ϟϟ-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500/600

SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 in the hills near Drvar in Yugoslavia

The SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 was a parachute unit of the Waffen-SS made up of an equal percentage of volunteers from both regular Waffen-SS troops, and more specifically, from officially disgraced Waffen-SS officers and enlisted men who wished to redeem themselves under fire. In other words, it was a unit where dishonored officers and men convicted by courts-martial of minor infractions and currently in disciplinary straits could redeem their soldierly honor by participation in hazardous duties and operations. The first gathering of recruits was at Chlum in Czechoslovakia in October 1943. The SS paras wore standard Waffen-SS tunics and caps with Luftwaffe-issue jump smocks, trousers, boots and M38 helmets. Most of the volunteers appear to have removed the Luftwaffe breast eagles from their smocks. The training was completed at the beginning of 1944. The battalion often acted as a 'fire brigade' in the defense of the Baltic States. The brave paratroopers of the SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 who survived long enough to see the formation of the SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 600 were given back their previous ranks and the right to wear the SS sig rune on November 9 1944. At least five Scandinavians are known to have served in this battalion. Two companies of the later battalion took part in the Ardennes offensive in December 1944 as a part of the Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny's 150.SS-Panzer-Brigade wearing American uniforms and using American equipment. Only 180 out of 3,500 Waffen-SS paratroopers survived the war. Credit: author Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz: Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen-SS and Russ Folsom and Jason Pipes (Feldgrau-Forum). Image: Paras of SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka's SS-Parachute Battalion 500 posing with trophies flags captured during its daring but unsuccessful parachute assault on Marshal Josip Broz Tito's communist partisan headquarters in Yugoslavia on May 25 1944. Over 700 of the 1,000 personnel who participated in this coup de main operation, known as Rösselsprung, were killed or wounded during the raid on Drvar. Tito and the Yugoslav Communist Partisans were financed and assisted primarily by the UK and USA. Credit: Ghermán Mihály. Commons: Bundesarchiv.