""Pursuit" Jäger Divisions - motorised panzerjäger?" Topic

Apparently during the ‛42/3 shake up, Infanterie Division 5 (and others) were turned into pursuit divisions. These were supposed to be more "mobile" than normal Jäger.

Does anyone have any idea just how mobile they were? Does it mean the heavy weapons were lighter and easier to tow or was a greater deal of mechanisation involved?

I am especially interested in the panzerjäger abteilungen.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Model had used kampfgruppen made up of aufklarungs assets and any other motorised unit available(flak, kradscheutzen, pak etc.) of several divisions as a 'fire brigade'. I never heard of Jager divisions being turned into 'Schnell' Divisions.

There are a couple of Gliederung for 5th Jager Div over on stummrpanzer.com, but they're part of a very large file, and it turns out I'm not clever enough to insert a JPEG of them in this post…

Anyway, it doesn't indicate motorisation for the Jager Regts in particular. The Regtl Atk Coys were motorised, showing the usual nine 3.7-cm and two 5-cm guns in the late 1942 scheme, supposedly changing to six 3.7-cm and four 5-cm in the mid-1943 version, but there is a big line drawn through that allocation. Both versions have a note indicating their transport was Kettenkrads, but I don't know how those may have been issued, certainly not seen a KStN for an Atk Coy with such vehicles.

The Jager Bn KStN didn't show any motorisation, just the usual sea of horses for German inf types.

The 1942 PzJag Bn was just two Coys, each with a single Pl of four 3.7-cms and two Pls, each of three 5-cms. The 1943 scheme initially indicates two towed Coys (but gives no reference to equipment), then the bloke with the pen scrawls out one Coy and sort of writes in the detail for an SP Coy with fourteen pieces. His scrawl is worse than mine (no mean feat) and I can't make out what's written next to it. Oh yes, it's in German as well…

The Recce Bn has two Bicycle Coys and one motorised Support Coy (the latter with an Atk, Pio and Inf Gun Pl. The Atk Pl is again noted with Kettenkrads). Again there's a handwritten amendment to both schemes suggesting a third Bicycle Coy.

Arty Regt shows as two Mountain Bns (each eight guns), one 10.5-cm and one 15-cm (each twelve pieces). Pio Bn has three Coys, one being motorised.

Gary

Thanks for the help Gary. The division is of great interest to me as a cousin of mine led one of the regiments before dying in 43.

I am getting a German language history pretty soon and will share any discoveries.

Skippy, what period was that – 42/3?

Got from a manual about antipartisan operations in Army Group Center. The practice wasn't liked because it cut mobility of the formations Model 'borrowed' from. probably 42-43, in the spring.

IIRC, they were supposedly "motorized" in the American sense, i.e., all draft animals were replaced by motor vehicles, but not in the German sense (what Americans would have called "mechanized") which would provide dedicated motor transport for the infantry and everything else.

The formation of ad-hoc battalion or even regemental sized 'mobile' groups in 1941 and 42 was pretty common.

In 41 the common was a couple of companies from the panzerjager Abt, the motorised engineer company and the recce battalion heavy company.

On the Leningrad front the cavalry and bicycle companies from almost every infantry division in the sector were merged into a large mobile regiment with an attached tank company.

Not heard of a whole division being so organised, but I can imagine stripping a formation down to increase mobility both by adding more motorisation and detaching the heavier and more cumbersome items (like bridging trains, heavy artillery etc).