Sunday, August 25, 2013
German Paratrooper Supplies
Paratroopers in WWII, the US Army jumped with a large load of gear, and weapons, on their body.
The Germans jumped clean. The heavy gear sometimes caused jump injuries. The Germans loaded weapons and ammo and other gear in boxes and parachuted them.
A Ju-52 could carry 12 paratroopers and four cargo boxes. One box for every three troops.
The boxes were color coded with stripes to tell the Germans what was inside each box.
The boxes had little wheels inside that could be mounted to allow the heavy boxes to be towed around by manpower.
The boxes were used to supply units that were cut off and could hold panzerfausts, grenades, mortars and mortar shells. If you have WWII German paratroopers, you need these boxes. Units that worked with or around German paratroopers often liberated a few of these boxes for themselves.