treespider
Posts: 9796
Joined: 1/30/2005 From: Edgewater, MD Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kereguelen quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again Francillon - who is highly respected - reports no less than a 110 man training detachment of German parachutists. I have papers and books claiming that BOTH IJA and IJN programs were ENTIRELY designed and run by the German trainers - who, however, remained at the schools, and did not ever go into the field. It would be surprising if the Japanese were able to organize effective units without help of this sort. Since the reports are multiple, and from respected sources, I think they are generally accepted by historians. I seem to remember Green mentioning them. Note that one of the German greats spent years in Japan, deigning aircraft, at Hitachi as I recall, ending just before the war began. Certainly aviation industry technical assistence was rendered. I suspect airborne training was as well. Does Francillon offer any source or reference for his report? This would be interesting! Don't know what the truth is here, but I could not find any statement in any German source/book that refers to any Fallschirmjaeger send to Japan in 1940 or 1941. This alone - not finding any reference in German sources - does not tell much. However, given the fact that is quite easy to find references to much more obscure dealings between Japan and Germany in WW2, it seems quite unlikely that such a thing would not have been mentioned in German sources about the Fallschirmjaeger in WW2 (lots of stuff about them in German language books). After all, the instructors would probably have written something about being in Japan in 1940/41 or their relatives would have started inquiries about them if they would not have returned. IMHO, the statement that German Fallschirmjaeger trained Japanese paratroopers, seems to be a similar myth like the old myth that German instructors trained the Japanese 4th Armored Division along the lines of Panzerlehrdivision. I would be curious as to Francillon's sources as well. Takizawa & Rottman list Masao Yamabe, Kenichi Tanaka, Tadao Nakata & Minoru Akimoto amongst their sources, all of which are Japanese.
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