Basic Organization of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) in Panzergrenadier-Division in 1943

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Table 9. Grenadier-Regiment (mot) 43

Table 10. Firepower of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) in 1943

Table 11. Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1939

Table 12. Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1941

Table 13. Grenadier-Regiment (mot) "GD" and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942

Table 14. Firepower of Grenadier- and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942

Basic Organization of Schützen-Regiment in Afrika-Division During 1941 to 1943

After the defeat of Stalingrad and struggle in North Africa, Generaloberst Guderian was appointed to be Inspector General of Panzertruppen by Hitler himself on 28 Feb 1943. With the establishment of the Inspector General the units formerly classified as Schnelle truppen were now redesigned as Panzertruppen except cavalry. After great efforts and numerous debates between Panzer arm and Infanterie arm, finally on 23 Jun all of the Heeres Infanterie-Division (mot) were renamed as Panzergrenadier-Division under the Inspector General of Panzertruppen. Thus the motorized infantry was no longer belonged to Infanterie arm and the newly formed Panzergrenadier became an integral part of Panzer arm. The once destroyed motorized infantry divisions (3., 29. and 60.) in Stalingrad and those (90. leichte Afrika-Division and 15. Panzer-Division) in North Africa were rebuilt as Panzergrenadier-Divisions. But two of the motorized infantry divisions (14. and 36.) were not reorganized as Panzergrenadier-Divisions, instead they were reverted to ordinary Infanterie-Divisions during summer in 1943. All of the Heeres Panzergrenadier-Divisions (with the exception of Panzergrenadier-Division "GD") were further reorganized according to the "Gliederung Panzergrenadier-Division 1943", so called the "Type 43 Panzer-Division" on 24 Sep 1943. The motorized grenadier regiment in the Panzergrenadier-Division now contained three battalions of lorried grenadiers plus one heavy infantry gun company. If material was available, an additional self-propelled anti-aircraft compay and an engineer company were also raised (Table 9). The composition of the grenadier battalion was almost identical to that of the battalion in the Panzergrenadier-Regiment (mot) in the "Type 43 Panzer-Division".

Grenadier-Regiment (mot) 43

Regiment Stab	Stab-Kompanie
I. Bataillon	1. Kompanie
	2. Komapnie
	3. Kompanie
	4. Schwere-Kompanie
II. Bataillon	5. Kompanie
	6. Komapnie
	7. Kompanie
	8. Schwere-Kompanie
III. Bataillon	9. Kompanie
	10. Komapnie
	11. Kompanie
	12. Schwere-Kompanie
	13. sIG-Kompanie
	14. Flak-Komapnie (optional)
	15. Pioniere-Kompanie (optional)

Table 9. Basic organization of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) in Type 43 Panzergrenadier-Division

The overall firepower of the regiment (Table 10) was slightly raised as compare with previous one (Table 8). The heavy grenadier company no longer contained heavy machine guns and distributed them among the other three grenadier companies. The anti-tank guns werw concentrated in the heavy grenadier comapny. The mortars in both grenadier and heavy grenadier companies were also upgunned.

Firepower of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) in 1943

Table 10. Firepower distribution of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) in Type 43 Panzergrenadier-Division, LMG: light machine gun, HMG: heavy machine gun, FT: flame thrower, IG: infantry gun.

Among the Heeres motorized infantry and later grenadier formations, the strongest ones were the elite "Grossdeutschland" (GD) and its related formations. The Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" was formed from the Wach Regiment "Berlin" as a cadre in Jun 1939. The regiment contained four battalions during Polish campaign (Table 11). The basic organization of the regiment was the same as other motorized infantry regiment except there were five companies in each battalion and the fire supportive companies were under a battalion command.

Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1939

Regiment Stab
I. Bataillon	1. Kompanie
	2. Kompanie
	3. Kompanie
	4. MG-Komapnie
	5. Schwere-Kompanie
II. Bataillon	6. Kompanie
	7. Kompanie
	8. Kompanie
	9. MG-Komapnie
	10. Schwere-Kompanie
III. Bataillon	11. Kompanie
	12. Kompanie
	13. Kompanie
	14. MG-Komapnie
	15. Schwere-Kompanie
IV. Bataillon	16. leIG-Kompanie
	17. Panzerabwehr-Kompanie
	18. sIG-Kompanie

Table 11. Major combat components of Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1939.

The regiment had a total of 18 companies rather than 15 companies in other motorized infantry regiment. The battalion had a motorized heavy infantry company in addition to the motorized machine gun company. The regiment expanded steadily and an additional battalion with one motorcycle rifle company, motorized engineer company, motorized signal company and self-propelled anti-aircraft company was raised after French campaign in Jul 1940. A motorized artillery battalion was also added to the regiment later thus made the regiment with a total of six battalions (Table 12).

Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1941

Regiment Stab	Stab-Kompanie
I. Bataillon	1. Kompanie
	2. Kompanie
	3. Kompanie
	4. MG-Komapnie
	5. Schwere-Kompanie
II. Bataillon	6. Kompanie
	7. Kompanie
	8. Kompanie
	9. MG-Komapnie
	10. Schwere-Kompanie
III. Bataillon	11. Kompanie
	12. Kompanie
	13. Kompanie
	14. MG-Komapnie
	15. Schwere-Kompanie
IV. Bataillon	16. leIG-Kompanie
	17. Panzerabwehr-Kompanie
	18. sIG-Kompanie
	19. Sturmgeschütz-Kompanie
V. Bataillon	20. Nachricht-Kompanie
	21. Flak-Kompanie
	22. Panzer Spaehwagon-Kompanie
	23. Kradschützen-Kompanie
	24. Pioniere-Kompanie
Artillerie-Abteilung (mot) 400

Table 12. Major combat components of Infanterie-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1941.

The regiment entered the Russian campaign in 1941 and underwent a great change in organization when it was announced on 1 Apr 1942 that GD had been raised to a full motorized infantry division. A Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) was raised in the same scale as the origianl Grenadier-Regiment (mot) (Table 13). The regiment had 3 battalions of motorized grenadiers or fusiliers and one motorized heavy grenadier or fusilier battalion.

Grenadier-Regiment (mot) "GD" and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942

Regiment Stab	Stab-Kompanie
I. Bataillon	1. Kompanie
	2. Kompanie
	3. Kompanie
	4. MG-Komapnie
	5. Schwere-Kompanie
II. Bataillon	6. Kompanie
	7. Kompanie
	8. Kompanie
	9. MG-Komapnie
	10. Schwere-Kompanie
III. Bataillon	11. Kompanie
	12. Kompanie
	13. Kompanie
	14. MG-Komapnie
	15. Schwere-Kompanie
IV. Bataillon	16. Flak-Kompanie
	17. sIG-Kompanie
	18. Panzerabwehr-Kompanie

Table 13. Basic organization of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) "GD" and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942.

As we compare the firepower of the regiment to that of other motorized infantry regiment (Table 8) in the same period, we can find the scale of heavy weapons was particularly high (Table 14).

Firepower of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) "GD" and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942

Table 14. Firepower distribution of Grenadier-Regiment (mot) "GD" and Füsiliere-Regiment (mot) "GD" in 1942, LMG: light machine gun, HMG: heavy machine gun, FT: flame thrower, IG: infantry gun.

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