12 Volksgrenadier Div on 12/16/1944

[MadDog]

Richard knows at least as much as I do - I got the gliederung from him. : )

If you wish to know what the vehicle type is, you could try and summon Martin Block - I am convinced he has the entire German vehicle inventory in memory !

Mad Dog

[John Nelson]

Hey Guys,
The 3 Stu.Gesch. reported in the 11.26.44 Gliederung are definitely Stu.Gesch.IV. On 10.May '44 the H.Za sent the Pz.Jg.Kp.1012, 10 Stu.Gesch.IV, and on 23.May '44, the Kompanie was ordered to be transported to Mogliew, in order to link up with it's parent 12.Inf.Div. The Kp. left Mielau on 28.May '44 and was crushed along with the rest of AOK 4 in the summer of '44. This Kp. was ordered back to Mielau on Aug.1.44 in order to reform and it arrived there on 5.Aug.'44. On 18.Sep.'44, the H.Za. sent 10 more Stu.Gesch.IV to the Kp.1012 where they were picked up 2 days later on 20.Sep.'44. Finally on Oct.1.'44 the Kp. was ordered to return to it's reformed parent Div., and it left Mielau the next day.
Interestingly enough, this Gliederung doesn't show (or mention) the second Pz.Jg.(Stu.Gesch.)Kp. that was ordered for the Div. This Kompanie (Kp.1012b) was formed from Personal Einheit 43a on 11.Nov.'44 (which was already sent 10 Stu.Gesch.IV on 1.Nov.'44), and the day after next (13.Nov.) ordered to be sent from Burg to Juelich so it could join the rest of the 12.VGD. On 22.Nov.'44 it had left Burg, and the next day Gr.Manteuffel reported the reason for the delay in transport was due to the Kp.1012b missing several vehicles. As of 5.Dec.'44 this Kp. still hadn't arrived, as the Div. reported only 4 Stu.Gesch. On 15.Jan.'45 both the Kp. 1012a and Kp. 1012b had a total of 9 Stu.Gesch.IV, 1 Stu.Gesch. III and 1 Bergepz.III (1 combat ready, 9 in repair) + 10 Stu.Gesch.IV still in transit. (10 Stu.Gesch. IV were sent to the Div. on 22.Dec.'44, and were still in transit on 15.Jan.'45!) On 1.Feb.'45, both Kp. 1012a and 1012b had no Stu.Gesch. combat ready, but by 5.Feb.'45 they reached a high strength of 19 Stu.Gesch. (only 3 combat ready). Eventually, the Div. was trapped in the Ruhr pocket it still had 9 Stu.Gesch.IV with 6 being operational as late as 5.April '45.

Hope it helps,

John

[richard hedrick]

Thanks John for a very informative post, I find these infantry division Panzer Jäger Abt. most interesting.

Typically the Pz.Jäg.Abt. of the VGD were assigned towed Flak of the 3,7 cm variety (KStN 198) but the gliederung shows what I suspect are Flak Selbstfahrlafetten, does anyone have an idea of what the 3./Pz.Jäg.Abt.12 might have been fielding at this time and what KStN was being applied?

Also how typical was this, it seems to me that SP Flak would have been in short supply and not allocated to infantry type divisions.

Thanks
Richard

[RandJS]

Hello everyone,

I agree, I can't find any indication Flakpanzer 38's were assigned to any VGD, so it must indicate SP.

Thanks for the updated Gliederung. Any info is much appreciated.

And nice work at Sturmpanzer.com!

Rand