German army infantry divisions

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: rogo727

Baron Maximilian von Weichs was chosen as the first commander of the 1st by Colonel General Ludwig Beck because Beck thought his cautious and conservative nature would ben an effective counterweight to the blitzkrieg theories of Heinz Guderian.

Idea: put in photos of the commanders. Maybe pics of tanks or soldiers here and there.

[rodney727]

Thats a great idea! Could someone PM me and tell me how to upload a pic to a thread. Or just tell me.

[rodney727]

ORIGINAL: nate25

ORIGINAL: rogo727

1st Panzer Division
Home Station: Weimar, Wehrkries IX
Compostition:
1st Panzer Regiment
1st Panzer Grenadier Reg
113th Panzer Grenadier Reg
73rd Panzer Artillery Reg
1st Motorcycle Battalion
4th Panzer Reconnaissance Bat
37th Tank Destroyer Bat
37th Panzer Engineer Bat
37th Panzer Signal Bat
299th Army Flak Bat

Formed 27.9.35

Also interesting to note the panzer regiment had 4 battalions upon formation, not the usual two we think of.

It was used to form other Panzer Divisions later on. Each year form 1936 on each Panzer Regiment of the 1st had to provide two to four tank companies to the 7th, 8th,15th.35th, and 36th tank regiments.

[nate25]

ORIGINAL: rogo727

Baron Maximilian von Weichs was chosen as the first commander of the 1st by Colonel General Ludwig Beck because Beck thought his cautious and conservative nature would be an effective counterweight to the blitzkrieg theories of Heinz Guderian.

Guderian rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way. But his vision was for the large manuever formations Germany needed for Blitzkrieg, not divvying them up like most folks wanted.

[nate25]

ORIGINAL: rogo727

ORIGINAL: nate25

ORIGINAL: rogo727

1st Panzer Division
Home Station: Weimar, Wehrkries IX
Compostition:
1st Panzer Regiment
1st Panzer Grenadier Reg
113th Panzer Grenadier Reg
73rd Panzer Artillery Reg
1st Motorcycle Battalion
4th Panzer Reconnaissance Bat
37th Tank Destroyer Bat
37th Panzer Engineer Bat
37th Panzer Signal Bat
299th Army Flak Bat

Formed 27.9.35

Also interesting to note the panzer regiment had 4 battalions upon formation, not the usual two we think of.

It was used to form other Panzer Divisions later on. Each year form 1936 on each Panzer Regiment of the 1st had to provide two to four tank companies to the 7th, 8th,15th.35th, and 36th tank regiments.

This is true, but 1. thru 5. and 10. were formed the same way. There was a lot of experimentation going on prewar.

[rodney727]

PzKw III's main battle tank up to end of 1942.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: nate25

ORIGINAL: rogo727

ORIGINAL: nate25




Formed 27.9.35

Also interesting to note the panzer regiment had 4 battalions upon formation, not the usual two we think of.

It was used to form other Panzer Divisions later on. Each year form 1936 on each Panzer Regiment of the 1st had to provide two to four tank companies to the 7th, 8th,15th.35th, and 36th tank regiments.

This is true, but 1. thru 5. and 10. were formed the same way. There was a lot of experimentation going on prewar.

Warspite1

Wasn't this all to do with the dilution of strength in order to put more divisions in the field? I think (though its a looong time ago that I read it) that in 1940 for the attack on France the average no. of tanks per division was 300. By the time of Barbarossa it was less than 200.

[warspite1]

BTW - nice idea rogo 727

[rodney727]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: nate25

ORIGINAL: rogo727


It was used to form other Panzer Divisions later on. Each year form 1936 on each Panzer Regiment of the 1st had to provide two to four tank companies to the 7th, 8th,15th.35th, and 36th tank regiments.

This is true, but 1. thru 5. and 10. were formed the same way. There was a lot of experimentation going on prewar.

Warspite1

Wasn't this all to do with the dilution of strength in order to put more divisions in the field? I think (though its a looong time ago that I read it) that in 1940 for the attack on France the average no. of tanks per division was 300. By the time of Barbarossa it was less than 200.

[/quote
I think it's because the number of tank divisions grew. Also the SS panzer divisions are being formed at this time.

[rodney727]

2nd Panzer Division
Formed: October 15th, 1935
Home station: Wuerzburg, Wehrkreis XIII, later Vienna, Wehrkreis XVIII
Composition;
3rd Panzer Reg
2nd Panzer Grenadier Reg
304th Panzer Grenadier Reg
74th Panzer Reg
2nd Motorcyle Bat
5th Panzer Reconnaissance Bat
38th Tank Destroer Bat
38th Panzer Engineer Bat
38th Panzer Signal Bat

[rodney727]

2nd Panzer Division Tour Of Duty;
Austria 1938
Poland 1939
Luxembourg 1940
Southern Belguim 1940
Northern France 1940
Balkans 1941
Greece 1941 (took Athens)
Russia 1941-1944
France 1944
Germany 1945

Surrendered to the Americans May 8th 1945

Commanders of the 2nd Panzer Division
Colonel Heinz Guderian 10-1-1935
Major General Rudolf Veil 3-1-1938
colonel Vollrath Luebbe 1-16-1942 Major General this time 9-5-1942
Major General Baron Hans-Karl von Esebeck 2-17-1942
Major General Arno von Lenski 6-1-1942
Colonel Karl Fabiunke 8-20-1942
Lt General Baron Heinrich von Luettwitz 2-1-1944
Colonel Count Eberhard von Nostitz 9-1-1944
Major General Henning Schoenfeld 9-5-1944
Major General Meinrad von Lauchert 12-12-1944
Colonel Oskar Munzel 3-20-1945
Colonel Heinrich-Wilhelm Stollbrock 4-4-1945-5-8-1945

[Brigz]

Here's a great site that shows TOE's using Panzerblitz counters. It's still a work in progress so not all sections are done.
http://gregpanzerblitz.com/poland39/1st ... er1939.pdf

[rodney727]

One of the best sources of the German Panzer Divisions in WW2. Thank you Orm for taking the time to tell me how to do this, that is upload a pic.

[rodney727]

Wehrkreise is critical to an understanding of how the German Military system worked in World War 2. It functioned so smoothly and so unspectacularly that it has generally gone unnoticed by historians, but without it Hitler could never have won his victories. Also without it the Germans never could have waged war for six years without it.

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: rogo727

One of the best sources of the German Panzer Divisions in WW2. Thank you Orm for taking the time to tell me how to do this, that is upload a pic.

I love Stackpole books(WW2 and Civil War).

[Lieste]

ORIGINAL: rogo727

PzKw III's main battle tank up to end of 1942.

Well... heaviest (armour) maybe...

The main 'tank' would have been the PzIb in Poland, PzIIC in France, with Pz35t and Pz38t also in large numbers. Relatively few PzIIIF, even fewer PzIIIE. Limited numbers of tank-support tanks PzIVC and D. Only a few StuGIIA.

By Barbarossa... still a lot of PzII (light) and Pz38 (medium) tanks. PzIIIG the 'new' model, and some retrofitting of 5cmL42 guns was underway in addition to new built tanks, numbers still not significantly above the Pz35/38t. PzIVE still in small proportion. More and heavier StuG models.

PzIII was usually more heavily armoured than contemporary PzIV models, but their guns were consistently lighter or weaker - initially the aim was anti-tank work, for which the 3.7cm gun was inadequate (worse than that in the Pz38t). The 5cm was an improvement, but not enough compared to the worst of what they had to fight, and even the longer version was barely adequate. The turret was too small to take the anti-tank/general purpose versions of the 7.5cm KwK, so it was finally adapated to take discarded 7.5cm StuK/KwK37 (L24) guns taken from early StuG and PzIV.
The PzIV was just big enough to use the KwK40, so could be upgraded further, but the suspension and transmission prevented large increases in protection weight, and the longer gun unbalanced the turret, requiring less protection on the front that would have been preferred or was available to the late PzIII.

[rodney727]

By the end of 1942 they only had 18 pzIII's. And your right at the start of Barbarossa Pz II out numbered in all other tanks in this division.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Chijohnaok2]

ORIGINAL: jaysmith

webwinkel beginnen Lab staat voor professionele web winkels. Laat uw webshop bouwen door Webshop Lab! Maak gebruik van de onze ervaring en kennis op web winkel gebied.

You've hit the big time when your thread gets spammed.
Extra points since the spam is in a foreign language (Dutch? Or a similar language?).

[rodney727]

There are only two things I can't stand in this world. The first is people who can't tolerate other peoples cultures and the second is the Dutch.....Austin Powers.