The Wehrmacht in 1942
As we are going through the last mud turn right now I wanted to present to the reader the state of the German Army in the Eastern Front at the spring of 1942. This part will only cover the infantry divisions but there will be a separate report for armored and motorized formations
The German Army took a quite a hit during the Soviet mud offensive of 1941 as well as during the winter of 1941-42. The loss of Morale and of so many experienced men means that the Wehrmacht is no longer the same one that entered the campaign in June 1941. Units can be grouped in various tiers and I will try to give the reader an overview on the setting of Max TOEs which makes sense in my eyes as well as provide short descriptions about them.
The infantry divisions deployed in the East fall in one of the 4 tiers:
1) Elite formations- these are the rarest type of units found on the front right now. They are units that have very high morale and experience and who spent the winter in warm quarters back in the rear. They are expected to do most of the heavy lifting and have priority in receiving men and equipment. Are to be grouped in “Shock Corps” lead by our best generals. TOEs capped at 100%
2) Normal morale, high experience. These are units that were located in quiet sectors of the front such as in front of Moscow, Vaidai hills, certain sectors in the South and the Crimea. They have lost morale due to being exposed to harsh winter conditions but have retained a cadre of highly experienced men. TOEs capped at 90%.
3) Normal morale, normal experience. These are units that have arrived to the front in the last month or so, or units that have been on R&R in the rear for some time. They make up the bulk of the German infantry divisions. Most of them have morale and experience in the range of 73-71. TOEs capped at 80%.
4) Low morale, low experience or both. These are units that were located in the bloodiest sectors. Both their morale and experience have suffered due to constant combat and an exposure to the elements. The majority of them have been rotating to the rear for R&R and have improved their ratings. Until the beginning of summer all of the tier 4 Infantry divisions should become tier 3 divisions. TOEs capped at 80%.
The 15th ID has been decimated in combat and has lost a lot of experienced men. The new Ersatz has brought the exp down even more. The ID has managed to recover its morale because it has been in the rear for many turns. The Exp is slowly getting better as the unit conducts training in the rear.
Bringing the infantry divisions back to normal strength is not an easy task for the Germans and is one that has been going on, on a large scale since January. Many of these divisions have had to stay in the rear for a month or more just so they could recover from the harsh winter and the heavy battles that occurred at the start of 1942.
Because the Axis have a limited rail capacity I had to make a choice between prioritizing the R&R of these beat up divisions or prioritizing the transfer of units from different front sectors to others as well as the transfer of units from Germany to the front. I went with the first choice and am pleased to see that the Army has managed to recover and is in a much better shape than a couple of months ago.
State of the infantry divisions as of turn 46.
Light Infantry divisions and Mountain Divisions also deserve a mention here. They have higher national morale than the standard infantry divisions and have more experience then them. They are however weaker because they are composed of only 2 infantry regiments instead of the standard 3. Their TOEs have been capped at 100% and we expect to see them pull their share of the work in the coming weeks.
