World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseKurt Student was born in Birkhonz, Germany. He became a commissioned officer in the German Army in 1912 and in the following year became a pilot with the Army's air force as a pilot. During WW1, he shot down several French aircraft. He remained with the German military after the nation's defeat in WW1, and in 1934 joined the Luftwaffe, where he was responsible for introducing the concept of airborne infantry. After being kept back during the Poland campaign, the paratroopers were used to achieve stunning successes during the quick capture of the Low Countries in 1940, though Student was injured from friendly fire during the operation and did not return to active duty until Jan 1941. When he returned, he engaged in several plans to drop paratroopers in Malta, Gibraltar, and even Britain, and he was given the chance to mount another airborne offensive, this time in Crete, Greece. The Crete operation, however, did not go well; there were so many casualties that Adolf Hitler refrained from conducting large scale airborne operations for the remainder of the war. After Crete, German paratroopers were slowly integrated into ordinary infantry units. In 1943, he had another spectacular record for the planning of the daring rescue of Benito Mussolini by gliders and other small aircraft (which Otto Skorzeny commanded from the field). In 1944, he was transferred to lead the First Paratroop Army against the Allied advances in France and the Low Countries. He was captured by the British in Apr 1945 and was freed in 1948.

Kurt Student Timeline

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