The German Air Force began training parachute troops in 1936, and by the time of the invasion of Czechoslovakia five battalions had been organized, of varying degrees of training and readiness. The German plan included a parachute drop behind the Czech fortifications barring the way to Olomouc, to seize bridges and crossroads to aid in a breakthrough. But the Czechs had laid their defenses in quite some depth.

The German paratroopers of 1938 were yet not those of 1941; they would be formed into the 7th Airborne Division of five battalions in October 1938 as the branch continued to expand. The Czech doctrine of defense in depth unintentionally placed forces where the German hoped to drop airborne units to sever the lines of communication leading to the border fortifications. The first debacle of the German airborne forces would occur two and a half years before the air assault on Crete.