Talk:Alfred Schwarzmann

Holland chapter is a load of crap

Citation: On May 10, 1940 Schwarzmann and his company parachuted into Holland and took a key enemy position on the coast. This they held until relief forces arrived. In the course of the fighting Schwarzmann was badly wounded when a bullet pierced a lung. Near Dordrecht he was discovered by a Dutch soldier, speedskater Siem Heiden, who recognized his fellow Olympian and brought him to safety. I have revised that.

The previous content-citation is certified crap. Schwarzmann, being a platoon-commander in 8./Fjr.1, was not parachuted at an enemy position on the coast but at the Moerdijk bridges, south thereof to be precise. He was indeed badly injured by two bullet wounds in the first stage of the operation, on the main street at the village Moerdijk. That was not near Dordrecht. The hoax that Siem Heiden would have safed Schwarzmann has been proven untrue long ago. They never saw eachother during the fighting. Heiden fought in Dordrecht, Schwarzmann in Moerdijk where he was severely wounded in the second hour of battle and didn't see anything else but hospitals for months to follow.

Schwarzmann's Knights Cross was a disgrace to his fellow Fallschirmjäger. He was rewarded Iron Cross I and II, which was already questionable. But his Knights Cross almost certainly followed when he was suffering from heavy fevers from his lung wound and seemed to succumbed to his wound any time. Since he was a reputed German Olympic hero he was awarded the KC for propaganda purposes. In fact Schwarzmann was the only Platoon leader failing his initial mission at the Moerdijk raid and only with assistance of a 7./Fjr.1 team he managed to fulfill his objectives, himself already being knocked out. His KC, which he flashed all the time ever since, didn't gain him any statue within the German airbornes, for all airbornes knew that he had received it for propaganda purposes only. After the war he only once visited a BDF meeting, sensing the rejection by his former comrades. He never after attended any vet-meetings anymore until his death.

Grebbegoos (talk) 17:58, 7 June 2010 (UTC) }}

Neither he got "Ritterkreuz" only because he was a famous sportsman nor was it a disgrace for his comrads. Of course it was good for propaganda: "famous german sportsmen are also brave fighting heroes". Maybe that was one reason. But: these airborne raids on bridges and fortresses were very important for sucessful "Westfeldzug". Schwarzmann planned and organised raid on Moerdijk. He commanded his unit until he was wounded. You can't give EK and Ritterkreuz to all who were involved. Maybe honour for him was a little bit symbolically and exemplarily. And maybe they thought he might pass away because he was seriously wounded. But actually he did " a good job" in an important operation, nearly lost his life and therefore he was - in military view - worthy to get his honours. ManfredV (talk) 17:07, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Notability

The subject is more notable as an Olympic gold medalist than for his war-time career. I thus switched the infoboxes around, and commented out the image in the military infobox. K.e.coffman (talk) 05:16, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

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