Fabs
Posts: 444
Joined: 6/5/2000 From: London, U.K. Status: offline
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Well, in this area you can be as flexible as you like, as more often than not platoons and squads did not have a full complement of personnel or even weapons.
According to the "handbook on German military Forces", for instance, a Panzer grenadier Zug in the Gepanzerte Panzer grenadier Abteilung of a Panzer grenadier Regiment consisted of 30 all ranks, with 1 officer, 3 NCos and 26 enlisted men.
These had to fit into 4 Motor vehicles (Presumably all SPWs). Their complement of Lmgs was 9 per platoon!!!
The handbook does not indicate how this was broken down into squads, but it's a safe bet to assume that it was either a case of 8x3+6 or 9x3+3, the smallest group being the HQ group.
The bigger mistery is the number of Mgs, but I assume that it counted one for each full squad to fight dismounted and two for each SPW carrying a full squad.
Note that the platoon's weapons are listed as 12 Rifles, 8 Smgs and 10 Pistols. Rifles and Smgs are enough to arm 20 men, leaving 9 men to man the Lmgs with pistols for side-arms and the officer, who would have carried a pistol.
So, would a properly armed Panzer grenadier squad fighting dismounted need to be represented by nine men with three Lmgs?
And in this case, should their SPW be disarmed?
Or should it be 6 men with 1 Lmg, and their Spw crewed by driver+2 men to man the Lmgs?
The HQ vehicle would not have had any Mgs, and the same would be true for the HQ group, but interestingly there is no mention of 37mm cannons (20mm AA guns, 81mm mortars Hmgs and 75mm SPIGs are mentioned as part of the Company's complement of heavy self propelled weapons).
In Herbert Fuerbringer's History of the 9th SS Hohenstaufen Panzer Division Armored platoon leader vehicles (SS PzGren Rgt. 20/III Abteilung) seem to be represented as armed with 20mm AA guns.
The Motorized Panzer grenadier Platoon has more men but less Lmgs. (43 men, 6Lmgs).
They were armed with 26 Rifles, 4 Smgs and 13 pistols. Again, there are enough Rifles and Smgs for 30 men, leaving 13 men armed with pistols of which one is the officer. Twelve men would man 6 Lmgs in pairs.
In the Armored platoon, assistant Light machine gunners carried rifles, but not it would appear in the motorized platoon.
In the field, I suspect that full squads were a rare sight, and that not many Armored Panzer grenadier platoons enjoyed the full complement of vehicles and weapons allocated to them.
So, you should feel free to play around.
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Fabs
[This message has been edited by Fabs (edited August 22, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Fabs (edited August 22, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Fabs (edited August 22, 2000).]
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Fabs
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