cause, he was able to join with them and move almost at will through the Soviet lines. On 26 December 1942, the men of Parachute Company of the Brandenburg Regiment were transported by gliders in an operation to destroy bridges and supply routes used by the British in North Africa. It was a disaster. Some of the gliders were shot down while flying over enemy lines and others were destroyed approaching their targets. Most of the paratroopers were killed in the operation. Units of the division were sent to the Balkans to engage in anti-partisan operations. In mid 1943, many Brandenburger units were moved from the Balkans, and took part in actions to disarm Italian soldiers. One vital area was the island of Kos, in the Dodecanese island chain off the coast of Turkey. Kos had been secured by British troops in September 1943, and a large garrison of allied Italian troops was also present. Along with Luftwaffe paratroop forces, Brandenburgers took part in the recapture of the island. On 25 May 1944, members of the division, attached to SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500, took part in the unsuccessful Operation Rösselsprung, an airborne operation to capture Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito. In September 1944 it was decided that special operations units were no longer necessary. The Brandenburg Division became the Infantry Division Brandenburg and transferred to the Eastern front. Approximately 1,800 men (including von Fölkersam) were transferred to SS-Standartenführer Otto Skorzeny's SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502 operating within SS-Jagdverband Mitte, but mostly to the SS-Jagdverband Ost until the end of the war. Only the Kurfürst Regiment retained its original role as a commando unit. In late 1944, the division was equipped with a Panzer Regiment and redesignated Panzergrenadier-Division Brandenburg and returned to the Eastern front. The Brandenburgers were involved in heavy fighting near Memel, until their withdrawal, along with the Großdeutschland, via ferry to Pillau. The division was all but annihilated during the heavy fighting near Pillau and only 800 men escaped to the thin strip of land at Frische Nehrung. While some survivors surrendered to the British in Schleswig-Holstein in May, others enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and fought in the First Indochina War where their skills proved an asset. Sub-battalions Bergmann Battalion The Bergmann battalion (meaning "miner") was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German-officered companies of volunteers from the Caucasus region of the