German Army in WWII
The model of the Wehrmacht and/or the Waffen-SS and even the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine during WWII is unique in that it was very flexible and changed depending on the situation. Flexibility with your ground units, in how they are organized can be an important concept. When researching any unit that served on either front for the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS or Lufwaffe during WWII, you will see its organization change several times over the course of the war.
Task Organization
Organizing your units into Combined Arms entities in order to accomplish a specific task, is the best way to overcome any threat. How you task organize your units depends on the terrain, the enemy, the mission and the troops (units) available (METT-T). The German Army in WWII were experts on the concept of task organizing their forces using the combined arms system. They were ahead of their time and the former Allied nations of WWII learned from the Germans and began to implement their own version of task organization. As you read earlier, in 1959, the US Army abandoned the Regimental system of organization in favor of a more flexible combined arms organization with the Brigade system. The regimental affiliation is retained to connect lineage and honors to the history of a unit.
Task Organizing at the Army level may mean building an armor heavy corps or a Light Infantry corps depending on the factors mentioned above. At the Division level, it may mean Adding a panzer battalion (tank/armor) to a panzer grenadier regiment (Mech Infantry). At the regimental level, it may mean adding a panzer company to a panzer grenadier battalion. At the battalion level, it may mean adding a panzer platoon and an pioneer squad (Engineers) to a panzer grenadier company. A panzer grenadier platoon commander may find that his platoon now has five infantry squads and one pioneer for a specific mission instead of just four infantry squads. The company Commander may have taken one squad from one of his other platoons to beef up one platoon which will be used as the main effort for a mission. Before commanders at any level make any of these decisions, he will have analyzed the situation based on the Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Time and Troops available (METT-T).
This task organization system implemented by the Wehrmacht during WWII was inspired by an inspection of the Soviet Army before the war by German army officers. They were invited by the Soviets to view their military during drills. The German Army officers observed how the Infantry, armor, engineers, Anti-Tank and artillery units worked together and supported one another. This must have been an accidental collusion as the Russians only task organized into Corps sized elements. They did not do this down to the Battalion and Company level like the Germans did. The German officers figured this out by watching the Russians in action.
The Kampfgruppe was an ad-hoc combined arms formation, usually employing combination of tanks, infantry, and artillery (including anti-tank) elements, generally organized for a particular task or operation. A Kampfgruppe could range in size from a corps to a company, but the most common was an Abteilung (battalion)-sized formation. Kampfgruppen were generally referred to by either their commanding officer's name or the parent division. Kampgruppe Peiper was an example of one such combine arms organization employed in December 1944. The US/UK terms for combined arms organizations are Team (Company Level), Task Force (Battalion level) and Brigade Combat Team (Brigade level).
Command Relationhips
Army Group - As we saw in the other two models of Command relationships, the Army Group is at the top of a military hierarchy below Theater. The German Army employed no fewer than twenty-two Army Groups between the period 1939 and 1945. Depending on the situation, the content of the Army Group changes depending on the situation (METT-T). An Army Group was commanded by a Generalfeldmarschall or General Field Marshal.
Army Group A, first saw action in 1940, invading the low countries. During that operation, it consisted of 45 1/2 divisions including seven panzer divisions; a new concept to warfare. In 1942, Army Group A is referred to as Army Group South for Operation Barbarossa on the Eastern Front. The principal reason Army Group A and Army Group South is considered the same organization because Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt commanded the organization and he retained his staff from when he invaded the low countries two years prior. During Op Barbarossa, the Army Group consisted of German 1st Panzer Army, German 11th Army, German 17th Army and Romanian 4th Army. The 1st Panzer Army consisted of III, XIV and XLVIII Army Corps (mot.) with five panzer divisions and three motorized SS divisions. The 11th Army consisted of the LIV Corps, XXX Corps, XI Corps and Reserve formations which consisted of seven infantry divisions, three independent assault gun battalions and an independent tank battalion. Romanian 4th Army consisted of III Corps (Guards, 15th, and 35th Reserve Divisions), the V Corps (Border Division and 21st Division), and the XI Corps (two fortress brigades). The 17th Army consisted of 13 divisions. In 1942, von Rundstedt had a total of 34 division including Romanian, Hungarian and Italian divisions. In February 1945, Army Group A was renamed, Army Group Centre and was a skeleton of its former self. The Army Group, which more the size of a Corps broke out through Poland to get back to Germany. By war's end, Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner pushed his forces to American lines in order to surrender to the Americans rather than the Russians. Schörner abandoned his Army Group before the surrender was complete and fled to Austria. He was eventually captured by the Americans in Austria.
Army - The army is a subordinate organization to the Army Group and is commanded by a Generaloberst or Colonel General. The Army would consist of two to five corps sized formations. As the war went on, the sizes of the army shrunk based on the number of troops available. The Army may have held a Division as Army reserve.
Corps - The Corps consists of 2-5 division sized units and was commanded by a General or Lieutenant General (US/UK equivalent). There may have been independent Brigades and Battalions attached to the Corps to act as Reserve or as a combat multiplier.
Division - The division was commanded by a Generalleutnant or Major General (US/UK equivalent). The rank Generalmajor, which was eqivalent to a Brigadier General in the US/UK army served as a deputy division commander. There were nine types of divisions in the German Army of WWII; Grenadier, Jäger, Gebirgsjäger, Lehr, Nummer, Panzer, Sturm, Volks and zbV. Grenadier is a traditional term for heavy infantry. These are the mechanized or armored infantry formations. Jäger is a traditional term for light infantry (Translated "Hunter"). Gebirgsjäger is a traditional term for mountain and ski troops. Lehr is a demonstration or training unit (Translated "Teach"). Nummer or Number divisions start out with only a division headquarters and little if any combat troops. Panzer refers to Armored divisions (Translated "Armored"). Sturm refers to "Storm" or "Assault". Volks means "of the People" (Translated "People's"). zbV is an abbreviation for "zur besonderen Verwendung" Meaning "Special Purpose" (Translated "For Special Employment"). Volks, Sturm, and Grenadier were sometimes used simply as morale-building adjectives, often without any significance to a unit's organization or capabilities.
A typical infantry division in June 1941 had 17,734 men organized into the following sub-units:
three infantry regiments with staff and communications units
three battalions with:
one PAK company (mot.)
one artillery company
one reconnaissance unit
one Panzerjager battalion with:
three companies (each with twelve 37 mm guns)
one artillery regiment
three battalions
one pioneer battalion
one communications unit
one field replacement battalion
Supply, medical, veterinary, mail, and police
Brigade - Independent Brigades were more common with combat support and combat service support units than with combat arms troops. A Brigade consisting of two - five battalion sized kampfgruppen would have been thrown together for a specific operation. Senior commanders would have taken slice elements from other combat formations to create a combat brigade. The brigade would have been commanded by a Oberst (Colonel) or Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) or Obersturmbannführer (SS - Lieutenant Colonel).
A notorious brigade sized formation during WWII was that of (SS) Panzer Brigade 150 commanded by Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny during Operation Greif which initiated the Allied Battle of the Bulge.
SS Panzer Brigade 150 consisted of
Kampfgruppe X (battalion size)
3 x Infantry Company (Ford trucks)
2 x Armored Infantry Platoon
2 x Anti-tank Platoon
2 x Heavy mortar Platoon
Engineer Platoon
Signal Platoon
5 Panther tanks & 5 StuG III
Kampfgruppe Y (battalion size)
3 x Infantry Company (Ford trucks)
2 x Armored Infantry Platoon
2 x Anti-tank Platoon
2 x Heavy mortar Platoon
Engineer Platoon
Signal Platoon
5 Panther tanks & 5 StuG III
Kampfgruppe Z (battalion size)
3 x Infantry Company (Ford trucks)
2 x Armored Infantry Platoon
2 x Anti-tank Platoon
2 x Heavy mortar Platoon
Engineer Platoon
Signal Platoon
Regiment - The Regiment was commanded by an Oberst (Colonel) or Standartenführer (SS - Colonel). The underlying principle of all German organizations is that each infantry unit, from the smallest (squad) to the largest regiment), must be so armed and equipped as to be tactically self-sufficient in combat. The tactical self-sufficiency of the German infantry regiment is best illustrated by comparison with the German infantry division, as follows:
Unit | Infantry Regiment | Infantry Division
Command | Regimental Headquarters | Division Headquarters
Reconnaissance | Mounted Platoon | Reconnaissance Battalion
Communications | Communications Platoon | Signal Battalion
Engineers | Engineer Platoon | Engineer Battalion
Tactical Units | Three Infantry Battalions | Three Infantry Regiments
Supporting Unit | Infantry Howitzer Battery | Artillery Regiment
Anti-Tank Unit | Anti-Tank Company | Anti-Tank Battalion
Supply Unit | Light Column | Division Supply Force
Note from the above that every unit shown under the infantry regiment belongs to the regiment organically and is composed of infantrymen. Also that the infantry regiment is but one of the three infantry regiments shown under the infantry division.
As the situation changes, the composition and structure changes. Remember what I referred to as analyzing METT-T. You must be flexible to understand the changes in organization. How a regiment is ordered, will change from battle to battle.
Regarding weapon systems in an Infantry Regiment:
Battalion (Abteilung) - The Battalion was commanded by a Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) or Obersturmbannführer (SS - Lieutenant Colonel) or possibly a Major or Sturmbahnfuhrer (SS - Major). The infantry battalion consists of a battalion headquarters with communication section, three rifle companies and one machine gun company.
The battalion receives support from the regimental units such as howitzer company, antitank company, engineer platoon etc. Each of the three infantry battalions within the infantry regiment is a miniature regiment. The battalion is likewise organized on the principle of tactical self sufficiency. It consists of a headquarters with communication section, three rifle companies of three platoons each and a machine-gun company containing 12 machine guns on the heavy mount, together with six 81-mm mortars.
Company (Kompanie) - The Company was commanded by a Hauptmann (Captain) or Hauptfuhrer (SS - Captain). The rifle company consisted of a company headquarters, three rifle platoons and antitank rifle section and the combat, ration and baggage trains.
Each rifle company has 12 light machine guns, about 135 rifles, three antitank rifles, three light (50-mm) mortars, 16 submachine guns and a number of pistols. The antitank rifles are with the company headquarters. The company commander carries a submachinegun. This is different from US/UK units where the company commander carries a pistol.
Platoon - The platoon was commanded by a Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant), Leutnant (Second Lieutenant) or Obersturmführer (SS - first lieutenant) or Untersturmführer (SS - Second Lieutenant). Each platoon had four rifle squads with one light machine gun each and a light mortar squad with one 50-mm mortar and a platoon headquarters. The platoon leader is armed with submachine gun. The light mortar squad has one light (50-mm) mortar firing two-pound projectiles to a maximum range of 550 yards. The platoon is served by one wagon (composed of two carts) for transporting heavier weapons and equipment on the march. The platoon sergeant holds the rank of Hauptfeldwebel (Sergeant First Class) and the Assistant Platoon Sergeant is a Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant).
The Platoon Headquarters consisted of the Platoon Leader, Platoon Sergeant, Assistant Platoon sergeant and three runners.
Squad - The Squad is lead Unterfeldwebel (Sergeant) with an Assistant Squad Leader who holds the rank of Unteroffizier (Corporal). In the SS, the squad leader holds the rank of SS-Scharführer (Sergeant) and the Assistant Squad leader is SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal). One man in each squad is equipped with a rifle grenade discharger which fires both anti-personnel and armor piercing grenades. Thus, in the platoon, there are both flat-trajectory weapons (rifles and machine guns) and high-trajectory weapons (light mortars and anti-personnel grenades fired from rifle-grenade dischargers). Each squad leader, platoon leader and company commander of rifle companies carries a submachine gun.
The Last echelon I want to mention is the Machine Gun Company found at the Battalion level.
This consists of a company headquarters, three heavy machine-gun platoons (four heavy machine guns each) and a mortar platoon (six 81-mm mortars) as well as a combat and ration train. The baggage is hauled by battalion baggage train.
The heavy machine gun is same caliber as light machine gun, with a high cyclic rate of fire (900 rpm with model 34 and 1,150 rpm with model 42). Because it is air cooled, the practical rate of fire is 300 to 350 rounds per minute.
The heavy mortar fires a 7.75-pound projectile, HE or smoke.
The machine gun company supports three rifle companies. Heavy machine guns are attached to rifle companies by platoons (four guns) or sections (two guns). Heavy mortars are attached to rifle companies by sections (two mortars).
Example: 2nd Das Reich (SS) Division
The 2nd SS Division was formed in October, 1939 as SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) consisting of three regiments; Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer. They first saw action in the low countries. These regiments were Grenadier regiments organized as in the schedule above.
In 1941, Germania was removed from the Division to create a new SS Division (Germania) which later became known as the Wiking Division. The regiment was replaced with one from Totenkopf (3rd SS), the SS Regiment 11. Regiment 11 was given wheel transportation and the division was redesignated, SS-Infanterie-Division (mot.) Reich. The Division participated in Operation Barbarossa later in 1941 and suffered 60% losses outside Moscow in Dec, 1941.
In 1942, the division was sent to France to rest and refit. They were redesignated as a Panzer Grenadier Division. In November, they were in Toulon, France in an attempt to stop the scuttling of the French Navy. They were then redesignated as SS-Panzer Grenadier-Division Das Reich. They received two Battlions of Pzkw VIs "Tiger I" with this designation
Early in 1943, Das Reich was transferred back to the Eastern Front, where it helped reclaim the crumbling central front around Kharkov. They participated in Operation Zitadelle (Citadel) around the Kursk Salient, a huge bulge in the German front line around the area of Kursk and Byelgorod. It was later tasked to try to halt the Soviet counterattack Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev. Along with the 3rd SS Totenkopf, Das Reich launched a counterattack against two Soviet tank armies, which had achieved a significant breakthrough. During the following battles the two SS divisions destroyed much of the Soviet armor, up to 800 tanks. Further Soviet reinforcements stopped the German counterattack.
After the fighting in and around Kharkov, they captured a sufficient number of Soviet built T-34s to create a third armor battalion. From the end of Citadel/Polkovodets Rymyantsev through the rest of 1943, the Das Reich had two battalions of Pzkw VIs, and one battalion of T-34s. During this time, they were redesignated as SS Panzer Division Das Reich.
In early 1944, the SS Panzer Division, Das Reich was stationed in southern France in the event the allies attempted an invasion along the coast of southern France. When the allies did invade in Normandy, the Division was ordered to head north in an attempt to contain the breakout. During their attempts to move north, the French Partisans interdicted their movements by blowing up rail lines and telephone poles. The German Commanders in Das Reich were so frustrated by the Partisan efforts they assassinated large groups of civilians in retaliation for the partisan efforts.
The division is infamous for the massacre of 642 French civilians in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June 1944 in the Limousin region. Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, commander of the I Battalion, 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment (Der Führer) that committed the massacre, claimed that it was a just retaliation due to partisan activity in nearby Tulle and the kidnapping of Helmut Kämpfe, although the German authorities had already executed ninety-nine people in the Tulle murders, following the killing and maiming of some forty German soldiers in Tulle by the Maquis resistance movement. There is some suggestion that the German authorities wanted to prosecute Diekmann for the massacre although he was not relieved of his command and was killed in action, before he could stand trial. On 12 January 1953, a military tribunal in Bordeaux, heard the case against the surviving sixty-five of the approximately two hundred German soldiers who had been involved. Only twenty-one of them were present. Seven of them were Germans, but fourteen were Alsatians, French nationals of German ethnicity. On 11 February, twenty defendants were found guilty. In December 2011 German police raided houses of six former members of the division, all aged 85 or 86, to determine exactly what role the men played that day.
The 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division participated in Operation Grief (Battle of the Bulge), rested in Germany and was transferred to Budapest, Hungary. The Division finished off the war fighting against Americans in Austria.
1941 - 1942
SS Infantry Regiment Deutschland
SS Infantry Regiment Der Führer
11th SS Infantry Regiment
2nd SS Artillery Regiment
2nd SS Sturmgeschütz Battery
2nd SS Motorcycle Battalion
2nd SS Reconnaissance Battalion
2nd SS Panzerjäger Battalion
2nd SS Pionier Battalion
2nd SS Signal Battalion
2nd SS Rocket Battalion
2nd SS Supply Battalion
2nd SS Medical Battalion
2nd SS Reserve Battalion
1944 - 1945
2nd SS Panzer Regiment
3rd SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Deutschland
4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Der Führer
2nd SS Panzer Artillery Regiment
2nd SS Motorcycle Battalion
2nd SS Sturmgeschütz Battalion
2nd SS Reconnaissance Battalion
2nd SS Panzerjager Battalion
2nd SS Flak Battalion
2nd SS Pionier Battalion
2nd SS Signal Battalion
2nd SS Rocket Launcher Battalion
2nd SS Supply Battalion
2nd SS Maintenance Battalion
2nd SS Medical Battalion
Here are some interesting links to do your own research on unit organizations.
Germany's Tables of Organization and Equipment (TOE)
The following intelligence report on the organization and weapons of the German infantry regiment in WWII was published in Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 42, January 13, 1944. http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt09/german-infantry-regiment.html]German Infantry Regiment[/url]
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