The 68th Special Forces Brigade (or 68th Brigade of Special Forces) was the old name of the unconventional warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. It is an independent branch under the direct command of the Chief of Defence since February 1, 2017. Before that, the brigade was within the force structure of the Land Forces. It was one of two Bulgarian military special operations units, the second one being the Naval Special Reconnaissance Detachment (Морски Специален Разузнавателен Отряд or МСРО), a combat frogmen unit, retained within the structure of the Bulgarian Navy. The 68th SF Brigade was transformed into the Joint Special Operations Command () on November 1, 2019. Тhe headquarters is located in Plovdiv.
History
Origins The first parachute jumps made in Bulgaria date from 1927, when Otto Heinicke made an initial demonstration of his pilot rescue parachute at the Bozhurishte airfield before subsequent test jumps were made by Bulgarian Second Lieutenants Boris Stoev, Hristo Hristov, Vasil Velkov, and Boris Tsvetanov. However, the demonstration was a proof of concept due to the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine after World War I, which prohibited Bulgaria from having an air force. A civilian aviation organisation was established as the Aviation Agency under the Ministry of Railways, where the officer ranks of the Bulgarian pilots were kept in complete secrecy.
The actual beginning of Bulgarian military parachuting dates from the autumn of 1940, when a decision by the Ministry for War and the Armed Forces Staff was made for the formation of a parachute company in the Air Force in 1941. This was postponed until 1942, when a training parachute company stood up for the theoretical preparation of personnel. As many as 5,000 junior officers and conscripts born in 1920 and 1921 took the exams for the new unit before a commission, including German parachutist officers seconded for the preparation of the new unit. As a result, about 300 men were selected. In December 1942, two groups of Bulgarian paratrooper candidates left for Germany to train at the Luftwaffe's Paratroops School 3 (Fallschirmschule 3) at Braunschweig-Broitzem. The first group of 144 men was headed by Captain Lyubomir Noev (the future commander of the Parachute Druzhina) and the second group of 146 men, which followed several days later, was headed by Captain Georgi Alaykov (who took over the druzhina after the death of Noev).
Bulgaria is one of the few countries in the world that has developed its own operational and tactical doctrine for the use of paratrooper forces. The reason for that is the context of its actions during the war. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was a very reluctant ally of the Third Reich. Other than the two army corps that the Bulgarian Army contributed to occupation duties in Yugoslavia and Greece in regions predominantly inhabited by compact ethnic Bulgarians, the only Bulgarian contribution to the war (and an indirect one at that) was a Bulgarian field hospital train at the Eastern Front, manned by the Bulgarian Red Cross. This led to widespread distrust of the Bulgarians by the Germans. The German instructors at Paratroopers School 3 blatantly refused to train the Bulgarian cadets in combat tactics, limiting the course to technical training and details about parachute systems, transport aviation, and the planning of parachute jumps. Moreover, the instructors at the school also put the Bulgarians to use as Guinea pigs for the evaluation of a new type of German parachute system. The first three jumps were conducted according to the training syllabus for Junkers Ju 52-m3 transport aircraft and the standard parachute system and went uneventful with excellent results. For the fourth jump, the instructors decided to experiment with the use of the RS-20 system (still in development) from the bomb bays of Heinkel He 111 bombers from 300 meters height and speed of 350 km/h, assuring the Bulgarian officers, that this is a standard procedure. This experiment lead to several injuries, including the first casualty of a Bulgarian paratrooper - Private Georgi Shterionov from Burgas, who died at the ground impact. The Bulgarian personnel went on hunger strike in protest and 9 soldiers were put under arrest as instigators.
The standard German parachute training course was a three-week course of instruction, and the Bulgarian paratroopers who completed the course were awarded German paratrooper badges. In the summer of 1943, a German parachute training detachment of approximately a dozen men was sent to Sofia to assist in the training of the Bulgarian parachute battalion, including at least two veterans of the Battle of Crete. In the photographs of the detachment in Sofia, the German trainers are seen wearing Bulgarian paratrooper badges in addition to their German badges, and the Bulgarian officers are also seen wearing both awards. The German training detachment remained in Sofia until the Fall of 1943. Photographs of the German and Bulgarian officers together in Sofia, including Captain Noev, show that the relationship was cordial and comradely.
The Minister for War's order for the formation of the unit dates from 18 March 1943 and its location was decided to be the Vrazhdebna airfield (present day Sofia IAP). It was called a Parachute Druzhina Druzhina (дружина) was the traditional word used for an infantry battalion in the Kingdom of Bulgaria, roughly translated as a camaraderie. The initial temporary force structure of the unit was: Commander (Командир) Staff (Щаб, 11 men) First Parachute Company (Първа парашутна рота of three parachute platoons) Second Parachute Company (Втора парашутна рота of three parachute platoons) Special Platoon (Специален взвод, the unit's logistical part) The total manpower accounted 287 men. This number grew by 10 NCO medics on 15 May, when they returned from their parachute training in Germany. On 14 June 10 soldiers were sent to the Reserve Officers School of the Air Troops in Kazanlak (Школа за запасни офицери към Въздушните войски) as the air force (the paratroopers' mother service) was called at the time, to attend a reserve officers training course for the parachute troops in order to facilitate the growth of the battalion. This was the beginning of preparing paratroopers in Bulgaria itself.
A ministerial order dated 30 November 1943 established the new (permanent) battalion force structure: Staff (Щаб, 123 men), including: Command Section (Отделение за командване of 19 men) Signals Platoon (Свързочен взвод of 45 men) Bicycle-Motorised Platoon (Колоездачно – мотоциклетен взвод of 23 men) Supply Platoon (Домакински взвод of 23 men) First Light Parachute Company (Първа лекопарашутна рота of three parachute platoons) Second Light Parachute Company (Втора лекопарашутна рота of three parachute platoons) Third Light Parachute Company (Трета лекопарашутна рота of three parachute platoons), each of them of 173 men including: Command Section of 39 men 3 light parachute platoons of 45 men each Heavy Parachute Company (Тежкопарашутна рота of 209 men), including: Command Section of 41 men 1st and 2nd Heavy Machine Parachute Gun of 41 men each Mortar Parachute Platoon of 43 men 20mm Anti-Tank Parachute Platoon of 43 men Combat Engineer Assault Company (Пионерно – щурмова рота of 183 men), including: Command Section of 48 men 1st, 2nd and 3rd Combat Engineer Assault Platoons of 45 men each Medical Parachute Platoon (Санитарен парашутен взвод of 29 men) Transport Squadron (Транспортно ято of 208 men and 6 Ju-52-m3 aircraft) Overall this unique reinforced battalion of His Majesty's Air Troops had a man strength of 1 251 men, including 55 officers, 231 NCOs, 960 soldiers and 5 civilian clerks.
On 10 February 1944 an NCO School was formed in the Parachute Druzhina for the training of section commanders at a six-month course. The battalion was a specialized infantry unit, with the main difference from the regular infantry being its parachute training and its main armament - sub-machine guns of German (Schmeisser MP-40), Czechoslovak (Zbrojovka ZK-383 (M-27)) and Finnish (Suomi M-31) origin. Unlike the regular Bulgarian infantry the paratroopers were also standard issued German Parabellum pistols. Their combat attire followed the German pattern with camouflage coats, submachine guns etc. and this visual recognition made their deployment along regular units fighting the Germans problematic later on. In the autumn of 1943 the Allied bombings of Sofia escalated and most of the battalion's manpower (minus 75 men staying behind in Vrazhdebna) was re-located to Telish airfield near Pleven on 28 January 1944. The unit was reunited on 11 September (after the Communist coup on 9 September). Bulgaria joined the Allies and declared war on the Third Reich. On the insistence of the paratroopers themselves the Parachute Druzhina was subordinated to the First Bulgarian Army, leaving for the front in Yugoslavia on 10 October and arriving in the village of Poeshevo the same day. The battalion deployed 429 men. They entered combat on 18 October at the Battle of Stracin (assaulting the German fortified positions on the Strashin ridge) and this officially became the Day of the Parachutist - the official day commemorating the Bulgarian paratroopers. The battle was part of the Bulgarian Army's Stratsim-Kumanovo Offensive Operation with the goal to cut off the direction for retreat from Greece of the Wehrmacht's Army Group E. During its operational deployment of a month and a half the Parachute druzhina fought several formations of the Wehrmacht in Macedonia, including the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, achieving several victories.
The order for the unification of the Parachute Druzhina and the Mixed Parachute Druzhina under the original Parachute Druzhina title from January 1945 established the following force structure of the unit: Staff Company (Щабна рота, including the battalion commander and 29 men) 1st Light Parachute Company (1ва Лекопарашутна рота, including commander and 51 men) 2nd Light Parachute Company (2ра Лекопарашутна рота, including commander and 49 men) Heavy Parachute Company (Тежкопарашутна рота, the heavy weapons company, including commander and 52 men) Combat Engineer Assault Company (Пионеро-щурмова рота, including commander and 45 men) Supply Platoon (Домакински взвод, including commander and 11) NCO School (formed on 8 March 1945)