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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

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If I remember correctly, it was the 9th Panzer Div. that rolled through Holland. The 10th was with Guderian at Sedan.

Student was seriously wounded at Rotterdam by troops from the 1st SS "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" [then] Regiment. He was out of action until the Spring of 1941, shortly before Mercury.The German airborne also participated (before Crete) in Operation Marita (Greece) by seizing the Corinth Isthmus and Canal.

Mercury was not intended to be a solely airborne operation, German infantry, using small craft were sent by sea to be part of the attack. The Royal Navy destroyed them. Although the 7th Fallschirmjaeger did the initial landings, and secured the Maleme air field, it was the timely arrival of the 22d Air Transport Div., and the 5th Mountain that carried the day. A side benefit of the invasion was the major losses incurred around Crete by the British Mediterranean fleet.

After Crete, German airborne troops fought in Russia, Italy and the West as "leg" infantry units. One exception (and the only non-Luftwaffe airborne unit in the Wehrmacht was an SS airborne battalion that fought in Yugoslavia, and participated in anti - partisan operations. At one point they almost captured Tito with a drop. Notable defensive battles by the Fallschirmjaeger were Monte Cassino,and St. Lo.

Market Garden was a classic instance of where a plan took on a life of its own. Despite knowing two of the best (if battered) SS panzer divisions were in the area (commanded by a former Army and Air Force Officer, Willi Bittrich), and despite the fact that the rapid advance at great risk was the type of battle Montgomery was incapable of waging, the Brits dropped the airborne divisions on three separate bridges, and sent XXX Corps up a single road to relieve them, with Von Zangen's Fifteenth Army sitting on their flank. It was a recipe for disaster, especially since the ground force lacked the necessary urgency (stopping for tea in the afternoon after crossing the newly acquired [at heavy cost to US paratroopers] Curmudgeon bridge).

German airborne troops (on a battalion and regimental scale) were last used during the Battle of the Bulge,being dropped on the northern flank to support 6th SS Panzer Army.

Suggested reading:
The German Airborne:"Hunters from the Sky"' by Charles Whiting;"Storming Eagles: German Airborne Forces in World War Two", by James Lucas; "Heaven and Hell: The War Diary of a German Paratrooper", by Martin Poppel.

Crete: "Nazi Victory", by David Thomas; "The Lost Battle", by Callum MacDonald.

Market Garden: "A Bridge Too Far", by Cornelius Ryan; "Airborne Carpet", bayoneting Farrar-Hockley; "The Devil's Birthday: The Bridges to Arnheim", by Geoffrey Powell; " 'It Never Snows in September'", by Robert J. Kershaw.