"Northwest Europe Order of Battle/Appearance?" Topic

One thing I regret from when I disposed of most of my hex-and-counter wargames is that many of them had excellent order of battles.

The Europa series was one.

Now I wish I had an order of battle/order of appearance down to battalion level for the Allies in Northwest Europe as in the game "Second Front." My Google-fu appears weak on this.

Does anyone have a link to such info?

Thanks.

I'd be amazed if there was, although there are various unit histories and higher level OBs. e.g Niehorster has full Allied and Axis OBs for NWE down to battalion level but only for 6th June 1944.

Books like 'Divisions of the British Army 1939-45' by Bellis cover this stuff for the whole war, including the battalion assignments at particular times of the war.

Yes, that's a pretty big subject, I don't know of a single source that covers it, and certainly nothing close to it at the click of a mouse button.

Orders of Battle by Joslen gives the Divisional picture, plus Armd and Tank Brigades, throughout the war. It doesn't though cover Supply and Transport, Medical, Workshops or Misc units in Divs or Bdes (though a few get a mention when part of a Brigade Group). He has snapshots for Army Troops at three times, Jun44, Nov(?)44 and May45. Nothing though in terms of when a particular RA Regt arrived in theatre, and nothing on their allocation to Corps and Armies within 21 Army Group.

It can be bought as a download from MLRS books or in print from Naval & Military Press. It's also on Fold3 as part of their link with N&MP. And there are plenty of attempted transcriptions on the web.

The US standard is Stanton's Order of Battle. I've never seen a copy so can't comment. The US Army Divisional order of battle in the ETO is online via the USACMH site –

link

Same proviso, emphasis on Divs, though it does list non-Div attachments.

There is a decent ORBAT for First Canadian Army via a hyperwar transcription but again lacking arrival dates.

Gary

Here is the information Martin was talking about. This gives a decent start
link

It gives the OB on 6 June for Allies and Germans. You click on units and can bore down into the levels. For example here is US 12th Corps, 5th Armored Division
link

As I said, a start.

Thanks all. Have most of that, Niehorster, Stanton, etc.

Second Front had an appendix with what I'm talking about. I might have to go find a beat up copy

Cheers