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Kurt Student ( May 12 , 1890 - July 1 , 1978 ) was a German Luftwaffe General who fought as a pilot on the Eastern Front during the First World War and as the commander of the German Parachute troops during the Second World War . He joined the German Air Force in 1913 . He initially served on the Galician front, then on the Western Front in AOK 3 and Jasta 9 (from October 1916) squadrons. He scored 6 victories over the French aircraft in 1916-1917. He was the pioneer of parachute warfare in Germany and 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 himself was accidentally shot by one of his own men around this time). In 1941 he directed the Capture Of Crete from his HQ in Athens . The operation was successful, but incurred so many casualties that Hitler forbade future airborne operations. In 1943 he planned Unternehmen Eiche , the successful spectacular raid of a special Luftwaffe unit (landing with Glider s and STOL aircraft on a hilltop), to free Benito Mussolini . The well-known SS-commander Otto Skorzeny took part in this 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 the British in Schleswig-Holstein in April of that same year. He was freed in 1948 . SEE ALSO |
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