Order of battle for Case Blau

[Der Alte Fritz]

Does anyone have a complete order of battle for the units involved in Case Blau.
I am looking to see which Eisenbahnpioniere, Bau and Brucke units were involved in the operation under which Armee Gruppe to get an idea of the size of the forces deployed. I have looked at Lexicon der Wehrmacht but this only gives partial information for some units.

[William Russ]

Old Fritz,
Look at Leo Niehorster's World War II Armed Forces website at:
http://www.orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/011 ... _blau.html
This should give you what you want.

all the best, Bill

Postscript: Well, I see I jumped the gun on this one. I looked at Leo's OBs and realized it's missing rear service information for some of the formations. It may be hard to find the missing engineering assets. Several years ago, I tried to find all of the rear service troops for all the German forces involved in Barbarossa and Case Blau. For Barbarossa I found about 90 % of the rear service units and for Blau somewhat less .

[Der Alte Fritz]

Well anything you have got on this would be good. I shall drop Leo a line as well.

[William Russ]

Hi Fritz,
I went back over the NARA guides to see if I could find specific info on the individual army's Kodeis' in the Armee Pionier Führer folders. The 11th Army has one folder that dates from May 1941 to March 1942 and appears to only have tactical reports. The 17th Army has one file with the engineers OBs for the time period but I don't have that one. The 1st Panzer Army's engineer charts show everything but the Kodeis units. The 6th Army only has a folder covering January 1942 till March 1942 (the next one is for July 1943!) but does have a Kodeis for January 18th 1942 (see below). Can't find anything at all for 4th Panzer Army and the 2nd Army has two folders, one for January to March 1942 and April to September 1942 but no indication if they have OB information. Maybe Leo can help you out further.
The 6th Army Kodeis OB is from NARA series T312, roll number 1441, frame 1347.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Fantastic.
It might not be from the right period but it is very interesting and it does show that the units were deployed as Kompanie rather than as larger units and were quite muddled up. If I am reading this right, the column on the right is the Regt (or unit number) so they have Kompanie from 7 out of the 8 EB Pioniere Regts. Total of 55 Kompanie sized units so maybe around 6,000 men total which would tie in with the previous totals I have posted for Heeren Gruppe totals.

[William Russ]

That's right Fritz. The numbers on the right are the regiments, so your reading is correct.
I plan on ordering the microfilm for the 17th Army. I thought I had all the OBs but apparently I missed this one . When I get it I will post the Kodeis if it is on the roll.

all the best, Bill

[Jeff Leach]

I have found a some more of these Kodeis OOBs (Summer 1941 AOK 4) and some material for the effort made to bridge the Dnjepr at Kremenchug if you are interested. These OOBs were among the corps records and only noticed them because of your interest. It may be that there are bits and pieces of information among the Wehrmacht records but that they are not collected in anyone place, which will make your research very difficult.

Looking att the Kodeis OOBs and the army group OOB for HG Don, it appears that the Kodeis OOBs represent the regauging effort and the other the repair and maintenance effort.

[Der Alte Fritz]

These sound interesting especially the bridging material. Anything helps to build up a picture of the deployment of these units.
cheers

[Jeff Leach]

Kodeis OOB and one document concerning Dnjepr crossing (there are others if I can find them). All are from IV.A.K., NARA T314 R225.

Kodeis OOB 19.07.41 (Frame 1348)

Kodeis OOB 10.08.41 (Frame 838)

Kodeis OOB 25.08.41 (Frame 643)

[Jeff Leach]

Bridging assets available for Dnjepr Crossing (NARA T314 R225 Fr1047 - 1040). There are lots of documents on the Dnjepr Crossing but I don't know which stage of the planning that these documents come from.

Fr1037

Fr1038

Fr1039

Fr1040

[Der Alte Fritz]

Fascinating - look at the concentration of units - they are obviously restoring one railway line complete with all its bridges. But mainly 3 Regts (around 7,000 men each) of EB Pioniere about half the total force in Russia plus 4 RAD and 2 OT units. Say 30-40,000 and the task is to build a functioning railway line across Eastern Poland and the Western Ukraine to Kiev (around 600km) since there is no high grade Soviet track across this region and what there was, is largely destroyed to an extent.
This is new research as it has always been thought before that each HG got 2 EB Pioniere Regts but this shows a definite concentration in the Ukraine whereas the Baltic and Belorussia had a more developed rail network. Well done.

As you trawl through these endless microfiches keep an eye out for the EB Pioniere - they are not well studied but vital to the war effort.

[Der Alte Fritz]

William
Heard back from Leo and he says that you have all the relevant files and that there is nothing else he can add. But can we send him what we do find!

[Jeff Leach]

Here is Kodeis 11 for Barbarossa.

T314 R359 Fr54 (part)

Reviewed T312 R355 (AOK 11): it contains a number of railroad maps for HG Süd for 1941. There is a bridge maps for the spring of 1942 and a summary for the efforts of BvTO AOK 11 for the first year of the war.

[Der Alte Fritz]

It is great to see these original documents.

KODEIS = Kommandetur des Eisenbahn Pioniere = Railway Engineer Command number usually denotes the Army in this case A.O.K.11 HG Sud

W = a water unit to supply water to steam locomotives
St = a steel working unit

[William Russ]

Hi Fritz,
Well of course we can send Leo any new material . He would greatly appreciate it!
Leo and I started a cooperative effort several years ago to get all of the rear service units for the entire German armies (and army groups) for June 1941 and June 1942 if we could find them. The only problem was I could not locate Panzergruppe 2's rear service OB and none for the army groups for Barbarossa. 1942 was even more problematic. If Jeff or anyone else can fill the gaps send him what you find. I see that I need to order some new rolls that may shed some light on the rear service and engineering assets. If I find anything significant I will certainly post it.

all the best, Bill