They jumped into Crete. They held Cassino. Then they fought on the ground for the rest of the war.

The Fallschirmjäger weren’t Army. They were Luftwaffe, Germany’s paratroopers. In May 1940, glider-borne Fallschirmjäger took Belgium’s Fort Eben-Emael in a matter of hours, the first glider assault in history.

Then came Crete, May 1941. They took the island, but the losses were so severe that Hitler never again ordered a large-scale airborne operation. From then on, the Fallschirmjäger fought as elite ground infantry: North Africa, the Eastern Front, Normandy, and above all Monte Cassino in 1944, where the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division held the ruins of the town and monastery against repeated Allied assaults for months.

Their look was all their own. The M38 paratrooper helmet, cut without the flared brim of the standard Stahlhelm to reduce the risk of injury on the jump. The Knochensack, the “bone sack” jump smock worn over the uniform. The Luftwaffe eagle with its swept gull wings. And a reputation for carrying more firepower per man than standard infantry.

What you’re getting:

• Rifleman — M38 paratrooper helmet, field cap, Kar98k, khaki-brown uniform with ammunition pouches and paratrooper insignia
• Unteroffizier — Panzerfaust 100M, field cap, Luftwaffe Splittermuster 41 camouflage, gull-wing Luftwaffe eagle. A single-shot shaped charge that could kill any Allied tank at close range.
• Machine gunner — MG 42, M38 helmet, field cap, Knochensack ‘43 in Luftwaffe Sumpftarn camouflage, ammunition drum and gunner’s loadout
• Officer — officer’s peaked cap, graugrün Knochensack, gull-wing eagle, MP 40 magazine pouches
• 100% pad-printed — zero stickers