"Need help with German unit/squad names" Topic

So, I'm trying my hand at my own WW2 board game and I'm trying to come up with a complete list of all German squads.

Here is what I have so far…

Panzergrenadier (heavy inf squad)
Rifle squad
Panzerfaust unit
Pioneers (engineer squad)
MG 34/42 squad
Flammenwerfer squad
AT Rifle squad
Waffen SS squad
Fallschirmjager (paratrooper squad)
Gebirgsjager (light inf squad)

What would you add to this?

Thanks!!

Wasn't there a battalion support unit with MGs at one stage? Perhaps that's what the op refers to? Could be sort of a panzerfaust section late war when infantry given a pzfst each and told to go and hunt tanks…

I think the poster might need to split the systems into unit type (pz gren, inf fallschirm etc) and weaponry.

link

For information online, I think this site is most comprehensive.

Potentially, OP may be referring to the heavy machine gun platoons in the machine gun company as opposed to the Light MGs carried by the infantry squads.

See: link

As above, you probably need to differentiate weaponry from morale/training.

Essentially there are only three types of rifle section:

Rifles+ 1 LMG – most infantry, early motorised infantry, normal SS
Rifles + 2 LMGs – later paras, later motorised infantry
SMG/Assault rifles – volksgrenadier SMG sections, sturm sections

engineers may have extra explody toys, flamthrowers etc.

then you have specialist weapons e.g.

company level ATR sections, company/regimental panzershreck sections and tripod MG, mortar etc sections

Gebergsjagers, at section level, are just normal rifle sections.

Overall morale/training can range from excellent to downright awful (Ost battalions, Volkksturm). Not all SS or FJ units are going to be excellent, many were pretty lousy.

Weren't there some Kriegsmarine field units?
Grelber

Eins, zwei, drei and ersatz…….

(Couldn't resist…)

Seen references to 'panzerjager' squads, pbi given AT mines and pzfausts and the specific purpose of taking on tanks, late war mostly.I was always under the impression that German squad organisation was fairly standard, built around the mg crew. I have read that the Allies were impressed by the general fighting quality of the 'pressed' units, made up of unit fragments/remnants and rear each types……'ersatz'.

Panzerfaust unit, no; but panzerschrek unit, yes.

Very late in the war there some designated 'panzerjager' battalions, some of them were even Schnelltruppen.

Which means they were a bunch of old men and boys riding bicycles with a few panzerfausts and teller mines.

Panzerschrecks however replaced the regimental AT platoons.

Some units may have formed ad-hoc tank hunting sections at battalion level and below. In game terms it is just a rifle section with extra anti-tank toys.

"Weren't there some Kriegsmarine field units? "

Yes. And polizei, feldgendarmerie, Luftwaffe, naval observation troops, organisation Todt etc etc.

In game terms relating to the OP, they are all just normal rifle sections, of varying quality.