| Fred Cartwright | 15 Mar 2010 6:37 a.m. PST |
What sort of recce did German infantry divisions have in the 1939/40 campaigns?
Did they still have horsed cavalry? Armoured cars? Motorcycle combos? Bicycles? |
 Doms Decals  | 15 Mar 2010 6:48 a.m. PST |
Varied a fair bit, but a typical first wave infantry division would have a short battalion comprising a cavalry company, a bicycle company, an AT platoon (3x 37mm), an armoured car platoon (2x Kfz 13, maybe also 1x Kfz 14) and sometimes an infantry gun platoon (2x 75mm.) There's a very good breakdown on Nafziger's site; obviously it's primarily Kstn based, so what they should've had rather than necessarily what they did have, but still an excellent starting point, especially for fresh units. link |
| christot | 15 Mar 2010 6:49 a.m. PST |
In theory: 1 Signals plt
1 Cav squadron (2 x HMG)
1 bicycle squadron (3 x 50mm mortar, 2 x HMG)
1 Recon squadron (1 75mm Ig section, 2 4 wheeled A/Cs, pak plt with 3 x 37mm) Bound to be variations, but that sort of thing, plus the Inf regts had a cav platoon. cheers chris |
| Doms Decals | 15 Mar 2010 6:52 a.m. PST |
PS – Heavy weapons in the companies as Christot says – each had 3 platoons of 3 sections, one MG34 LMG per section. |
| Martin Rapier | 15 Mar 2010 10:57 a.m. PST |
The 'armoured cars' are usually literally that – a car with armour, rather than Sdkfz 222/231 etc. To echo the comments above, lots of blokes on horses. |
| Doms Decals | 15 Mar 2010 11:30 a.m. PST |
Horses if they're lucky – lower echelon units had to make do with just a company of cyclists – much cheaper than horses…. |
| donlowry | 15 Mar 2010 11:35 a.m. PST |
But you don't have to pedal horses! |
| Starfury Rider | 15 Mar 2010 11:50 a.m. PST |
Wrong 'N' Dom, it's Leo Niehorster at orbat.com, rather than Nafziger! Note as you get lower down the food chain, the Bn becomes a Coy, and is sometimes included with the Anti-tank unit for admin purposes. I think the only KStN still available is for the Bicycle Squadron, whici is on the wwii daybyday site (ref 353). And there's other things horses do that bicycles don't… |
| bruntonboy | 15 Mar 2010 11:50 a.m. PST |
However you don't need to feed a bicycle. |
| Griefbringer | 15 Mar 2010 12:11 p.m. PST |
The bicycles still need their fair share of maintenance, spare parts and lubricants to keep them moving. That said, the horses are much more maintenance intensive, with all the feeding, watering, grooming, veterinary attendance, stabling, shoeing and other necessary activities. |
| Martin Rapier | 15 Mar 2010 12:19 p.m. PST |
"However you don't need to feed a bicycle." But you can't eat a bicycle if you are hungry. |
| Doms Decals | 15 Mar 2010 12:38 p.m. PST |
Oops, I knew perfectly well it was Niehorster, and somehow managed to type the wrong name…. :-( |
aecurtis  | 16 Mar 2010 8:56 a.m. PST |
>>> "However you don't need to feed a bicycle."
But you can't eat a bicycle if you are hungry. But you can only eat a horse once, and then you're infantry. Allen |
| donlowry | 16 Mar 2010 1:21 p.m. PST |
As they used to say in the cavalry, "A man without a horse is afoot!" |
