Kurt Student (May 12th 1890-1978) was a German Luftwaffe General who fought as a pilot on the eastern front during the First World War and as the commander of the German parachute troops during the Second World War.

He was the pioneer of parachute warfare in Germany and his troops proved their value during the Blitzkrieg of 1940 in Holland. In the same campaign, his troops captured the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. In 1941 he led the capture of Crete from his HQ in Athens. The operation was successful, but had taken too many lives.

In 1943 he led Unternehmen Eiche, the successful spectacular raid of a special Luftwaffe unit (landing with gliders and STOL aircraft on a hilltop), to free Benito Mussolini. The well known SS-commander Otto Skorzeny took part in this operation.

He was transferred to Italy and later to France, where he was involved in the defence of Normandy in 1944. He was put in charge of the First Paratroop Army and took part in countering the allied Operation Market Garden, near Arnhem. After a brief spell at the Eastern Front in Mecklenburg in 1945, he was captured by the British in Schleswig-Holstein in April of that same year. He was freed in 1948.

See also

• German 1st Parachute Division