Jäger (military)
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- For other uses, see Jäger.
Jäger was adopted in the Enlightenment era to describe a kind of light infantry, and it has continued in that use since then. More recently it has also been adopted in the original sense of "hunter" for compound terms such as Panzerjäger, "tank destroyer" (literally "tank hunter"). The military police of the German Bundeswehr are called "Feldjäger", and an interceptor aircraft is also called "Jäger" in German.
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[edit] Early history
Jägers were at first recruited in the mid-eighteenth century amongst huntsmen and foresters in certain German states. They were often of "middle class" backgrounds, or belonged to the lesser nobility. These troops were primarily used for reconnaissance, skirmishing or screening bodies of heavier troops. Since they owned their own weapons they could (in principle) fill a crucial defensive role as militia in case of surprise assaults before any mobilization had been ordered, or as organizers of partisan warfare after an occupation. Jägers were not just skilled riflemen, they were also able to handle and maintain delicate, accurate rifles in an age when very few people had any mechanical skill.
Jägers were often excellent snipers able to inflict heavy casualties among enemy officers. Their ability to lay exceptionally accurate rifle fire also made them a good for providing covering fire for other more vulnerable troop types such as sappers or engineers constructing forward trenches.
For fights in close quarters the Jägers carried a straight-bladed small hunting sword called a Hirschfänger (literally "deer catcher"), a short sabre or a falchion.
[edit] The Napoleonic Era
Jägers became a popular troop type during the Napoleonic Wars, when volunteers from a bourgeois background were organized to resist Napoleon's occupation of the German-speaking areas of Europe. Continuing the earlier traditions, these Jägers were patriotic volunteers, bearing the cost of their weapons and uniforms at their own expense or with the help of contributions from friends and neighbours, and often organizing themselves into clubs and leagues. The resistance against Napoleon exacted a high toll of military casualties, especially among the officers, leading to many promotions within the ranks. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars most of the lower-ranking officers in the Germanic states were Jägers who had been promoted.
[edit] Prior to World War I
By the early twentieth century Jager units were part of the Imperial German, Austro-Hungarian, Swedish and Norwegian Armies.
Best known were the German regiments who were characterised by their peace-time wear of dark green tunics and shakos (in contrast to the spiked helmets of most German infantry). They comprised one Imperial Guard and thirteen line Jager Battalions, ten of them Prussian, one Mecklenburg and two Saxon.
The Austro-Hungarian Army included four regiments of Tiroler Kaiserjaeger, descended from a unit first raised in 1801. There were also 33 battalions of Feldjaeger recruited from different regions across the Empire. All wore pike grey uniforms faced in green, with a form of bowler hat carrying a distinctive plume of dark green feathers. The exception was the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Jaeger Battalion which wore the fez.
[edit] World War II
During World War II the German armed forces revived the name Jäger for various types of light troops:
- Units of light infantry, particularly a series of divisions raised to operate in the rough terrain of southeastern Europe.
- Gebirgsjäger ("mountain infantry" — Gebirgs refers to mountain troops) was sometimes applied to their mountain troops, and to the light infantry type described above.
- Fallschirmjäger ("paratroopers" — Fallschirm is "parachute") was at first applied only to genuine airborne troops, but was retained for their Parachute Infantry units even after they began operating as heavy motorized infantry.
- Panzerjäger, for tank destroyers and anti-tank units equipped with them.
