question about heer/waffen ss groups

[sebastian]

i am reading loads of books about the 3rd reich but i keep on asking myself the same questions,it is probably an idiot question but still i am throwing this one on the forum :-).I want to knowif i am right about:
corps exists out of armees
armees out of divisions
divisions out of regiments
regiments out of kompanies

i would like to know the average manpower of each "group"
also there are like stosstruppen and pelotons....

i am wondering how far this goes,does anyone knows the right names and aproximate numbers from the biggest one right down to the littlest one,a link would also be good

thx in advance

Sebastian

[sebastian]

also i forgot to mention the brigades,where do they fit in ?I am talking about the infantery troops here :-)

Seb

[Christoph Awender]

Hello

To say it in your words...
an Armee consists of Korps
a Regiment consists of Bataillone
a Bataillon consists of Kompanien
a Kompanie consists of Züge (singular - Zug = platoon)
a Zug consists of Gruppen
the rest is basically correct.

There is no fixed strength of an Armee or Korps as their subordinate units could be from none to several and consist of various types of divisions which makes nearly every number possible. This of course depends on mission and situation of the Armee or Korps.

Infanteriedivisionen varid in strength throughout the war. There should be a thread on the forum which gives an overview.
For detailed organisations of Kompanien you can have a look into the KStN section of my site http://www.wwiidaybyday.com

/Christoph

[hero.]

Hello Sebastian and Christoph !

Some small additions to the excellent overview by Christoph :

1.) If you include the Korps and division in his list :

>> To say it in your words...
an Armee consists of Korps
a Korps consists of divisions
a division consists of Regiments [and some additional battalions]
a Regiment consists of Bataillone
a Bataillon consists of Kompanien
a Kompanie consists of Züge (singular - Zug = platoon)
a Zug consists of Gruppen <<

... then you also have the command chain in the correct order :

Armee => Korps => division => regiment => battalion => company => platoon => squad


2.) To give you a very coarse idea on the numbers involved, I'll give you some (rounded) numbers
from the theoretical TOE of a full strength German 1st wave infantry division at the start of the war :

__unit________strength
division________17700
regiment________3000
battalion_________800
company_________200
platoon___________50
squad____________15


3.) This is just a coarse and simplified estimate, as there were a lot of variations in number and organisation :
a) already at the beginning of the war, with respect to the infantry divisions of the other waves
b) due to the ongoing organizational changes in the course of the war for all infantry divisions
[From 1942 onward the general trend of these changes was a reduction in numbers :
A 1944 Inf.Div. would have ~11300 german personnel and 1450 HiwIs (Tessin, vol. 15,p. 154]

If you want to have a glimpse on these changes, I would recommend you to click on this link :
http://www.wwiidaybyday.com/kstn/kstninfmain.htm
There you can compare the different organizations of a standard infantry company at certain times,
which starts with KStN 131b (2.11.1937) and then all the 131 variants.


4.) If you are interested in an excellent overview how all the different companies, battalions etc. are
organized to finally form a divsion, I would recommend the following link. If you just look at headlines,
you have a good overview and then you can go into all kind of details !
http://www.wwiidaybyday.com/kstn/1infdiv.html

@Christoph : I really like this new development on your website !


5.) A brigade would be in theory a formation of two or more infantry regiments (eventually with some
reinforcements from other arms branches). But this level of command was not in use in german infantry divisions.
(For an overview on the very rare cases where infantry brigades were formed, you may have a look here) :
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gli ... nterie.htm

Best regards,

hero.

[sebastian]

thanks Hero and Christophe,for the tips and links,this clears out a lot of things i was struggling with

cheers sebastian