Frank Kurowski > Quotes

“An die Maschinen!—An die Maschinen! Kamerad, da gibt es kein Zurück. Fern im Osten stehen dunkle Wolken, Komm mit und zage nicht—komm mit!”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II

“Treatment must respect the feeling of pride the paratrooper has in belonging to the airborne forces. It must be more generous, more circumspect and more comradely than anywhere else. The culture [of the airborne forces] must rest more on mutual trust to one another than on discipline and obedience. I personally made efforts to give the best example.”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II

“After immortal feats-of-arms at Narvik, in Holland, at Eben Emael, at Korinth, on Crete and at Leningrad, these men held the encircled airfield at Anissowo-Gorodischtsche in bitter close combat against Soviet divisions.”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II

“Advancing on both sides of the road, the English soldiers attacked the building in which Pfriemberger had holed up. But the Gefreiter did not give up. He fired bursts into the group of attacking soldiers and forced them to take cover. Then he changed position and would show up at another point, opening fire from there. Wherever the English showed up, he forced them to take cover. The enemy, who assumed an entire squad of paratroopers was in the building, pulled back. A single man had accomplished the mission of an entire platoon. With unbridled trust in himself and his comrades, whom he knew would not leave him in the lurch, he had accomplished the seemingly impossible. By doing so, he had also saved his comrades in the gun positions at Chania.”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II

“Airborne forces employed the first large-scale deception maneuver at exercises held at the Bergen Training Area in July 1939. Oberstleutnant Heidrich had the idea of attaching life-size dolls to parachutes and then dropping them to deceive the enemy. The dolls landed in the rear of an “enemy” combat formation, which promptly turned about to engage the non-breathing enemy.”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II

“Whenever I visited the forces, I frequently talked to individual paratroopers and discussed their interests, their personal relationships and concerns. I asked them about their point of view and was happy whenever I received open and honest answers. In that manner, my company and battalion commanders and I brought together the airborne forces to an ever larger family, and it was an exceptionally difficult punishment for a paratrooper whenever he was kicked out of the family and assigned to another arm. To a large extent, this basic attitude was the secret to success for the airborne forces.”
― Frank Kurowski, Jump Into Hell: German Paratroopers in World War II