Description

Here is your chance to own an incredible photo album from SS-Fallschirmjäger. The photo album is a small single photo album, with the cover showing paratroopers jumping from an aircraft. The inside cover reads “Mein Einsatz bei SS-Fallschirmjäger Btl. 500. Der Kampf um Tito’s Hauptquartier.” The album is produced by Karczagi from Pápa, Hungary, where the regiment completed training. The album includes 40 photos including the regiment in training and the man in SS uniform with the cufftitle Theodor Eicke. Period photos of this regiment are exceedingly rare. 5 of the photos have writing on the reverse. Click HERE to view more images of this item! This piece is a consignment item and is subject to the terms listed on the website. Guaranteed original.   The SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 was the parachute unit of the Waffen-SS. The idea to form a paratrooper unit within the Waffen-SS allegedly came directly from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Considering that the new Waffen-SS unit of parachutists had to be employed in dangerous actions behind enemy lines, recruits were taken from volunteers of Waffen-SS units and volunteers from the disciplinary units. The gathering of personnel for the unit was in Chlum in Czechoslovakia in October 1943. In November 1943, the battalion began its training close to Kraljevo, Serbia, with the Luftwaffe Fallschirmschule number 3. The training was completed in the area around Pápa, Hungary at the beginning of 1944. The 500th was led by Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka during its daring but unsuccessful parachute and glider-borne assault on Tito’s headquarters outside Drvar on 25 May 1944. The raid was called Operation Rösselsprung. Two companies were dropped directly on Tito’s supposed headquarters location while the other two were landed by glider. The first wave of paratroopers, following a heavy bombardment by the Luftwaffe, landed in between the area of the cave, (Tito’s hideout) and the town of Drvar on open ground and many were gunned down by members of the Tito Escort Battalion, a company numbering fewer than 100 soldiers. The second wave of paratroopers missed their target altogether and landed a few miles outside the town. Tito was long gone when the paratroopers captured the cave. Next to the cave’s exit, there was a path leading to a railroad where Tito boarded a train that took him to safety. Tito had been forewarned and evaded capture while the numerically superior Yugoslav Partisans drove off the SS paratroopers. Over 800 of the 1,000 personnel who participated in the operation were killed or wounded. Free shipping ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD & I don’t charge PayPal fees like some of the other guys!