The Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring ("1st Paratroop Tank Division 'Hermann Göring'" – abbreviated as 'Fallschirm-Panzer-Div 1 HG) was a German elite Luftwaffe armoured division. The HG saw action in France, North Africa, Sicily, Italy and on the Eastern Front during World War II. The division began as a battalion-sized police unit in 1933. Over time it grew into a regiment, brigade, division, and finally was combined with the Parachute-Panzergrenadier Division 2 Hermann Göring on 1 May 1944 to form a Panzer corps under the name Reichsmarschall. It surrendered to the Red Army near Dresden on 8 May 1945.

Initially staffed by volunteers recruited from Nazi organizations such as the Hitler Youth, it later received intakes from the Heer (especially panzer troops) and conscripts of the Luftwaffe. The unit was stationed in Berlin in the newly built Hermann Göring barracks (today's Julius Leber Barracks) and in Velten; being named after the 'Reichsmarschall' and Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring. This naming was intended to establish a close connection between Wehrmacht units and Nazism, while at the same time consolidating domestic power within the party hierarchy. Among its combat missions, the Hermann Göring maintained guard forces, such as a guard in the Reichsmarschall's estate at Carinhall and the Flak defense of Hitler's headquarters and personal train.

The division, during its time in Italy, committed a number of war crimes, and, together with the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, was disproportionately involved in massacres of the civilian population, the two divisions accounting for approximately one-third of all civilians killed in war crimes in Italy.

Formation

Establishment and initial phase – police administration

When Hitler, of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), was appointed Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933, Captain Hermann Göring was appointed the Prussian Minister of the Interior in February 1933. This gave him the supreme command of the entire Prussian police and a general's rank.

On February 24, 1933, Göring established the Polizeiabteilung z. b. V. Wecke (z. b. V. meaning "for special use"). His intention was to create a police association that was loyal to the NSDAP regime. The outfit was named after its commander Major der Schutzpolizei Walther Wecke, a veteran of the First World War and a member of the NSDAP. Numbering 400 men, it was stationed in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, a notoriously left-wing working-class area.

The battalion soon became notorious for its brutal practices. In cooperation with the Gestapo, which was also under Göring's control, the Special Duties Police Battalion was involved in many attacks against Communists and Social Democrats and was responsible for the arrest of opponents of the regime.

In June 1933, Göring enlarged the battalion and placed it under the command of the state police (Landespolizei), becoming the Landespolizeigruppe Wecke z. b. V. (Special Duties State Police Group Wecke), and then Landespolizeigruppe General Göring in January 1934. In the same month, under pressure from Hitler and Himmler, Göring gave Himmler's SS control of the Gestapo. To reinforce the position of his remaining unit, Göring increased its size and instituted a military training program. During the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler resorted to both Göring's state police group and Himmler's Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, who executed many Sturmabteilung (SA) leaders, thus removing the formation as a threat to the NSDAP.

Air Force control – early missions

In 1935 Göring was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. Since he wanted to keep control of his "favorite unit", it was transferred to the Luftwaffe in September 1935 and renamed the Regiment General Göring.

The regimental order of battle: Regimentstab (HQ staff) Musikkorps (military band) I.Jäger-Bataillon (light infantry) II.Jäger-Bataillon 13.Kradschützen-Kompanie (motorcyclists) 15.Pionier-Kompanie (engineers) Reiterzug (cavalry platoon) Nachrichtenzug (signals platoon) At the beginning of 1936 the regiment was ready to fight again. At that time all organized resistance against the NSDAP had been eliminated. During this time, the regiment served Göring as a personal bodyguard and covered Hitler's headquarters with its anti-aircraft guns. During this time the I. (Jäger-) Bataillon/RGG and the 15th Pioneer Company (15. Pionier-Kompanie) were assigned to the Döberitz Aviation School for parachute training; at the end of 1937 these units were renamed I.Fallschirmschützen-Bataillon (Parachute Rifle Battalion). The battalion was separated from the regiment in March 1938, sent to the training grounds of Stendal and transformed into the I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1, the first paratrooper unit of the Wehrmacht.

The regiment participated in the so-called Blumenkrieg (Flower Wars), taking part in the annexation of Austria (Anschluss); being among the first units to cross the border. Two companies landed by Junkers Ju 52/3m transport planes at Aspern Airport near Vienna. The unit remained in-country for several weeks on duty in Wiener Neustadt. The Regiment General Göring was also involved in the occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938 and the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939; after which, the regiment undertook guard duties at the strategically important Skoda vehicle works.

Training and selection

The Regiment General Göring intended for its ranks to be filled with selected personnel to square off with its competitors, the Army's élite Infanterie-Regiment "Großdeutschland" and the Waffen-SS Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler. Among the criteria for acceptance in the regiment: Age of 18–25 years old, Minimum height of 1.68m (5 ft 6ins), German citizenship, Eligibility for military service, Fitness for active service, Aryan ancestry, Unmarried status, Clean police record and no charges pending, Confirmed open support for the National Socialist state.

During the wars years a further requirement was added: the volunteer would have to sign up for 12 years service. Those conditions were much the same as those demanded for ingress into the Großdeutschland and the Leibstandarte. As the war progressed and the scale of combat losses mounted, such restrictive criteria could not be sustained in any of these élite formations. Many Luftwaffe personnel would simply be drafted into the Hermann Göring from other units to replace combat losses.

With high caliber recruits, the regiment occupied a brand new purpose-built barracks complex at Berlin-Reinickendorf, which was constructed to the highest standards and with the most modern of facilities for the time. The complex boasted over 120 buildings and included gymnasia, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, sports areas and its own post office. The sharply dressed General Göring soldiers, in their distinctive uniforms with white collar patches and special unit cuffband (Ärmelstreifen), became a regular sight on the streets of Berlin.

By 1939, the regiment had grown considerably. Troops of the regiment took part in many of the great pre-war parades through Berlin. They provided guards for Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's own headquarters, the changing of the guard often being performed with all due ceremony including the presence of the regiment's own military band. The regiment also undertook guard duties at Göring's private retreat, the sumptuous Carinhall estate - named after Göring's deceased first wife, Carin Axelina Hulda Göring.

The regimental order of battle on the eve of WW2 was: Regimentstab Musikkorps Stabsbatterie (HQ artillery battery) I.(schwere) Flak-Abteilung (heavy AA artillery battalion) II.(leichte) Flak-Abteilung (light AA artillery battalion) Scheinwerfer-Abteilung (searchlight battalion) IV.(leichte) Flak-Abteilung Wachbataillon (guard infantry battalion) Reiterschwadron (cavalry squadron) 9.Wachkompanie (infantry) 10.Wachkompanie 11.Wachkompanie Reserve-Scheinwerfer-Abteilung Ersatz-Abteilung (replacement training battalion) (schwere) Eisenbahn Flak-Batterie (heavy railway AA battery) (leichte) Flak-Batterie (light AA battery)

Combat history

Blitzkrieg in the West During the attack on Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II, only a small part of the Regiment General Göring (RGG) was involved in the fighting. Most of the unit remained in Berlin to protect Göring's headquarters and the Reichshauptstadt. During the Phoney War parts of the regiment formed an infantry battalion and took part in Operation Weserübung against Denmark and Norway in the spring of 1940; with the largest part of the RGG relocated to the west on the German-Dutch border under the camouflage designations "Flak-Regiment 101" and "Flak-Regiment 103".

In April, a detachment under Hauptmann Kluge was sent to Denmark. Composed of a company of the Wachbataillon, a 2cm self-propelled Flak-Batterie and a Kradschützen-Kompanie, it took part in the seizure of the airfield and radio station at Esbjerg and the securing of the coastline of Jutland. The detachment was then transferred by sea to Oslo, in Norway, being engaged alongside the Army first in the advance to Trondheim, then north up into the Arctic Circle to take the port of Bodo and relieve the pressure on the beleaguered élite Gebirgsjäger further north at Narvik. At first the German forces were pushed back by the Allies, with General Eduard Dietl making a fighting retreat and retiring along Beisfjord. With Fall Gelb initiated, the Allies evacuated Norway to concentrate on Flanders, leaving Narvik to the Germans. After completing its mission, Kluge's detachment was sent back home to Berlin.

As part of the Western campaign, the RGG took part in the invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium. During the campaign the Eben-Emael fortress in Belgium was taken by paratroopers under Captain Walther Koch, many of whom had previously served in the Regiment General Göring - including Koch himself. The RGG took part in the crossing of the Maas and the advance into eastern Belgium. There it crossed the Albert Canal against stiff resistance and took part in the capture of Brussels.

After the surrender of the Netherlands, the regiment was divided into several small combat groups (Kampfgruppen), which were assigned to the panzer divisions that spearheaded the attack on France. The anti-aircraft troops were particularly noted for their efficacy, with the superb 8.8cm anti-aircraft of the heavy batteries often used to fight tanks and the 3rd and 5th batteries of the RGG destroyed 18 French tanks at pointblank range during a battle in the Forest of Mormal, breaking their counterattack; the crews of the guns Casar and Dona kept firing at the French heavy tanks at 15 meters.

The Regiment General Göring was rewarded for its excellent performance by forming part of the honour guard of the Führer-Begleit-Kompanie (Führer's Escort Company) for the formal armistice at Compiègne on 21 June 1940. After the capitulation of France, the RGG provided Flak defences in bunkers on the Channel coast as well as contributing to the anti-aircraft defence ring around Paris. The new regimental commander was Colonel Paul Conrath in June 1940, who was to lead the regiment and the later division until 1944. At the end of 1940 the regiment was transferred back to Berlin to resume its old job as a bodyguard and air defense unit.

The invasion of the USSR