Westheer Battalions ?

[MadDog]

In the battle of Aachen, 194, there are 2 units that show up in various OOB - the 302 and 305 Westheer infantry battalions. Were these standard infantry battalions or more security or training ? Does anyone have a more precise TOE for these units ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[Paulus II]

Hi MadDog,

The Westheer Bataillone were units formed to bring together retreating troops who's units were destroyed. All together there were some 5 or 6 of such battalions, 302 and 305 each had some 600 and something men in four companies and were later transferred to an Infanterie Division. 49 ID if I remember correctly.

Going from memory here so I'm sure someone else will have something more to add to this!

Best regards,

Paul

[MadDog]

Thanks Paul. So if I had to guess, they had little, if any heavy weapons ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[Paulus II]

Hi MadDog,

Looked it up now in Tessin’s work now. 302 was formed in september 1944 in Wehrkreis VI and had 642 men in 4 companies. 305 was also formed in september in WK VI and had 673 men in 4 companies. Both battalions were indeed incorporated into 49 ID on 21 october 1944.
There is no mention of any heavy weapons or which KStN was used, if any. I would guess that they had no heavy weapons though. At least none other than the odd MG, maybe a mortar or two but there’s no solid info about that.

Sorry but that’s all there is ,

best regards,

Paul

[MadDog]

Thanks again Paulus. Thats more than I expected to find.

Mad Dog

[Martin Block]

The OoB of the 49. Inf.Div. dated 25.9.1944 shows Westheer-Btl. 302 (Oblt. Stach) with:

Stab [1 llght MG]
1. Kp. [15 light MG, 8 heavy MG]
2. Kp. [6 light MG, 4 heavy MG]
3. Kp. [4 light MG]
4. Kp. [6 light MG, 5 heavy MG]
Total strenght: 10 O, 70 NCO, 482 OR

An earlier OoB dated 18.9.1944 shows both battallions 302 and 305 with Stab and 4 Kpn. but unfortunately has no details about their available weapons and strength. By 25.9.1944 the 305 has already disappeared and seems to have been incorporated into several of the other divisional infantry battalions because in some cases their number of companies had slightly increased.

The 49. Inf.Div. had reported both battalions as incoporated already on 29.9.1945 so the later date given by Tessin might be the date when this was made official by OKH/GenStdH/Org.Abt..

Martin Block

[MadDog]

Thanks Martin. Which source did this come from ? Does this same source say anything else about the 49th division ?

thanks,

Mad Dog

[Martin Block]

The information comes from T314 R1593, one of several NARA rolls with the the war diary of the LXXXI. A.K. on them. Most likely there are more pieces of information available about 49. Inf.Div. among the close to 1000 pages of documents on the roll, but I just had looked out for the OoBs which are relatively easy to pick out when quickly browsing through.

Martin Block