brianmc | 16 Nov 2015 1:23 p.m. PST |
Did the infantry companies use the standard Heer organization? |
deephorse | 16 Nov 2015 3:11 p.m. PST |
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rorymac | 16 Nov 2015 3:14 p.m. PST |
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Jemima Fawr | 16 Nov 2015 4:02 p.m. PST |
Reichsarbeitsdienst – Nazi Germany's national paramilitary labour force that young men served in between service in the HJ and the armed forces. RAD units served as emergency military units in the last months of the war. Uniforms were brown, if you're interested. I don't know the answer to the question, but I would think that any ideas of 'organisation' at that stage of the war were largely academic. |
WarpSpeed | 16 Nov 2015 8:44 p.m. PST |
Rad units were used as youth labour gangs and security details organized along a military hierarchy and were absorbed into the forces as reinforcements were needed.In his book "The Good Soldier" Alfred Nowotny (not the luftwaffe ace)describes how the Rad was organized and sent in to deal with the 28 March 1942 St. Nazaire commando raid.In the absence of the regular garrison troops who had been sent on manuevers,the Rad boys infilcted 169 casualties and captured 200 of the 611 British raiders.My friend Walter was one of the Rad Hitler youth who dug the defences at Huertgen wald .He was in the process of being transferred to an SS regiment when he was captured in early 1945. |
deephorse | 17 Nov 2015 2:47 a.m. PST |
Reichsarbeitsdienst was what I thought, but I didn't know that they had combat divisions, nor did I want to assume that one person's TLA was the same as another's! |
Andy P | 17 Nov 2015 4:53 a.m. PST |
RAD had a STUG Battalion and also had Flak units as well. |
brianmc | 17 Nov 2015 5:04 a.m. PST |
I never knew they were used in combat till recently, i read that near the end of the war there were 3? Divisions formed. Ive heard about the Flak, but stugs too? How interesting! |
Footslogger | 18 Nov 2015 2:13 a.m. PST |
Osprey MAA254 states that orders were given for the formation of 6 RAD combat divisions on 29th March 1945. 1st "Schlageter" Div saw action against the Russians at Waren. 2nd "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" and 3rd "Theodor Korner" served west of Berlin with 12th Army. Two others were formed but saw no service. Each was supposed to have three infantry and one artillery regiments.(What they actually had is anyone's guess). That's as much as the Osprey says. |
Kelly Armstrong | 18 Nov 2015 12:20 p.m. PST |
The struggle by one of the RAD divisions occurs during the battles around Kustrin in Mar-Apr 45. I think one of Tony Le Tissier's books may cover it? Or is it a "Gotterdamerung" title or a Duffy book that may have covered it. Can't recall at the moment. In any event, the RAD Division gets whacked hard by Sov 8th Guards Army, and absorbed into some other ad hoc German 1945 Division. |
Martin Rapier | 19 Nov 2015 4:55 a.m. PST |
"Each was supposed to have three infantry and one artillery regiments.(What they actually had is anyone's guess)." Well the regiment was the basic tactical formation used in the German Army (just as the company was the basic subunit), so that doesn't seem unreasonable. Take a bunch of blokes (say 6,000 of them), divide them up into four regiments of 1,250 each, then further divide them into twelve companies/batteries of 100 blokes each and bingo, your divisional organisation…. The company commanders can divide them up into platoons and sections. |
Andy P | 25 Nov 2015 5:23 a.m. PST |
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Andy ONeill | 25 Nov 2015 10:03 a.m. PST |
RAD is an agile software development methodology. I can't read that title without translating to "Rapid Application Development" in my head. link |