallschirmjagers soon, as I know he's never going to paint them!

With any sort of late-war German uniforms you have a bit of freedom with the colors. It's not out of the question to have some of them modeled with Waffen SS camo smocks.
Helmets you could do some foliage on them. There were also net vests available to them around the Normandy invasion for putting local plants in.

I'm glad I was on target. Looking at all the camo and images was giving me a headache. Putting the paint order in today

DoctorZombie wrote:With any sort of late-war German uniforms you have a bit of freedom with the colors. It's not out of the question to have some of them modeled with Waffen SS camo smocks.
Helmets you could do some foliage on them. There were also net vests available to them around the Normandy invasion for putting local plants in.

No Luftwaffe garments were ever in Waffen-SS camo patterns (unless you count the alledged SS HBT Bonesack suppossedly issued to SS-FJ).

There was a 500th SS Parachute Battalion and you could do them in SS they where suppose to get the camo but it supposedly got lost.

ghostmaker wrote:There was a 500th SS Parachute Battalion and you could do them in SS they where suppose to get the camo but it supposedly got lost.

It seems the stock of the garments, if it ever actually existed, was destroyed in an air raid.

SS-FJ 500 morphed into SS-FJ 600 in late 1944.

The SS Fallschirmjager must have worn something. I think it unlikely they would have worn standard Fallschirmjager/Luftwaffe kit. I suspect their poor battle performance may have been, in part, due to lack of cooperation in training from the Luftwaffe.

Using the standard Fallschirmjager rules for SS Fallschirmjager may be a little off (even in the game of the film of WWII) there is a Trained Fallschirmjager list in one of the Market Garden books. That would be a little closer IMO.

George Spiggott wrote:The SS Fallschirmjager must have worn something. I think it unlikely they would have worn standard Fallschirmjager/Luftwaffe kit.

Thats exactly what they did wear, even the decals, but with SS tunics underneath FJ jumpsmocks;

George Spiggott wrote:I suspect their poor battle performance may have been, in part, due to lack of cooperation in training from the Luftwaffe.

Poor?

Hmmm, I think you have the wrong unit there.

It was not a penal unit as often wrongly labelled by historians. This is due to Wehrmacht Penal units generally having the '500' prefix on their battalion numbers.

SSFJ-500 had 50% of its personnel drawn from volunteers from Waffen-SS units, the other 50% was open to Waffen-SS personnel within disciplinary units (men who had been convicted of military offenses, such as falling asleep on guard duty) as a means of redeeming their status. This was done purely because the units was to be selected for highly dangerous missions. These men were all volunteers, highly motivated and with an extremely high esprit du corps. They trained at Luftwaffe Fallschirm-Schule Nr.3 in 1943 and all members completed their jump training in Yugoslavia, something that cant be said for many normal Luftwaffe units.


They performed well during the Drvar operation, Tito only escaping as his was forewarned and most issues arising from poor Luftwaffe dropping of the Fallschirmjager.

They then acted as part of 3rd Panzer Army's 'Fire Brigade' during the chaos around Vilnius and fought tenaciously and very bravely alongside 1/Panzer Regiment Grossdeutchland, and in the months that followed the unit remained in combat as part of the rearguard units till reduced to only 90 survivors.

The survivors were then amalgamated with FJ-SS 600 and they provided troops for Budapest and the Ardennes. It was in constant combat for the 18 months of its existence and had a 300% turnover in personnel.

Both units fought extremely hard and were certainly not poor combat formations. They fought to the last man and rarely gave ground until ordered especially in the East.

If you want to read a proper account of the short, but eventful life of the Fallschirmjager SS I would recommend Rolf Michaelis - Das SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500/600 which is available in English and contains many rare photographs.

Thanks for the info Big P.

I had seen something about the SS FJ 500's raid to get Tito. 1000 went in. 1/2 were dropped, and 1/2 went by gliders, and both landed off target. Tito was tipped off and gone and the partisans were waiting for them. They completed their mission and took the hideout, but no Tito. There were like 200 survivors.

When they came back from the Eastern Front, there were only like 60 soldiers left from the original SS FJ 500 when they joined the SS FJ 600.

It seems like the Fallschirmjager (and SS FJ) had ghastly casualties in every account Ive read.

Hazard of the job.

At Drvar more than 200 survived. There were over 800 casualties, but that total includes killed and wounded.

Airborne drops, by nature are generally behind enemy lines and devoid of support.

Thus casualties are high. German airborne operational planning doctrine specified an operational death rate of 1 man in every 3 deployed, rising to possible 1 in 2 loss rate against well motivated defenders.

Once they start being used as reliable ground troops in defence loss rates steadily rise. Tis the nature of their lot to suffer due to their ability. Of course over time the losses lead to a degrading of performance but its in no small credit to the core of veterans in these formations that they manage on the whole to maintain the esprit du corps almost till the end.

For those interested in Drvar, this book is a reproduction on the actual German report;

http://www.landmarkmilitarybooks.com/Operation-Drvar-SS-Fallschirmj-ger-pr-2506.html

Big P wrote:Poor?

Hmmm, I think you have the wrong unit there.

They performed well during the Drvar operation, Tito only escaping as his was forewarned and most issues arising from poor Luftwaffe dropping of the Fallschirmjager.

They then acted as part of 3rd Panzer Army's 'Fire Brigade' during the chaos around Vilnius and fought tenaciously and very bravely alongside 1/Panzer Regiment Grossdeutchland, and in the months that followed the unit remained in combat as part of the rearguard units till reduced to only 90 survivors.

They [500 SSFJ] suffered massive casualties against partisans that they outnumbered, outgunned and initially surprised at Drvar. Blaming the Luftwaffe sounds like a cop out to me since the Luftwaffe had all but given up on that kind of operation by '44. Either the Luftwaffe weren't passing on good advice or the SS weren't taking it, either way "lack of cooperation in training" is an ample description for the lack of communication. They were also involved in anti-partisan duties before they were sent to Vilnus in July where by the sounds of it they got up to speed. Vilnius didn't require any additional FJ technique, their standard SS Infantry training would have served them well. At no point during this am I questioning their bravery.

So I maintain that until Vilnius (possibly even during part of) that a Fearless/Trained rating would correctly recreate 500 SSFJ in FoW. I do realise there's little point suggesting game terms for a game you don't play but this is a FoW thread/forum.

It looks like the Luftwaffe uniforms were stand ins until they got something proper. There seems to be little attempt to SS-up their jump gear. More importantly, no need to paint two different camo schemes if you want to play your FJ minis as SSFJ. That's good news for everyone.

http://ww2.debello.ca/underground/balkans/drvar.html
http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=1714

I hope no one minds if I hijack the thread a little, but the question relates back the to OP's - would I be better off painting Fallschirmjagers for use in Normandy with the Splittermuster 41 scheme, or would the Sumpfmuster 43/44 scheme be the more historically accurate choice?

Sumpfmuster 43, but really the troops wore a mixture, some even wearing the plain green bonesack too in Normandy.

Alot depends on the unit. Those freshly raised or without previous combat service would have had a far more uniform look among the troops. Those with a high number of veterans would have a more varied look.

Another interesting point to note regarding Normandy, and its purely an anecdotal one, is that from photos it seems many NCOs and junior officers seems to have acquired FG42s. It almost becomes a symbol of rank.

George Spiggott wrote:
They [500 SSFJ] suffered massive casualties against partisans that they outnumbered, outgunned and initially surprised at Drvar. Blaming the Luftwaffe sounds like a cop out to me since the Luftwaffe had all but given up on that kind of operation by '44. Either the Luftwaffe weren't passing on good advice or the SS weren't taking it, either way "lack of cooperation in training" is an ample description for the lack of communication. They were also involved in anti-partisan duties before they were sent to Vilnus in July where by the sounds of it they got up to speed. Vilnius didn't require any additional FJ technique, their standard SS Infantry training would have served them well. At no point during this am I questioning their bravery.

FJ technique?

What would that be exactly?

With regards their training, they undertook intentsive infantry training Chlum, then transferred to Maturuscha-Banja for jump training at Fallschirmspingerschule III. Rosselsprung was not their first operation, they saw action during Margarethe and Maibaum.

The problem with regards the Luftwaffe relates to the lack of air crews specifically trained to operate in airborne troops drops. Since the airborne drops in Norway, Holland, Belgium and Crete, the Germans had suffered high losses among the crews used for this task. Many of those used in 1940 were trainers from the various bomber schools and these losses would have an effect on training German bomber crews as well as among the transport fleets. This lack of expertise in dropping troops is seen in all late-war German airborne operations inclusing that at Leros in 1943 and Strosser in the Ardennes. At Drvar the pilots got off course and many dropped the troops at too high an altitude, the worse possible thing to do with those using the RZ series parachute as the chute could not be controlled in descent and thus wide dispersion of units occured, thus reducing combat and operational effectiveness instantly.

Next the troops suffered a higher instance than normal of fractures on landing during the operation. The reason for this was two-fold. One was the new Luftwaffe training that saw troops jump with their personal weapon rather than it being located in a canister. This increased weight and instability of the already unstable RZ series parachute a provided yet another hazard when the Fallschirmjager landed, as upon landing with an RZ series parachute you would have to perform a forward roll. When doing this with a weapon it could strike the soldier and cause injury. In a test jump at Stendal airfield, a company dropping with weapons in perfect consditions onto the grass training grounds, suffered a 15% injury rate. Added to this is the terrain around Drvar, being rocky and hard. This increased fractures once more. On the day their was a moderate low ground wind that also increased injuries (as also seen during the Leros jumps).

So firstly we have increased injuries on landing due to the conditions, and a wide troops dispersal due to poor dropping technique by the air crews.

The Partisans were fighting from rocky caves and dug-out defences and also had prior warning through their intelligence network that an airborne attack would take place. The first wave of SS-Fallschirmjager was only 200 men strong and they fought through to capture Tito's HQ against what is estimated to be well over 100 partisans who were quickly reinforced by more troops from Drvar. They then became encircled by superior numbers and withdrew to the cemetary to set up an all round defence and await relief by the ground component of the operation headed by 7th SS Prinz Eugen. They were soon in problems due to lack of ammunition and although managing to link up with the other troops deployed by glider they still had to fight for a day on their own against the 3. Brigade of the 6. Proletarian Division. They survived on some dropped supplies and close in air-to-ground attacks conducted by Stukas. The Partisans also managed to get a mortar detachment into position to shell the cemetary position and this is thought to have accounted for a large proportion of casualties as the troops sought shelter from the mortars firing down at them from a position above them.

As Prinz Eugen arrived on 26 May, after two days of combat for the SS-Fallschirmjager the Partisans withdrew into Drvar and a heavy fighting took place in the town. Although the landings did not manage to capture Tito, they did cause heavy losses to the partisans. Partisan losses are estimated to have been around 6,200 with the loss of alot of heavy equipment that severely reduce their capability for much of the following summer in the area.

The SS-Fallschirmjager fought at Drvar till 11th June and 200 men marched out of the area, leaving around 650 in various hospitals or to be buried...

I profess a little interest in WW2 airborne drops, my MA was in German and British Airborne operational effectiveness...