At the time of the mobilization on 26 August 1939, the German army had 51 divisions: 35 infantry divisions, 4 motorized infantry divisions, 5 Panzer (tank) divisions and one tank brigade, 4 light divisions and 3 mountain divisions. In addition, the SS-Verfügungstruppe (from April 1940, known as the Waffen-SS) provided three motorized infantry divisions and a brigade. Now Hitler could ignore the few remaining voices in the Wehrmacht that advised caution, and the German forces were transferred to the West for the invasion of France and the Low countries. 85 light machine guns MG34, In the second of this series on the men behind the counters I look at the workhorse of the German army, the infantry platoon.. Simple history indeed. The infantry regiments of the Infantry Division, Old Type, may be considered the basic type of German infantry regiments, as their organization remained for all practical purposes unchanged from the beginning of 1940 until the end of 1943. The 75-mm infantry howitzer fires a 12-pound, while 150-mm infantry howitzer fires an 85-pound projectile. In the Wehrmacht, the Abteilung was a formation of varying strength, somewhere between a regiment, battery or squadron. The most important formations in the German army were the division, which consisted of one of the five basic types: infantry, motorized infantry, tank, light or mountain divisions. Another feature of the German army was the decentralization of heavy weapons within the division, so that each regiment had its own anti-tank and infantry gun companies. 1940 Fritz was a resident of Wolfenbüttel in Wehrkrise XI and received his call-up in the mail in September of 1940. 0000028877 00000 n The regiment had a total of 11 companies and the firepower of the motorized infantry companies has 12 light MG and three light mortar but without heavy MG. 1375 0 obj <> endobj Company HQ: Captain/Company Commander (P38 Pistol) NCO/Company Sergeant (K89k Rifle) Pvt/Groom (K89k Rifle) 5 x Privates (K89k Rifles) 4 x Pvts/Messengers (K89k Rifles) Transport; 4 x Bicycles (Messengers) Horse (Captain) The Infantry Battalion, circa 1939 to 1940 Battalion Headquarters (4 Officers, 43 men) Headquarter Company (6 Officers, 215 men), comprised of; Company HQ (1 Officer, 6 men) Signal Platoon (1 Officer, 33 men) Anti-aircraft Platoon (16 men) Mortar Platoon (17 men) Carrier Platoon (1 Officer, 29 men) Pioneer Platoon (20 men) These batteries could appear in the caliber size from the 88 mm gun Flak gun to the gigantic 60 cm siege mortar on self-propelled mount, the Karl mortar. Its chief was Colonel General Keitel. %PDF-1.4 %âãÏÓ Some motorized units had platoons with 3 groups and each group being armed with 1 or 2 LMG's. The division's infantry regiments were built up from the 1. Other German Pieces of interest may be: the 88 mm Artillery piece & the Panther tank. For the attack on Russia, the Wehrmacht deployed The Panzer division during the Polish and Western campaigns consisted of two tank regiments with two battalions each to four companies with 32 tanks each. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons. 120 infantry divisions, The unit's Prussian heritage is represented by the … Hitler was commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, i.e. 1 cavalry division. The new uniform was based upon the old uniforms of world war one and the rifle was a carbine moded gewehr 98 (K98). The division was formed in October 1936 with men from Kaiserslautern, and consisted largely of Bavarian Palatinates. Organization Infantry Division (2nd Wave) Infanteriedivision (2. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. ±‰Jh]*êìkYQ±(ºä©°,g€±qGGkh -f„1˜,@Œ K*$¨¤‚«‚ 1ÂT10p€…°y¤˜N_Ò|@, ‘d`Lbäa(fˆ``areĞcÈL¨cøɤÌÅq¥³š!ƒ©hO5ÃÛŠ»:E‘áĞPUe`ö…šæ+kS67�ˆ— Uói’ These names were an effort to cover Germany's expansion of infantry divisions from seven to twenty-one. The Wehrmacht alone had 175 infantry divisions in June 1941. Did you find this helpful? Outline development - 1938 to 1942 The pre-war German Motorised Infantry Division was built around three Infantry Regiments, each with three Infantry Battalions, an Infantry Gun Company and an Infantry Anti-tank Company. 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