Thread by @Niels_1944

Thread: German orbats #2
Let’s continue our crash course of German OOBs. We’ll zoom in on this one

In case you missed the first thread

Anyway, time to dig little deeper and start with a inf rgt:
Staff, HQ company, three battalions and two regimental heavy weapons units

Regimental staff (flag) and the HQ Co. The square with the thick left side is the universal company symbol. If no mobility symbol is shown it means that a unit relies on foot/horse transportation
The company includes fltr: signal platoon, engineer platoon and bicycle platoon

This is a battalion. Flag representing the staff and – note the thick bar on the left – four companies

The regimental heavy weapons units include an infantry-gun unit (platoon) and anti-tank gun company (note the thick bar).
Need a trick to remember this?
T = (anti)tank
I = infantry (gun)

so what do the symbols mean? First of all these are late war (1943+) symbols, which are easier to understand than early war symbols. We’ll talk about those another time
We have a MG and a mortar symbol

Here all 4 infantry companies are identically equipped: 12 light MGs and 3 medium mortars.
How do we know the MGs are light? Because that’s the default. How do know the mortars are medium (8cm)? Because of the ‘m’ (mittler = medium)

See the pattern?
Number below a weapons symbol = number of weapons
Number left(ish) of the symbol = caliber

BTW, also note there are 3 LMG in the engineer platoon

So what about this one:
0+2 = 0 heavy, 2 light infantry guns. Why not 0+0+2? Because IGs were either heavy or light
(BTW, if this was a company, it would be 13.Kp. but this is only a platoon)

Which also explains why the AT-company (14.Kp.) does have 0+3+9. AT-guns came in heavy, medium and light. In this case 3 medium, 9 light.
And don’t forget: there also are 6 LMGs

Now let’s step away from the 319ID and look at a standard inf div in 1944 (= Grundgliederung)
As you can see there are only two battalions here. Staffs do have a LMG though.
BTW: even with only two battalions, the heavy weapons companies are still numbered 13. and 14.

The HQ company has two options: either a mounted platoon (square with diagonal line) or a bicycle platoon. Both with 3 LMGs though. Engineer platoon has 6 LMG

The battalions have three rifle companies (1-3) and a heavy-company (4), a.k.a. mg-company

The rifle companies all have 2 heavy and 13 light machine guns. As with infantry-guns, MG were either heavy or light

The heavy company has 6 HMG and 3 LMG. It also has heavy (4) and medium (6) but no light mortars.

Ignore the o). Like the x) in the HQ Co. it is used to indicate an alternative (6 mediums instead of 4 heavies)

The ‘Inf Div 44’ also included an independent Füselier battalion. Pretty much identical to a regular inf bn but the first company was equipped with bicycles. We have seen that symbol before in the HQ Co.

The IGs form a company (13.Kp.) with 2 heavy and 6 light IGs and 5 LMG. Note the heavy bar, identifying this as a company

The 14.Kp. is now more interesting than the previous example

fltr:
3 LMG and 3 motorized heavy AT-guns
-Why heavy? Because of the ‘s’ (schwer)
-Why motorized? Because of the symbol with the two wheels above it, which means they are moved by motor vehicles (not self-propelled!)
2 LMG and 36 ‘Panzerschreck’
1 LMG

You may have realized that the company symbols tell us very little about their internal organization. Only when subunits are added some things become clear. See the HQ company

To determine the exact internal organization you need to look at the TO/Es, or Kriegsstärkenachweisung (KStN). These lovely charts simply do not provide such details.

I’ll talk about KStNs another time. Next up is the artillery.

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