Description
Giesecke volunteered for service in late 1940, and was sent directly for training as a Paratrooper in March of 1941 in Stendal.
He entered Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1 in July of 1941 until his death in Italy in July of 1943.
1. Fallschirmjäger-Division
The 1. Fallschirmjäger-Division was formed from 7. Flieger-Division in April 1943 and was sent to Avignon, France, as a reserve force for rest and refitting. Following the Allied landings on Sicily it was sent to Italy with Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 3 making a parachute jump into Catania on Sicily on 12 July to secure the airport. It was forced to make a fighting withdrawal along with the rest of the German forces and it was the last unit to leave on 17 August. The division famously fought at Monte Cassino which formed a part of the German Gustav Line from January to May 1944, stubbornly resisting the Allied forces from the bombed monastery earning the nickname “Green Devils” before withdrawing further north.
Regimental History
The 7th Flieger-Division received the order to move to the eastern front to support the army. On September 27th, the Parachute Regiment 1 with its I. and III. Battalion and the II. / Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment, which had been subordinated to the regiment instead of the II Train and truck to the Neva front south of Schluesselburg, where Russian units have been trying to cross the Neva towards Leningrad for several days. They were able to form a bridgehead at Petrushkino and Vyborgskaya. The II./Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment was deployed at the Petrushkino bridgehead from 29 September. The I. and III. Battalion of the 1st Parachute Regiment replaced the 1st Infantry Division in Schluesselburg and south of it along the Neva to Wyborgskaya on September 29th and 30th. On October 6, 1941, the severely weakened II./Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment was replaced by the I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 3. During December 1941 the regiment was detached from the front and returned to Germany. The fighting in Russia had caused heavy casualties. In April 1942 the regiment, together with the 7th Flieger-Division, moved to France in Normandy for further refresher training. At the end of September 1942 the regiment returned to its home bases in Germany.
In October 1942 the regiment was transferred by rail transport via Minsk to Rudnya. The VI. Subordinated to the Army Corps, the 7th Air Division took over an approximately 90 km wide combat zone in the line Demidov – Dukhovshchina – Jarcewo at the end of October. In January 1943, during the Russian winter offensive that began in December, the division repulsed all Russian advances on Vitebsk and Smolensk. In the period from January 11 to 20, 1943, the III. Battalion deployed in the 205th Infantry Division near Welikiye-Luki to relieve the army units trapped there. In heavy fighting, the battalion enabled the surrounded army units to break out of the city. In the second half of February 1943, the Russian forces attacking north from the Kursk area succeeded in making a deep penetration into the positions of the 2nd Panzer Army south of Orel. The parachute regiment was deployed against this impending breakthrough. The regiment was detached from its positions north of Smolensk on February 27, 1943 and transferred to the threatened front section near Dmitrovsk. In a series of counterattacks at Alexeyevka, Stolbezkoje, Stepanowka and Nagornyj brought the regiment with the II. and III. Battalion halted the Soviet counterattack on Orel. The 1st Battalion was deployed at Dimitrovsk and from 28 February to 3 March prevented further advance north. By the end of March 1943, the regiment, together with the units of the XXXVI. Panzer Corps reconsolidate the front south of Orel. On March 30, 1943, the regiment was detached from its positions and transferred to Normandy, France, to be refreshed again.
At the beginning of June 1943, the regiment was transferred to the new assembly room near Avignon in southern France and served there in the formation of the 1st Parachute Division together with the 2nd Parachute Division as the OKW’s operational reserve for the southern front. After the Allies landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943, the 1st Parachute Regiment was transferred by rail to the airfields near Naples. However, due to the general situation on the island, a planned jump mission to Sicily did not take place. The regiment was then relocated to the Ginosa – Matera – Mottola – Massafra area to repel an expected Allied landing in the Gulf of Taranto. The regiment was subordinate to the III. Battalion, the II. / Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 4 and the 14th / Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 4. After the surrender of Italy on September 8, 1943 and the Allied landing at Salerno the following day, the 1st Fallschirmjäger-Division became the staff and the I. Battalion of the Parachute Regiment 3, the III. / Fallschirmjäger Regiment 1 and the I. and III. / Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 4 deployed against the Allied beachhead. After it became clear on September 18, 1943 that it would not be possible to throw the Allies back into the sea, the LXXVI. Army corps subordinated units to defense at Salerno. The units of the 1st Parachute Division were detached from the front and built up a defensive front in Apulia against the British 1st Parachute Division that had landed in the Gulf of Taranto. The British paratroopers arrived on Sept. 10
Death:
According to the Wehrpass and research conducted on Ancestry (Record Card is not part of the offer it is online at Ancestry) , it seems he was killed due to a bombing raid on their location (Naples, Italy) in July 1944. It seems he was not the only one killed as a result as there are others listed from the same company as KIA during the same raid.
