Weapon

It was Luftwaffe practice to drop Fallschirmjager separate from their weapons and ammunition. Weapons containers were released at the same time that the paratroops jumped and hopefully the weapons would be quickly retrieved on the ground. Until then, the Fallschirmjager had only their pistols and some hand grenades to do their job. Based on their previous experience with this situation, some paratroops jumped into Crete with there MP40 tucked inside their smocks and the magazine pouches strapped above their ankles.