Jump to content

List of German divisions in World War II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ansbachdragoner (talk | contribs) at 02:34, 6 April 2005 (→Named Divisions). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This is a list of German divisions in WWII. Only ground units are covered; "divisions" of aircraft are not.

Upgrades and reorganizations are shown only to identify the variant names for what is notionally a single unit; other upgrades and reorganizations are deferred to the individual articles. Due to the scope of this list pre-war changes are not shown, nor are upgrades from units smaller than a division.

Name elements not usually translated

Grenadier
A traditional term for heavy infantry.
Jäger
A traditional term for light infantry (literally "hunter").
Lehr
A demonstration unit (literally "learning-" or "teaching-").
Nummer
"Number". (See description in Infantry Series Divisions, below.)
Panzer
Armored (literally "armor").
Sturm
"Storm" or "Assault".
Volks
"of the People".
zbV
Abbreviation for "Special Purpose".

Volks, Sturm, and Grenadier were sometimes used simply as morale-building epithets, often without any significance to a unit's organization or capabilities.

Heer

Panzer Divisions

Numbered Panzer Divisions

Named Panzer Divisions

Light Divisions

The designation "Light" (leichte) had various meanings in the German Army of World War II. There was a series of 5 Light divisions; the first four were pre-war mechanized formations organized for use as mechanized cavalry, and the fifth was an ad hoc collection of mechanized elements rushed to Africa to bail the Italians out and organized into a division once there. All five were eventually converted to ordinary Panzer divisions.

Various other divisions were dubbed "Light" for other reasons, and are listed among the Infantry Series Divisions.

Infantry Series Divisions

Types of division in the series

German infantry divisions had a variety of designations and specializations, though numbered in a single series. The major variations are as follows:

Fortress (Festung)
Divisions of non-standard organization used to garrison critical sites. The smaller ones might consist of only two or three battalions.
Grenadier
A morale-building honorific usually indicative of reduced strength when used alone.
Light, Jäger
Provided with partial horse or motor transport and usually lighter artillery, and reduced in size compared to an ordinary infantry division. Some of these were essentially identical to mountain divisions, and were sometimes referred to as Gebirgsjäger ("Mountain Light Infantry") divisions.
  • This description does not apply to the Light divisions in Africa (5th, 90th, 164th, 999th), nor to the five Light mechanized divisions listed in their own subsection.
Motorized
Provided with full motor transport for all infantry and weapons systems. Usually reduced in size compared to an ordinary infantry division.
Division Nummer
A sort of placeholder division, with a number (Nummer) and staff but few if any combat assets. These divisions started out without any type in their name (e.g., Division Nr. 179), though some acquired a type later on (e.g, Panzer Division Nr. 179).
Panzergrenadier
As motorized, but with more self-propelled weapons and an added battallion of tanks or fully armored assault guns.
Static (bodenständige)
Deficient in transport, even enough to move its own artillery. Many of these were divisions that had been mauled on the Russian Front and were sent west to serve as costal defense garrisons until sufficient resources were available to rehabilitate them.
Volksgrenadier
A late-war reorganization with reduced size and increased short-range firepower. Many previously destroyed or badly mauled infantry divisions were reconstituted as Volksgrenadier divisions, and new ones were raised as well.
zbV
An ad hoc division created to meet a special requirement. (E.g., Division zbV Afrika)

Most of the size reductions listed above were by about a third, either by the removal of an infantry regiment or the removal of one infantry battalion from each of the three regiments.

Infantry divisions were raised in waves, sets of divisions with a standardized table of organization and equipment. In general the later waves (i.e., the higher-numbered divisions) were of lower quality than the earlier ones.

Numbered Divisions

Named Divisions

Mountain Divisions

Ski Division

Cavalry Divisions

According to Davies, the Cavalry divisions were mounted infantry and the Cossack divisions were "true cavalry", modelled on the Russian cavalry divisions.

Landwehr Divisions

Artillery Divisions

Named Fortress Divisons

Named Training Divisions

Field Replacement Divisions

Kriegsmarine

Luftwaffe

Hermann Göring Divisions

The Hermann Göring formations grew from a single police detachment to an entire armored corps over the course of the war. The later epithet Fallschirm ("parachute") was purely honorific.

Airborne Divisions

In order to keep its existence secret, the first German airborne division was named as if a Flieger ("flier") division in the series of Luftwaffe divisions that controlled air assets rather than ground troops:

  • 7th Flieger Division (often translated 7th Air Division)

The division was later reorganized to start a series of nominally airborne divisions. Though named Fallschirmjäger ("paratrooper") divisions, most were not actually trained for airdrops, and in practice all operated as ordinary motorized infantry throughout their existence. The lower-numbered ones maintaned an élite status, but quality generally declined among the higher-numbered ones.

Field Divisions

These were ordinary infantry divisions organized from Luftwaffe personnel made available after mid-war due to the manpower crunch. They were originally Luftwaffe units but were later handed over to the Heer, retaining their numbering but with Luftwaffe attached to distinguish them from similarly numbered divisions already existing in the Heer.

Training Divisions

Anti-Aircraft Divisions

These were headquarters for controlling aggregates of FLAK ("anti-aircraft artillery") assets rather than ordinary combined arms divisions organized for ground combat.

Waffen-SS

All divisions in the Waffen-SS were ordered in a single series, regardless of type. Those tagged with nationalities were at least nominally recruited from those nationalities. Many of the higher-numbered units were small battlegroups, i.e. divisions in name only.

Also Panzer Division Kempf, a temporary unit of mixed Heer and Waffen-SS components.

See also

References

  • Astel, John; Goodwin, A. E.; Long, Jason, Bengtsson, Sven Ake; & Parmenter, James D. (1998). "Orders of Battle". Data booklet from the Europa game Storm Over Scandinavia. Grinnel, Iowa: Game Research/Design. ISBN 1860100910.
  • . ISBN 0-668-04291-5. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)
  • Parada, George (2004). "Panzer Divisions 1940-1945". Retrieved April 1, 2005.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_German_divisions_in_World_War_II&oldid=12017910"