Fallschirm Jäger Regiment 6

The original 6. Fallsch.Rgt. had been used to raise new parachute units. In November 1943 it was decided to form a new 6. Fallsch.Rgt., which was intended to be part of 2. Fallsch.Div.¹ This unit was ordered to move to France on 1 May 1944.²

Its organization on 19 May 1944 included three parachute battalions. Each battalion had three companies with eighteen machine guns and three 8 cm mortars. Also the battalions had a heavy company with twelve heavy machine guns, four 8 cm mortars and two howitzers. This gave the battalion a strength of 70 machine guns (including four with the staff platoon), thirteen mortars and two howitzers.³

In addition to its three battalions, the regiment had three supporting companies: 13. (schwere GrW), 14. (Panzerjäger) and 15. (Pioniere). The equipment of these was⁴:

13. Kp.   Nine 12 cm mortars, eight machine guns
14. Kp.   Four 7,5 cm AT guns, 34 Panzerschreck, six machine guns
15. Kp.   Two 8 cm mortars, six machine guns (two of them heavy)

Total strength of the regiment amounted to 3 457 men on 19 May.⁵ According to von der Heydte, the regiment was further strengthened during June 1944. Its bicycle reckon platoon was expanded into a company and became the 16. Kompanie.⁶ During the summer further companies were added: 17. (Fliegerabwehr), 18. (Kraftfahr), 19. (Versorgung und Instandsetzung) and 20. (Feldersatz).⁷ With these additions the regiment had a strength of about 4 500 men.⁸

About a third of the officers and a fifth of the NCO:s were veterans, while the men had an average age of 17 1/2 year.⁹

The regiment had about seventy trucks. These were of more than fifty different types.¹⁰ For such a large regiment this was not sufficient to provide more than modest mobility.

Shortly after the allied landings, the Fallsch.Rgt. 6 was engaged in the Carentan area. It was involved in prolonged fighting and on 27 June it was reported that the regiment had three "mittelstarkes Battailone".¹¹ This included 1 000 replacements that had recently arrived, poorly armed and equipped.¹²

When US forces launched operation Cobra the 6. Fallsch.Jäg.Rgt. was subordinated to 2. SS-Pz.Div. and together with this division it brouke out of the La Baleine pocket.¹³

The regiment was again almost surrounded in the Villedieu pocket but acting on his own initiative, von der Heydte led his regiment out of the pocket.¹⁴ Subsequently the regiment was subordinated to 353. Inf.Div.¹⁵

On 10 August the regiment received orders to disengage and move to Nancy for refitting. Altogether 1 007 men left for this new task.¹⁶

Probably the regiment had suffered about 3 000 casualties during its actions in Normandy.

1	von der Heydte, Das Fallschirmjägerregiment 6 in der Normadie, MS # B-839, p. 2f.
2	Ibid, p. 7.
3	Gliederungen der AOK 7, Kleinere Verbände im Ber. LXXXIV. A.K., T312, R1566, F000214.
4	Ibid
5	Ibid
6	Heydte, op. cit. p. 3.
7	Ibid
8	Ibid, p. 4.
9	Ibid
10	Ibid, p. 6.
11	AOK 7 Ia Nr. 3454/44 g.Kdos., 27.6.44., T312, R1565, F001375.
12	Ibid, see also Heydte, op. cit. p. 50.
13	See Gen.Kdo. LXXXIV. A.K. Ia 048/44 g.Kdos. T314, R1604, F001373. and Heydte, op.cit. pp. 59-73. The La Balaine pocket was also known as the Roncey pocket and the Coutances pocket.
14	Heydte, op.cit. pp. 73-76.
15	Ibid
16	Ibid. p. 77.