Lone Sentry: TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces: Organic Artillery Units: Combat Troops (Fechtende Truppen): Organization of the Field Forces

CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION OF THE FIELD FORCES

Section VI. COMBAT TROOPS (FECHTENDE TRUPPEN)

6. Organic Artillery Units

In the German Army much of the field artillery and all the Army coast artillery and railway artillery belong to the General Headquarters pool. The coastal artillery is in peace time exclusively the responsibility of the Navy, but in war time the Army also has formed coast artillery units principally for the protection of coasts in occupied areas. Coast artillery, Naval or Army, normally is assigned to the sector command in which it is located. Units are allotted from this pool to army groups or armies according to operational needs. They then may be sub-allotted to corps or divisions, in which case they usually are placed under the control of special artillery commanders and staffs. Divisional artillery is frequently reinforced by General Headquarters artillery, army antiaircraft artillery, and projector units. Figures 105-121.

a. ARTILLERY REGIMENT (Artillerieregiment). One to a division, this regiment varies in composition according to the type of the division. Several types exist.

(1) In Infantry Division, Type 1944. Four battalions (I, II, and III equipped with 105-mm gun-howitzers and IV with 150-mm howitzers).

(2) In Volks Grenadier Division. Four battalions (I equipped with 75-mm AT guns, II and III with 105-mm gun/howitzers, and IV with 150-mm howitzers).

(3) In Armored and Motorized Divisions. Three battalions (I normally equipped with two batteries of 105-mm gun/howitzers and one battery of 150-mm howitzers all self-propelled, II equipped with 105-mm gun howitzers, and III with 150-mm howitzers). Panzer and Panzer Grenadier divisions also have a separate Army antiaircraft artillery battalion as an organic divisional component. In SS Panzer divisions a heavy artillery battalion, usually equipped with 170-mm guns, is added as the fourth battalion in the artillery regiment.

(4) In Light and Mountain Divisions. It has four battalions—I and II equipped with 75-mm mountain howitzers and III with 105-mm gun-howitzers. The organization of IV may vary but it normally is equipped with 150-mm howitzers.

All the types of artillery battalions organic in divisions may be found with some variations in the General Headquarters pool.

b. THE ARMY ANTIAIRCRAFT ARTILLERY BATTALION (Heeresflakartillerieabteilung). One to a Panzer and a motorized division, consisting of two 88-mm antiaircraft batteries and one 20-mm antiaircraft battery.

c. THE ASSAULT-GUN BATTALION (Sturmgeschützabteilung). This sometimes replaces the antitank battalion in Panzer Grenadier divisions. Those in company strength, but designated battalions organic in infantry, light, and mountain divisions, were renamed Panzerjägerkompanie in the fall of 1944. Most of those in the General Headquarters pool were renamed Assault Gun Brigades, however, a few General Headquarters assault gun battalions are believed to have kept their designation.

TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces		LoneSentry.com