The Fallschirmjäger-Brigade “Ramcke” was an elite Luftwaffe airborne formation raised in the summer of 1942 on the orders of General Kurt Student to reinforce the hard-pressed Deutsches Afrika-Korps after the cancellation of Unternehmen Herkules, the planned airborne assault on Malta. Assembled from experienced Fallschirmjäger elements that included Kampfgruppe Major Kroh drawn from I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 2 returning from the Eastern Front, Kampfgruppe Major von der Heydte from the Fallschirmjäger-Lehr-Bataillon, Kampfgruppe Major Hübner from II./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 5, and Kampfgruppe Major Burkhardt from another Lehr-Bataillon, the brigade was further supported by II./Fallschirm-Artillerie-Regiment 7, a company of Fallschirm-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 7, the 2./Fallschirm-Pionier-Bataillon of the XI. Fliegerkorps, a Fallschirm-Nachrichten-Kompanie and a medical company. Placed under the command of Generalmajor Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke on 1 April 1942, the unit was airlifted in mid-July via Greece and Crete to Tobruk and then motored forward to take up defensive positions on the right wing of the Afrika-Korps northwest of the Qattara Depression near El Alamein. There it fought alongside the Italian 25. Infanterie-Division Bologna during the Axis push toward the Suez Canal and later held its sector against limited British probes while suffering heavier losses from disease than from combat. When the Second Battle of El Alamein began on 23 October 1942 the brigade, lacking organic transport, became isolated; on 2–3 November it broke out westward under continuous attack, marched more than 120 kilometres through the desert, captured a British supply column on 6 November that provided trucks, fuel, food and luxuries, and rejoined the main Axis forces near Marsa Matruh the following day with roughly 600 effectives after losing about 450 men. Ramcke was then recalled to Germany and awarded the Eichenlaub, command passing on 18 November 1942 to Oberstleutnant Hans Kroh. The reduced brigade continued the retreat into Tunisia, defending successive lines until the remnants, reduced to battalion strength, were included in the final surrender of Panzerarmee Afrika near Tunis on 13 May 1943.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
General der Fallschirmtruppe Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke (1889-1968) was born on 24 January 1889 in Schleswig into a farming family and entered the Kaiserliche Marine in 1905 as a Schiffsjunge, later serving as a Matrose and rising through non-commissioned ranks before the First World War. During that conflict he transferred to the Marine-Infanterie and fought mainly in Flanders, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse and 1. Klasse as well as the Prussian Golden Military Merit Cross for distinguished actions as an Offiziers-Stellvertreter. After the war he remained in the Reichswehr, advancing steadily to Oberstleutnant by 1937, and in 1940, at the age of fifty-one, volunteered for the Fallschirmtruppe of the Luftwaffe, completing parachute training and receiving the Fallschirmschützenabzeichen. In May 1941, as Oberst and Kommandeur of Fallschirmjäger-Sturm-Regiment 1, he took part in the airborne invasion of Crete; after Generalmajor Meindl was wounded he assumed command of the Westgruppe, leading the capture of Maleme airfield and the town of Chania, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 21 August 1941 and promoted to Generalmajor. In 1942 he commanded the Fallschirmjäger-Brigade “Ramcke” attached to the Afrikakorps in North Africa; during the Second Battle of El Alamein his isolated force refused surrender, captured a British supply column, and marched roughly 350 kilometres through the desert to rejoin Rommel’s troops, an exploit that earned him the Eichenlaub on 13 November 1942 and promotion to Generalleutnant. He later raised and led the 2. Fallschirmjäger-Division in Italy and briefly on the Eastern Front before taking command of Festung Brest in Brittany in August 1944. There, as Kommandant, he directed a stubborn defence of the vital port against superior American forces for more than a month, delaying its capture until 19 September 1944, the same day he received both the Schwerter and the Brillanten to his Ritterkreuz and was promoted to General der Fallschirmtruppe. Captured that day, Ramcke spent years as a prisoner of war, was later convicted by a French court of war crimes committed during the Brest fighting, and after release lived quietly until his death on 4 July 1968 in Kappeln.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramcke_Parachute_Brigade
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