Morale of 78th Inf Div

[Jusalak]

Why is the basic morale level of 78th Infantry Division (placed four hexes east of Warsaw at the start of the campaign) so high, 90, as that of other infantry divisions is only 75?

[rmonical]

It is the one German regular infantry division marked as Elite.

[Jusalak]

I can find no other example of such regular infantry elite division. Many have higher morale beginning the campaign, but share the same 75 basic morale level.

[Michael T]

That's interesting. I never noticed that before

[rmonical]

It starts with the 41c Infantry TOE and upgrades to the 43 Sturm division. The only other such unit is the 440th Sturm Division (Rhodes I think). Not in WITE. These then upgrade to the vanilla 45 Grenadier division.

[morvael]

Yes, this is a very good unit. Being Axis Elite it has +15 to NM (so their local NM level is 90 in 1941).

I'm not sure it is justified before being made a Sturm Division. It was (I think) just a regular infantry division from 2nd Wave. But since this Elite modifier is static, it can't be awarded after the unit is upgraded to Sturm Division, it must be there from the start.

[chaos45]

78th was classified as a good/elite division from what Ive read and as well it was given a ton of extra AT guns over normal divisions when rebuilt and reorganized......

Also as to its history the unit fought extremely well in several key engagements in the Army group center area---actually held up parts of bagration on the southern part of the bulge if I remember correctly when all other units collapsed very quickly. Basically they were a fire brigade unit put in the hottest spots to hold and given more heavy weapons to help make sure they could hold/stop tank assaults.

[morvael]

But Bagration was after they were made a Sturm Division with special TOE. I was thinking about the period when they were still a regular infantry division.