"Infantry Regiments in Battlefront WW2?" Topic

I was snooping around for BFWW2 organization tables and realized there are virtually no infantry regiment battlegroups, even for major players. With few exceptions, the best I could find was motorized or mechanized infantry or occasionally the oddball, non-standard infantry (like Volksgrenadiers or Ski battalions). If they did the majority of fighting in WW2, then why no love for the lowly rifle or line battalion?

Not sure where you have been snooping around, but the original rulebook contains regimental and battalion organisations for the later war (1943-45) German, Soviet and US forces.

Sorry I should have been more specific: I meant for Early to Mid War Germans, 1939-1942. The website has a bunch of TO&Es but not as much for regular German infantry regiments. I also couldn't find anything for 1942 Russians.

You can always try CARL
link
I have a reasonable extensive TO&E for the germans, but it only goes down to company level, in the IO:Group Kriegsspiel site.
PDF link

From memory, they didn't do much on the early war period. The late Mark Hayes did a lot of their army lists.

This site may answer some of your questions:
link

link

Ah ok, that's fine then, I can do the work. I was hoping someone had done it for me!

I suppose another good option would be the Micro Mark lists. Aren't those easier to convert to BFWW2 than the Bayonet Strength lists?

Sorry I should have been more specific: I meant for Early to Mid War Germans, 1939-1942. The website has a bunch of TO&Es but not as much for regular German infantry regiments. I also couldn't find anything for 1942 Russians.

I checked the Battlefront WWII OOB website at

link

and it seems you are correct: there are a lot of entries there, but none for the specific ones that you mention.

Putting together an early war German infantry regiment TOE should not be too tough, as the organisation was relatively stable (regimental anti-tank gun company, regimental infantry gun company and three infantry battalions, the later with three infantry companies and one machinegun company each).

Soviets in 1942 are a bit tricker, as that is a year when the Red Army was fiddling a lot back and forth with the regimental organisations.

I suppose another good option would be the Micro Mark lists. Aren't those easier to convert to BFWW2 than the Bayonet Strength lists?

I am not familiar with Micro Mark lists, but if you care for historical accuracy then I think it is better to start with original organisation information, rather than trying to convert from other games.

The Bayonet Strength lists are an excellent resource, though they tend to only extend to battalion level, and contain way more detail than required for most games.

After a bit of thinking, I came up with the following list for representing German infantry companies, battalions and regiments in 1940-42 timeframe. They do not apply to the Polish campaign in 1939, where the organisation was slightly different.

____________________________________________________________

German Infantry Regiment 1940-42

x1 Commander (GE-46)
x3 Infantry battalion
x6(A) 3.7 cm anti-tank gun (GE-98) with horse-drawn limber (GE-37)
x3(A) 7.5 cm infantry gun (GE-38) with horse-drawn limber (GE-37); organic fire support
x1(A) 15 cm infantry gun (GE-39) with horse-drawn limber (GE-37); organic fire support

German Infantry Battalion 1940-42
x1 Commander (GE-46)
x3 Rifle company
x6(A) Heavy Machine Gun (GE-50)
x3(A) 8 cm mortar (GE-52); organic fire support

German Rifle Company (1940-42)
x1 Commander (GE-46)
x12 Infantry (GE-44)
x1 Anti-tank rifle (GE-101)
x1 5 cm mortar (GE-103); organic fire support

___________________________________________________________

Comments:
- Entries with (A) behind the number indicate attachments from the battalion or regimental level.
- In 1942, 3.7 cm anti-tank guns can be replaced with 4.7 cm or 5 cm anti-tank guns.
- Infantry battalion commander was provided with a horse for transport, but I am not certain whether the regimental commander had a horse or a car; feel free to provide him with a Kubelwagen for transport if it feels appropriate.
- Suitable divisional level attachments could include 10.5 cm howitzer battalion, engineer company, light flak platoon (towed) or anti-tank gun battery.
- For non-divisional attachments, StuG battery could be possible.

Thanks Griefbringer, that is helpful, I'll go with that. Incidentally, is the battalion HMG company a little too strong..? Largest I could find was 4 sections of two guns each, making it 4x HMG units in BFWW2.

Incidentally, is the battalion HMG company a little too strong..? Largest I could find was 4 sections of two guns each, making it 4x HMG units in BFWW2.

According to the lists on Bayonet Strength website, the battalion MG company in 1940-1942 contained three MG platoons, each consisting of two sections of two guns, for a total of twelve guns. In Battlefront WWII terms that would be six stands, each representing a section of two guns.

In other phases during the war, there were some organisations that provided the MG company with just six or eight guns, but in these cases the rifle companies were often provided with a section of two guns, thus keeping the total number of tripod mounted MGs in company at twelve or fourteen.

As for other aspects of the list above, I left the list of divisional attachments a bit vague, as I did not have references at hand, so that would need to be fleshed out a bit. Going by the memory, typical infantry division at the time would have had three 10.5 cm howitzer battalions (three batteries of four guns each), one 15 cm howitzer battery (three batteries of four guns each), one 2 cm FlaK battery (three platoons of four guns each), anti-tank battalion and reconnaissance battalion.

Of course, with German industry having trouble to keep with the demands of expanding army, units may not have always been supplied with the all the support weapons that they should have had on paper, while others may have been allocated captured guns of one origin or another. Thus there is a fair bit of freedom for scenario design. For example, in a scenario set in France in 1940 a battalion might be lacking anti-tank rifles of 5 cm mortars, while a regiment invading Soviet union a year later might have been provided with captured French anti-tank guns instead of German ones.

As for the Soviet organisation in 1942, I do not have my references at hand so cannot provide specific advice. Besides having multiple TOEs during this year, there is also the added complication of Red Army fielding a good number of rifle brigades (essentially reinforced regiments that were not part of divisions). In case you are interested in the peculiarities of historical organisations, the Red Army Handbook (also published as Companion to the Red Army) from Steven Zaloga could be a handy starting point.