Role Fallschirmjager | Other work Police officer Unit 1st Parachute Division Name Walter Koch | |
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Battles and wars | ||
Commands held Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment | ||
Walter Koch (10 September 1910 – 23 October 1943) was a highly decorated commander of the Fallschirmjäger during World War II who died in mysterious circumstances after openly criticising Adolf Hitler. Koch, who was the recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions during the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael in May 1940, had publicly denounced the Führer's infamous Commando Order, which ordered that all captured enemy commandos were to be executed. Shortly afterwards the Oberstleutnant and commander of Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 5 died in Berlin from injuries allegedly resulting from a motor vehicle collision.
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Early career
Walter Koch joined the Landespolizei as an officer on 3 April 1929. As a Leutnant he had served in the state police and a police battalion for special purposes (Polizeiabteilung z.b.V. Wecke). In 1935 the new commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, transferred this police unit into the reformed Luftwaffe and renamed it the Regiment "General Göring".
Airborne service
Koch was promoted to Hauptmann (Captain) on 20 April 1938. He was then tasked with training a special commando unit dubbed Koch Parachute Assault Battalion (Fallschirmjäger-Sturm-Abteilung "Koch") for operations in the west.
When Fall Gelb began in May 1940, his troops saw action during the opening phase of the Battle of France during assaults on the Belgian fortress Eben-Emael, the Maas river and Albert Canal bridges. Koch's commandos successfully captured Fort Eben-Emael and the bridges in Veldwezelt and Vroenhoeven. Only the bridge at Kanne, which was blown up by the Belgian defenders, was not taken by the German paratroopers. For these successful operations, Walter Koch along with ten other Wehrmacht officers received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
By May 1941, Koch was promoted to Major and given the command of the re-designated I Battalion, 1st Parachute Assault Regiment (I./Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1) The battalion was part of the first attacking airborne waves during the Battle of Crete. Koch led the attack using 53 DFS 230 troop-carrying gliders. Their target was the village of Maleme on the western coast of Crete because its small coastal airfield and Hill 107 commanded the approaches to the island's capital. The German troops faced the New Zealanders of 5 Brigade's 22nd Battalion, with other battalions close behind, under the command of Brigadier Edward Puttick. Although Koch was wounded in the head in the battle for Hill 107 on the first day, his airborne troops quickly achieved their targets.
Koch was promoted to Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) on 20 April 1942. He and the 5th Parachute Regiment (Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 5) were transferred to Tunisia in mid November 1942.
Opposition to the Commando Order
In his regiment's first African engagement two weeks later, Koch's troops encountered the British 2nd Parachute Battalion under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Dutton Frost at Depienne Airfield 53 km southwest of Tunis. Frost had left a number of injured men under the protection of a single platoon behind at the airfield while he and his forces went on to other targets. On their discovery, the British paratroopers were quickly captured by Koch's troops and made prisoners of war (POW). The German commander then ordered his medics to treat the wounded. Before leaving, he ensured that the prisoners were given food and water, and even cigarettes, before handing them over to other Axis ground forces.
However Koch and the commander of the I Battalion, 5th Parachute Regiment Hauptmann Hans Jungwirth returned just in time to stop the machine gunning of the captured British soldiers. After a heated debate with another German officer about the Commando Order, Koch managed to obtain adequate treatment for the Allied prisoners who were instead transferred to a POW camp.
Death
Shortly after stopping the killing of POWs in North Africa, Koch was wounded in the head. The highly experienced combat leader was sent back to Germany to recover from his wounds; while there he was placed in the Führerreserve. While convalescing he was involved in car accident, he died in a Berlin Hospital from these injuries in October 1943. However many in his regiment believed that this was no accident and he had been most likely killed by the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt because of his outspoken criticism of the Commando Order.