The "Hermann Goring" Division was truly a first division in several ways. Not only was it the first of the Nazi bodyguard units, but it was the world's first, and probably only, air force armored division. Despite the fantasies of many wargamers, HG was never organized as nor did it operate as an airborne division. The title "Fallschirm" (parachute) was an honorific title, intended to show the unit's elite nature and its status as part of the Luftwaffe.

The unit was created by Hitler's (then) right-hand man, Hermann Goring, in his capacity as Minister of Interior of Prussia, on February 23, 1933. Formed from Prussian police personnel, "Polizeiabteilung z.b.V. Wecke" was to be "in complete devotion to the Fuhrer." Its main purpose was to crush any resistance to Hitler, especially from the Communists. Its first commander, Major der Schutzpolizei Wecke, would be executed in Ping in 1947 for war crimes.

"Pohzeiabteilung z.b.V. Wecke" received the name "General Goring" on December 22, 1933. When Goring lost control of the Prussian Police to Himmler, the unit assumed a more military posture. Goring began to transform the unit into an elite guard unit, answerable only to himself and, to accomplish this, it was officially incorporated into the Luftwaffe on October 1, 1935, and expanded into a regiment. Subsequently, its first battalion was to cadre the new Fallschirmjager (parachute) forces. Goring had a new barracks built for his Regiment "General Goring," and it participated in the marches into Austria, the Sudetenland and Prag.

A November 1, 1938, reorganization cost the unit its parachute elements and, upon mobilization in August 1939, it consisted of

Regimentstab

I. (schwere) Flak-Abteilung
II. (leichte) Flak-Abteilung
III. Scheinwerfer-Abteilung [searchlights]
IV. (leichte) Flak Abteilung
Wach-Bataillon
Reserve units (two battalions and a battery)

The regimental headquarters included a "Musikkorps," which apparently was highly regarded, and one battery was detached to provide escort and anti-aircraft protection for OKL (Goring's headquarters), von Ribbentrop (the foreign minister) and the Fuhrerhauptquarder. The unit was considered to be an elite formation with high standards for its recruits. However, as the war progressed and the unit ballooned in size to a brigade, then to a division and then to corps, these standards were relaxed and then discarded. At first an all-volunteer unit, the inexorable demands for manpower caused the wholesale assignment of Luftwaffe ground personnel and Army personnel to build and rebuild the unit.

Except for a detachment from the Wach-Bataillon, the regiment did not participate in the Polish Campaign, remaining on air defense and guard duty in Berlin. A special unit, formed from flak elements and the Wach-Bataillon, participated in the occupation of Denmark and then fought in Norway. Three of the flak battalions (the bulk of the regiment) were transferred to the Rhineland and to the Dutch border in October 1939, and, in May 1940, fought in the French campaign.

These units then were assigned to air defense duty in Paris, but later transferred back to Berlin. On June 1, 1940, Oberst (and ultimately Generalleutnant) Paul Conrath, a WWI veteran and prewar police officer, assumed command. In 1941 the regiment, still primarily a flak unit, was sent to defend Ploesti, Rumania.

As flak troops, the regiment was included in the invasion of Russia in June 1941 and advanced as far as Bryansk under Army Group South. HG was withdrawn to Munich during the winter of 1941-1942. However, a special "Schutzen-Batailloif" served with Army Group North from late 1941 until April 1942.

Goring decided to expand "his" unit in March 1942, and on July 15, 1942, Regiment "Hermann Goring" was redesignated Brigade "Hermann Goring." In a manner of speaking, this allowed Goring to keep up with Jones', as his regiment's Army (Gross Deutschland) and SS (Leibstandarte) rivals had been upgraded to divisions by this time.

With the expansion, HG now consisted of three main elements: the combat forces (now being reorganized and expanded in France), the guard units (on duty in Berlin) and the replacement and training units [ersatz] (stationed in Holland). Brigade "HG" was now composed of a three battalion "Schutzen-Regiment" and a soon-to-be three battalion Flak-Regiment (to include artillery). The guard units were composed of the ever present Musikkorps, a flak battalion and the Wach-Bataillon. But still Goring was not done.

On October 15, 1942, Brigade "Hermann Goring" became Division "Hermann Goring." 5,000 Luftwaffe volunteers and one entire Fallschirmiliger regiment (the 5th) were ultimately incorporated into the division. At the same time, the WachBataillon HG became the Wach-Regiment HG and the ersatz unit in Holland was upgraded from battalion to regiment.

To help turn aviators into armored troops, Goring raided the Army for all of the division's equipment and a cadre of experienced officers and NCOs, including its future commander Oberst Wilhelm Schmalz. HG's table of organization was now:

Grenadier-Regiment 1 HG (three battalions)
Grenadier-Regiment 2 HG (three battalions)
Jager-Regiment HG (two battalions)
Panzer-Regiment HG (two battalions)
Flak-Regiment HG (four battalions)
Artillerie-Regiment HG (four battalions)
Aufklarungs-Abteilung HG
Panzer-Pionier-Bataillon HG

Not surprisingly, the conversion of an air force antiaircraft unit to an armored division did not take place overnight. While HG was reorganizing, the Allied offensive in North Africa began. HG units were ordered to OB Sud, with the flak regiment going to Naples for air defense and Grenadier Regiment I HG going to Tunisia. HG units in Tunisia were known as Kampfgruppe Schmid and included Jagerregiment HG (formerly Fallschirmjtigeffegiment 5, redesignated March 14).

When German forces in Tunisia capitulated on May 12, 1943, HG lost 11,000 men from HG Grenadier Regiment 1, HG Grenadier Regiment 2, Jagerregiment HG, Flak Regiment HG, Panzer Regiment HG and Aufklrarungsabteilung HG. Only selected personnel, including the HG commander Generalmajor Josef Schmid, were evacuated.

The loss of so many personnel delayed the completion of the new panzer division. However, the crying need for troops forced the concentration of the embryonic division on Sicily. Despite the fact that the best personnel had been lost in Africa, HG retained its reputation as a crack unit composed of elite troops.

However, as one historian has said, HG "was mediocre, possessed an undeserved, inflated reputation and generally inept leadership."

When the Allied invasion of Sicily began, the division failed miserably in its attack on the American beachhead at Gela. Troops panicked and ran, and several officers, including one regimental commander, were summarily relieved. However, fighting a bitter delaying action, HG regained its honor, and was evacuated with the rest of the German forces to Italy in August 1943. The division, which had managed to retain most of its equipment, went to Naples to refit. In September 1943, it was rushed to counterattack yet another Allied amphibious landing at Salerno.

Division HG then helped defend the Gustav Line through the bitter fighting in the winter of 1943-1944. Elements were sent north in January 1944 to face the Allied forces at Anzio. In February the division received its penultimate designation: Fallschirm-Panzerdivision "Hermann Goring." Oberst (later Generalmajor and Generalleutnant) Wilhelm Schmalz succeeded General Conrath. Schmalz came to HG from the army in 1943 and would command the division and then the Panzerkorps for the rest of the war.

After the Allies breached the Gustav Line, the division fell back to Florence. From there, on July 15, 1944, it was ordered to the Eastern Front for Model's counterattack to close a gap between Army Group Center and Army Group North. The attack was successful and the division was commended for its help in saving (temporarily at least) Warsaw from the Soviets. The division then defended the Vistula River line.

On October 1, 1944, the division was ordered expanded to a Panzerkorps. This reorganization was part of an overall scheme to beef up the offensive power and mobility of the panzer forces. In all, five panzer units were selected: HG, Gross Deutschland (HG's erstwhile Army rival), Feldhermhalle, 24 and 40 Panzer Korps.

The new organization called for two divisions (one armored and one panzergrenadier) with service and supply formations concentrated under corps command. Due to shortages, the new Panzerkorps never amounted to more than a strong panzer division in strength, and its units were frittered away in detachments to support the hard-pressed infantry.

HG now received its final designation of FallschirmPanzerdivision 1 HG. A newly formed panzergrenadier division: Fallschirm-Panzergrenadierdivision 2 HG rounded out Fallschirm-Panzerkorps HG. The personnel needed for this expansion came from redundant and untrained Luftwaffe personnel, the Army, and, as in 1943, one entire parachute regiment: Fallschirin-jagerregiment 16 Schirmer-Ost. Corps troops were to have included a Tiger tank battalion, but this was never formed due to lack of tanks.

The Hermann Goring training and replacement establishment was also expanded at this time. Fallschirm-Panzer-Ersatz-und-Ausbildungsbrigade HG, formed in October 1944, was lost when "Fortress Graudenz" surrendered to the Red Army in March 1945.

A second replacement brigade was quickly formed, but surrendered near Berlin in May 1945. The original replacement unit, now known as Ausbildungsregiment HG, remained in Holland and, after retreating into Germany, surrendered in May 1945. The table of organization of the corps was now:

Headquarters
Corps Troops
Fallschirm-Flakregiment HG 4(four battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzersturmbatalion HG (seven companies)
Fallschirm-Panzerkorpspionierbattalion HG (five companies)
Service and supply troops

Fallschirm-Panzerdivision 1 HG
Fallschirm-Panzergrenadierregiment 1 HG (two battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzergrenadienregiment 2 HG (two battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzerregiment HG (two battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzerartillerieregiment 1 HG (three battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzeraufklgrungsabteilung 1 HG
Fallschirm-Panzerpionierbataillon 1 HG
Fallschirm Panzerfusilierbataillon 1 HG

Fallsehirin-Panzergrenadierdivision 2 HG
Fallschirm-Panzergrenadieffegiment 3 HG (three battalions)
Fallschirm-Panzergrenadierregiment 4 HG (three battalions)
Fallschirm-Sturmgeschutzabtrilung HG (five companies)
Fallschirm-Panzerartillerieregiment 2 HG (three battalions)
Fallschirm- Panzeraufklarungsabteilung 2 HG
Fallschirm-Panzerpionier bataillon 2 HG
Fallschirm-Panzerfusilier bataillon 2 HG

As in Sicily, "Hermann Goring" returned to combat while still reorganizing. From November 1944 to January 1945 it defended East Prussia in the Gumbinnen area. On January 15, 1945, the panzer division and a portion of corps troops were transferred to Poland. The panzergrenadier division and the remaining corps troops desperately defended East Prussia against the Soviet onslaught until the surviving personnel were evacuated to Denmark in March 1945.

Fallschirm-Panzerdivision I HG, now under the command of its Army rival, Panzerkorps "Gross Deutschland," resisted the Soviet attacks in Poland, falling back through Upper Silesia and Saxony. One final counterattack wrecked the Soviet 1st Polish Division, but 1 HG soon after surrendered on May 8, 1945.

Those personnel that sought haven in Allied lines were turned over to the Soviets. Many were not released until 1956 and many more, including Generalmajor Erich Walther, commander of Fallschirm-Panrgrenadierdivision 2 HG from October 1944 through the end of the war, winner of the Ritterkrenz with Oak leaves and Swords and a famous paratrooper, perished in the Gulag.

Viewed in hindsight, the Hermann Goring division was yet another expensive and unnecessary excess of the Third Reich. Conceived as a special police unit to crack down on Hitler's political opponents, it was later transformed by Goring into his palace guard. It functioned effectively as an antiaircraft unit early in the war, but its reputation as a crack unit began to fall apart when it was reorganized and recominined to combat as a panzer unit. The mix of regular air force and army personnel that was used to rebuild HG time after time caused it to lose its elite stature, and ultimately, led by an ex-Army officer, it was no better or no worse than any other Army panzer unit.

The effort expended to create, train and equip "Hermann Goring" could just as easily have gone to create, train and equip the other panzer divisions of the Army, which were composed from the first of soldiers, not airmen trying to be soldiers.

Fallsehirm-Panzerdivision "Hermann Goring" in Europa:

All Units are Luftwaffe (LW)

First to Fight
1x 2-3-10 mot lt AA III AA=5 GG [OKH Reserves]
1x 1-10 mot Inf IIWach/GG [WK III]
[Note: This unit participated in the Narvik Campaign.]

Fall of France:
1x 1-10mot hv AA II AA=2 I/GG [Fourth Army]
1x 0-1-10 mot It AA II II/GG [no assignment]
1x 0-1-10 mot It AA II IV/GG [Sixth Army]
1x 1-10 mot Inf II W/GG [no assignment]

Balkan Front
1x 3-10 mot hv AA III AA=6 GG [Ploesti Watch]
1x 1-10 mot Inf II W/GG [Ploesti Watch]

Scorched Earth:

Jun II 41
1x 3-10 mot hv AA III AA-4 GG [AG South]

Nov I 41
Withdraw: 1x 3-10 mot hv AA III AA=4 GG

Dec I 41
1x 1-10 mot Inf II Sch/GG

Apr I 42
Withdraw: 1x 1-10 mot Inf II Sch/GG

War in the Desert

Nov I 42
1x 2-5 Para 111 5
[Note: This unit was later redesignated Jager-Regiment Hermann Goring.]

Mar I 43
1x 3-10 Mot III HG/1 HG
1x 3-10 mot hv AA III AA=6 HG/HG

Apr I 43
1x 2-1-10 Pz II HG/I/HG

Second Front

Jul 143
1x 15-10 Pz XX HG [South]
1x 2-3-10 mot hv AA III AA=5 HG [South]
1x 2-3-8* Mixed X HGFs [West]
[Note: A case could be made that this unit should be part of The Netherlands garrison, as it was stationed at Utrecht for most of the war.]
1x 2-10 mot Inf III HG W [WK III]
1x 2-10 mot hv AA III AA--4 Fuhrer [FuhrerHDQ]

Nov I 43
Upgrade: 1x 15-10 Pz XX HG (LW) (3 arm RPs) to:
1x 18-10 Pz XX HG

Apr I 44
Release from WK III garrison: 1x 2-10 mot Inf III HG W (LW)
and convert to: 1x 2-3-10 PzG III HG B

May I 44
Transfer to South: 1x 2-3-10 PzG III HGB

Jul I 44
Withdraw from South to East:
1x 8-8* Pz Cadre (18-10) HG
1x 2-3-10 PzG III HG B
1x 2-3-10 mot hv AA III AA=5 HG

Jul I 44
1x 2-6 Para-Inf III16
[Note: This unit later was incorporated into Panzerkorps HG]

Aug I 44
1x 16-10 Para Pz XXHG 1

Oct I 44
1x 5-8 Para PzG Cadre (12-10) HG 2
1x 2-1-10 Aslt Gun II HG

Bibliography

Bender, Roger James and George A. Petersen; Hermann Goring from Regiment to Fallschirmpanzerkorps San Jose CA: R. James Bender Publishing, 1975 (the main source for this article).
Bender, Roger James and Richard D. Law; Uniforms, Organization and History of the Afrikakorps San Jose CA: R. James Bender Publishing, 1973.
D'Este, Carlo; Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 1943, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1988.
Seaton, Albert; The German Army 1933-1945, New York: New American Library, 1982.