"US Assault Company TO&E?" Topic

I blame Force on Force for this. I've got a platoon of DAK panzergrenadiers, a platoon of Fallschirmjager, a Spetznaz/Scout Platoon, a Weird War platoon with body armor and Assault Rifles, and a US Assault Company Boat Section (1ID or 29ID, landing at Omaha beach).

The Bloody Omaha book for Flames tells what the contents of each Higgins Boat was, but I'm looking for some more details.

My two biggest questions are: Were there radios in the Boat Sections? What about Medics?

I'd also like a rank structure breakdown, since it seems that there are a whole lot of 4 or 5-man teams, with no obvious NCO.

The other half of the project is getting the right markings on the Officer and NCOs.

The officer has a horizontal white stripe on the back of his helmet, and NCOs have a vertical white stripe, right?

One last question: The divisional patch for First Infantry *as they hit the beach* was a red "1" on a dark green shield, worn on the left shoulder only, right?

I had previously compiled some of the info you requested on a chart I keep handy for my D-Day skirmish games. This is the "Assault Boat Team" of 30 men. There is a different "Support Boat" list.

Boat Team Leader – Officer w/ M-1 Carbine, 1 Frag & 1 Smoke Grenade, 1 SCR-536 Radio and 6 Colored Smoke Grenades.

Assist-Boat Team Ldr. – NCO w/ M-1 Garrand, 2 Smoke & 8 Frag Greanades.

Wire Cutter Team (4 men) – 4 M-1 Garrands, 2 Wire Cutters, 1 Smoke Grenade, 2 Bangalore Torpedo & 2 Searchnose Cutters.

BAR Team (4 men)* – 2 BAR Riflemen w/ 13 Magazines and Spare Parts Pouches. 2 Assist-BAR Riflemen w/ M-1 Garrand, 13 BAR Mags and 32 M-1 Clips.
* = some boat teams subbed .30 cal. MGs for BARs.

Bazooka Team (4 men) – 2 Bazooka Riflemen w/ M1A1 Bazooka and M-1 Carbine and 8 Rockets in bags. 2 Loaders w/ M-1 Garrand and 12 Rockets in bags.

Dmolition Team (5 men) – 5 M-1 Garrand, 50' Primacord, 4 Detonators, 6 Block of TNT, 7 Pack Charges, 3 Pole Charges, 2 Fuse Lighters, Demo Tool Kit, 2 Frag & 1 Smoke Grenade.

Rifle Team (5 men) – 2 Riflemen w/ M-1 Garrand, Wirecutters, 1 Smoke & 2 Frag Grenades. 2 Riflemen w/ M-1 Garrand, 2 Frag & 1 Smoke Grenades and 1 Bangalore Torpedo. 1 Rifleman w/ M-1 Garrand with Grenade Launcher with 10 Smoke Rifle Grenades, 1Frag and 1 Smoke Grenade.

60mm Mortar Team (4 men) – 1 Spotter w/ M-1 Carbine, sight, binoculars, compass, mortar tools and 12 mortar rounds.
1 Mortar Gunner w/ 60mm Mortar, .45 cal. Pistol and 5 Mortar Rounds. 1 Assit-Gunner w/ M-1 Carbine and 12 Mortar Rounds. 1 Ammo Man w/ M-1 Carbine and 12 Mortar Rounds.

Flamethrower Team (2 men) – 1 Rifleman w/ Flamethrower and .45 cal. Pistol. 1 Assist-Gunner w/ 5 Gal. Fuel & Nitrogen Tanks, Tool Kit, 6 Frag & 4 Smoke Grenades.

Basic Ammo Loads for Weapons:
M-1 Garrand – 176 Rounds (22 – 8 Round Mags)
M-1 Carbine – 75 Rounds (5 – 15 Round Mags)
.45 Cal. Pistol – 21 Rounds (3 – 7 Round Mags)

If you want to know all about this, in excrutiating detail, to include the heavy weapons boat team as well, it is all found in the book Spearheading D-day.

If you want to know all about this, in excrutiating detail, to include the heavy weapons boat team as well, it is all found in the book Spearheading D-day.

Which is where I assume the above came from.

I think you have the back-of-helmet markings mixed up – vertical for officers, horizontal for NCOs.

Mserafin is correct: vertical for officers (think: lieutenant's silver bar) and horizontal for NCOs. At first officers often had their rank insignia painted on the front of the helmet also (about the same size as what they wore on their shirts), but soon learned that these attracted bullets.

Yes, division patches were worn on the left upper sleeve (closer to the shoulder than to the elbow). The 1st Division patch was a big red "1" (hence the division's nickname) on an OLIVE green shield.

There were two medics per rifle company. Not sure if they increased that for D-Day.

jgawne-
Yes, I had been working off of 2 – 4 x 6 index cards with scattered info for my game until spotting "Spearheading D-Day" in a bookstore. Santa Claus brought it to me for Christmas a year or two ago and it is awesome. The amount of info all "under one roof" is mindboggling. Not just text but detailed pictures, diagrams and charts too. I refer to it often and highly recommend it to anyone seeking the type of info that Lion in the Stars is requesting.

isn't that interesting, no smg's listed as part of kit. despite hollywood.

Pat Ripley-
I'm sure there were more than just a few gadgets that went ashore that were not on official TO&Es. Hollywood just expounded on this for "Dramatic Clarity."
Note:
"Dramatic Clarity" is defined as not letting facts get in the way of making a statement or selling movie tickets.

smg's were not a part of the stanbdard equipment in a rifle company- util; (oh I forget the exact date) early 44 when 6 were added as extra weapons for special use as needed. They were sometimes use dby thye officers, sometimes by a patrol, whatever. They were company equipment and were not often seen on the battlefield.

People think they are cool, but they have short range, are inaccurate and have low penetration. They are great for some purposes, but not for all. Someone down ont he beach could not hit any of the germans up in their positions with one, whereas they could with an M1 or BAR.

Someone sent me practically that same description by email a few years ago now. They quoted it from CMH 100-11 (The Green books). It differs in a few respects from the one given above, importantly in that he had it as 1 officer and 31 men overall, but there were only 31 individuals described. Neither of us could figure whether it was a typo in the totals or included the boat crewman. The only man not listed above that he had was a Medic and support weapon allocation was the same.

Re the original post on NCOs. From what I can recall, the general approach was for Rifle Companies to land two Platoons, keeping one back, and for those Platoons to land two Squads, keeping one back. If you deduct the 60-mm mortar team (from the Weapons Platoon), and the officer and assistant boat-team leader (who I assume was the Platoon Sergeant), you've got 24 men left, which is effectively two Rifle Squads (and two BAR teams, which also tallies). Usually each Squad would have two NCOs, enough for one in each of four teams. The Platoon Guide Sergeant could be included to make five, though I'm not sure that the Bazooka and BAR teams would have needed an NCO leader in the same manner as rifle and assault teams would.

30th June 1944 was the official date for the six SMGs being isused to Rifle Companies, plus another six BARs.

Gary

Great, thanks a lot guys!

Guess I need to add "Spearheading D-Day" to my wishlist.

hrm… no medics in the platoon? I must be too used to moderns, that doesn't sound right. But, if it's not in the TO&E, it (almost certainly) wasn't there.

Ok, *vertical* stripe for the guy with a radio and M1 carbine, horizontal stripe for the Thompson-armed platoon SGT, and Olive Green shield for the Big Red 1. Hey, I'm starting with a Battlefront Boat section pack, so I'm already short 4 guys from the casualty figures, what's another wrong detail or two (Thompsons, I think I have two of them)?

And speaking of wrong details, Battlefront has you trade a Bazooka team for the LMG. I think I'll follow your TO&E, since I only got one BAR-armed figure in the pack anyway. That leaves me one trooper short by model count, I can live with that.

And as far as ground-pounder rank insignias go, I was Navy. Never had to keep track of that silliness. Had to learn sleeve stripes and shoulder boards (plus the fine art of ignoring anything that wore Khakis, without making it obvious I was ignoring them). Besides, confusion is the order of my day.

Thanks again!

I'm not sure that they would have already done this, but U.S. Army combat veterans also wear a unit patch on their right shoulder to indicate the unit they were in combat with.

Some of the 1st ID troops may have been veterans of Torch.

Anyone have a more definitive answer? Maybe Allen?

There is always a unit patch on the left shoulder indicating the unit a soldier is currently serving with. It is only transferred to the right shoulder after the soldier has transferred to another unit, so even combat veterans would retain the patch on the left unless they were with a different division. You will not see troops with the same patch on both shoulders.

That's what I thought, so the olive shield/red 1 on the LEFT shoulder.

Oh, one last question: So the landing organization was just 2 squads from each platoon, with 2 BAR teams, and an attached Mortar from the Weapons platoon, not an actual change to the regular TO&E?

My interpretation is a reorganisation of existing personnel and support weapons, with the intention that units could switch back to the regular T/O once the beach assault phase was over, rather than a specific 'assault' org that would be used routinely.

Gary