| Unit Name: | Paratrooper Battalion 261 |
| Dates: | September 1956 – 31 March 2015 |
| Country: | Germany |
| Branch: | German Army |
| Type: | Airborne infantry |
| Motto: | Wie Pech und Schwefel (lit. Like Pitch and Sulfur, German idiom with a similar meaning as "thick as thieves") |
| Command Structure: | Airborne Brigade 26, Special Operations Division |
| Size: | About 1,000 troops |
| Current Commander: | Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Blank |
| Garrison: | Lebach, Germany |
| Battles: | Somalian Civil War Bosnian Civil War Kosovo War Afghanistan War |
| Anniversaries: | September 3 |
The Paratrooper Battalion 261 (Fallschirmjägerbataillon 261) was one of the three combat battalions of the German Army's Airborne Brigade 26, which was a part of the Special Operations Division. Paratrooper[1] Battalion 261 was fully airmobile and could act both as air assault infantry or be dropped by parachute into the area of operations.
The battalion was activated as Airborne Infantry Battalion 9 (Luftlandejägerbataillon 9) on September 3, 1956, being the first combat battalion of the now defunct Airborne Brigade 25. Since 1961, the headquarters of the battalion have been hosted in Lebach.[2] The arsenal of the battalion was attacked and robbed in 1969. Four of the sentries were killed in cold blood. The unit temporarily belonged to the multiliteral AMF(L) Brigade. It has taken part in overseas operations since 1993 when large parts of the battalion deployed to Somalia. Since then, Paratrooper Battalion 261 has taken part in numerous operations all over the globe and spent much time in northern Afghanistan battling the resurgent Taliban insurgency.[3] In 2007, thirty troops received the great honour of an invitation to the French Bastille Day parade.
Following a restructuring of the German armed forces, the battalion was disbanded on 31 March 2015 and merged into the newly raised Paratrooper Regiment 26.[4] [5]