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Originally Posted by GunnersMate
Wasn't that where Germany launched its disasterous (and only) airborne op of the war? Or am I totally in left field?
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Germany used airborne attacks extensively in 1940.
Paratroopers were used during the invasion in Norway, if my memory serves me to capture the airport of Oslo and to allow airborne troops to be flown in.
On May 10th 1940 German airborne troops in gliders took the Belgium Forterss Eben Emanuel that guarded the Meuse crossing points. That same date major elements of the I German Parachute (Falschirmjäger) Division attacked bridges on the south flank of the heart of the Dutch defense line ("Vesting Holland"), tried to take bridges in Rotterdam - unsuccesfully - and the airport of Rotterdam (waalhaven) - succesfully, and furthermore tried to take the airfields around The Hague and to capture the Queen & the Cabinet - unsuccesfully.
Those actions were extremely spectacular - if rather primitive. In Rotterdam floating planes landed in the harbour to disembark airborne troops, around The Hague Ju 52/3's landed on airfields, were destroyed by Dutch counterattacks, then landed on major highways and even on the beach, where they were unable to take off again. Although it caused much panic and distraction, after four days of battle the bridges in Rotterdam were held, all the airfields around The Hague retaken, most airborne troops rounded up of which 3.000 already on their way as POW's to Canada and about 500 planes destroyed by thick AA fire and actions on the ground, crashes or even the tide; most of them Ju 52/3's.
The loss of these specialist troops and hundreds of Ju 52/3's was still felt by the Germans during the Battle of Crete.