Steelers708
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AdmiralHalsey
quote:
ORIGINAL: Steelers708
The Waffen SS didn't have priority for replacements it was allowed around 2% of the annual draft plus any volunteers, this is why they had to resort to recruiting large numbers of Volksdeutsche who were either volunteers(sometimes forced), draftees or in some cases forced transfers from e.g. the Hungarian Army. Later in the war just like other Heer Pz divisions the 'elite' SS Pz divisions received large numbers of untrained excess Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine replacements which partly explains their poor performances in places like the Ardennes and Hungary.
As to equipment yes Waffen SS units were generally bigger than their Heer counterparts but that is due to the fact that they were under the SSFHA for organisation and training etc. As to the actual equipment they received they didn't generally receive anything that the Heer units didn't receive and in most cases e.g. StG44s, Tigers, Panthers etc they more often than not received them after Heer units received them.
Given the small inital size of the SS, 2% isn't as bad as it sounds.
I must take issue with your comment regarding equipment then, proportionally the SS had a signifant overstock in Tigers. This is concentrated force. If am remembering correctly the only Heer unit with organic tigers was the GD. We have SS Divisions given equal priority - Not counting the SS Tiger Units, which again given the tiny size of the SS compared to the heer, gives them significant proportionate priority for 'prestige items'.
I don't think any attempt to argue that the SS Panzer divisions were given low priority for replacement equipment holds any water, given the number of times they were rebuilt at the expense of army divisions. There's a reason it was the 6th SS Panzer army at the battle of the buldge - Almost all the SS Formations had basically been destroyed in Normandy, yet they were prioritised to recieve significant numbers of scarce equipment, including King Tigers.
I certainly am not disputing their combat performance however - Indeed my entire point is I think they're treated too generously by the game, being given the historic ToE Boost, but also an excessive moral boost I don't see a justification for late war.
Whilst in 1943 it is true that the 3 'premier' SS divisions received a Tiger Kompanie and only the GD of the Heer received one that doesn't mean that the SS had priority over replacements and don't forget the Heer had several SPz Abteilungen by then, it should also be remembered that the very first Tiger Is went to the Heer and not the Waffen SS.
You also have to remember that the LSSAH and DR would eventually lose their Tiger Kompanie as the 3 sSS Pz Abteilungen were formed as Korps assets, whilst the GD would not only keep her own organic Tiger Komp. but it would be expanded into a full Abteilung eventually becoming the III./Pz Regt. GD. The GD would keep this III./Abt until December 1944 when the PzKorps GD was formed and it was removed to become a Korps asset of the Pzkorps GD.
The Totenkopf was the only division of the four named above to keep her Tiger Kompanie until the end of the war, but even then, they were not officially authorised to have them after September 1944 and as such received no further replacements.
As to the Tiger II the very first unit to receive any, actually the first 5 of the production line, was the 1./schwere Panzerjaeger Kompanie(FKL) of the Pz Lehr division which received them in March 1944, whilst the second unit to receive any was the Heer's sPz Abt.503 who received 12 in June 1944 and 14 in July 1944. The next unit to receive Tiger IIs was sPz Abt.501 who received 31 during the first two weeks of July 1944 followed by sPz Abt.505 who had 6 shipped to them on the 26th July. The first Waffen SS unit to receive any Tiger IIs was sSS Pz Abt.101 who received 14 in August 1944.
A similar story can be found with the Panther where the first ones were given to the Heer and not the Waffen SS where of course they went into action at Kursk with Pz Abt. 51 & 52. As to the post Kursk Panther Abteilungen at the same time that the LSSAH & DR Panther Abt. were formed 5 Heer divisions also had their Panther Abt formed. When it comes to the divisional Panther Abt by the time that the LSSAH & DR Panthers were in action there were also 4 Heer Panther abt. in action and by September 1944 when the 7 Waffen SS Panther Abt were finally in all in action there were 13 Heer Panther units.
Only one Waffen SS unit had Tiger IIs tactically attached to it during the Ardennes offensive and that was the LSSAH which had sSS Pz Abt.501 tactically attached to it as it's II Abteilung. Now the fact that it was attached as it's II Abt proves that the Waffen SS divisions didn't have priority for replacements.
If indeed the LSSAH had priority for replacements then it would have had a full, or as near to full, complement of tanks for the offensive that is 109 Pzkpfw IV and 79 Panthers that it was authorized, instead on the eve of the offensive it only had 33 Pzkpfw IVs and 33 Panthers.
Now for a division with 'so called' priority for replacements going into a major offensive it should have been fully re-equipped but the LSSAH received just 34 Pzkpfw IVs and 38 Panthers in October 1944 it would not receive any further replacements until January 1945 when it received just 11 Pzkpfw IVs. The division was also short of other equipment from MGs, FlaK guns, artillery pieces, trucks and other vehicles including for example, it only had 36 of it's authorised 64 le.SPWs and only 150 of it's authorised 400 mSPW.
The truth is that it's a myth that the Waffen SS received priority for equipment and replacements during the war and there are plenty of excellent books that will show this but it is also backed up by the evidence of primary documents.
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