 History, datas and pictures of German infantry weapons in WW2.
All this infantry weapons are used in the computer wargame WW2 Total.
The most important formation in the German Army was the division which could be one of five basic types: infantry division, motorised infantry divison, panzer (armoured) division, light division and mountain division.
Infantry divisions had been raised in Wellen (waves) and the divisions of each wave varied to some extent in size, organisation and equipment carried, depending upon their purpose and the availability of men and materials. The 35 divisions formed as part of the original 'wave' had a total strength of nearly 18,000 men each while those of the next wave were about 15,000 men strong. Divisions formed in the third and fourth waves had considerably less artillery support than the earlier formations. The infantry division comprised three infantry regiments (each of approximately 3,000 men) and one artillery regiment plus supporting divisional units. Contrary to the practice in most armies, the engineer battalion and the reconnaissance Abteilung were combat units, and, being equipped with flamethrowers and anti-tank guns, often led assaults on enemy positions. The Abteilung was a unit of varying size, between the regiment and the company, battery or squadron. It approximated to the British battalion, artillery regiment or tank regiment.
Another feature of the German Army was the decentralisation of heavy weapons within the division so that each regiment had its own anti-tank and infantry gun company.
The infantry regiment possessed its own headquarters with a staff company and signals, bicycle and engineer platoon. In the infantry battalion there were three rifle companies (about 180 men with an
anti-tank rifle squad); a machine-gun company with three machine-gun platoons (12 men and two heavy machine guns each), and a heavy mortar platoon of
three sections each with 19 men and two 8.1 cm mortars. The division of the battalion into one machine-gun and three rifle companies was the pattern in the first wave divisions while in later waves there were four 'mixed' rifle companies.
The firepower of a regiment was as follows: 26 heavy machine guns, 85 light machine guns, 18 x 8.1 cm mortars, 27 x 5cm mortars, 12 x 3.7cm anti-tank guns, 6 x 7.5cm infantry guns, 2 x 15cm infantry howitzers.
The artillery regiment was divided into three field artillery Abteilungen each with three four-gun batteries of 10.5cm gun-howitzers. The medium artillery Abteilung was originally a non-divisional unit attached to the artillery regiment, but later became an integral part of first wave infantry divisions.
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