"National Volksarmee abbreviations" Topic

Any German members on here who may be able to help me interpret a document I found on the internet. I have some details on the organisation of a Divisional HQ of the NVA, but I need help with some abbreviations;
LAkl (could be LAKt)
CRA
LPlW
LChD
LGFG
CTLA

Many thanks, Niall Hall

Niall

There's a tiny picture (Peacetime Organization chart) in this article that your eyes might have better luck with than mine:
link

I recall seeing a link to an acronym glossary here a while back. Can't find it now:
link

Dan
PS. Seen this?
link

LAkl – Leiter Aufklärung
CRA – Chef Raketentruppen Artillerie
LPlW – Leiter Pionierwerkstatt.
LChD – Leiter Chemische Dienste
LGFG – Not sure… are you certain you have this right?
CTLA – Chef Truppenluftabwehr

This is what a divisional HQ should look like for a PD: link

Thank you so much for the replies everyone – Achtung Minen that was exactly what I was looking for ! I had seen the CIA site and the FOI releases, thanks Cacique Caribe; but had only been searching through it for Soviet OOB information. My actual focus is on Soviet forces of the Cold War, but I had this document on an NVA Divisional HQ organisation and was hoping it would be very similar to the soviet model. Many thanks again !

No worries, happy to help. Let me know if you need any explanations about the function/role they play. For posterity, I found some good, mostly-complete abbreviation guides here:

link
link
link

So from my pretty basic German, and Google translate – I'm guessing;

LAkl – Leiter Aufklärung Head of Reconnaissance / Intellgience ?
CRA – Chef Raketentruppen Artillerie
LPlW – Leiter Pionierwerkstatt. Head of Engineers ?
LChD – Leiter Chemische Dienste Head of Chemical Troops ?
LGFG – Not sure… are you certain you have this right?
CTLA – Chef Truppenluftabwehr Chief of Air Defence Troops ?

As for LGFG it certainly looks like that, vehicle is shown as a R-145BM in the drawing.

That's mostly it. "Chef" was technically a higher position than "Leiter," but there were no Chief positions in the Division for reconnaissance or pioneers. I believe the Chef was typically an Oberst and the Leiter was typically an Oberstleutnant.

The Pionierwerkstätten were the facilities for pioneers to maintain, construct and repair their equipment. This website has a good detailed look into their operation, history and the challenges they faced: link

Hi Achtung minen….thanks for your various NVA links which are very useful indeed. With that last link you posted there is a very detailed history of the NVA pioneers called "Pioniertruppe der NVA Erinnerungen und Fakten". The index shows it has 90 odd pages but l can only see up to page 40….l would really like to see from page 41 to the end of the document covering the period from 1970 to 1990. Any chance that you can help with that? Thanks very much in advance. KRO

@Kiwi, sorry I'm not the page owner, but you could try reaching out to them via the Kontakt section?

And the US military frequently "referred" to the North Vietnamese Army as the NVA.

"That's mostly it. "Chef" was technically a higher position than "Leiter," but there were no Chief positions in the Division for reconnaissance or pioneers. I believe the Chef was typically an Oberst and the Leiter was typically an Oberstleutnant."

And they didn't want to use the term "Fuehrer."

"And the US military frequently "referred" to the North Vietnamese Army as the NVA."

Although NVA in the DDR context is "Nationale Volksarmee." (National Peoples' Army).

Yes, I know … As we know NVA in the German language vs. the US military's term for the North Vietnamese Army are two different things … of course …