2 Panzer weapons strength june 1944

[WAKEN]

I'm trying to reconcile the actual weapons strength against the authorised strength and am struggling!

8cm mortar - 51 were on strength. I believe the units holdings were: 6 in each Pz Gren battalion and in the Pioneer battalion, 8 in the Recon battalion, 2 in each of the Pioneer companies in the Pz Gren regiments. That's a total of 42 accounted for. The motorised Pz Gren battalions should have had 4 12cm mortars each. Perhaps they had 4 81's instead? That would take the total to 50 and the 51st might be in the Replacement battalion. Any comments on this?

7.5cm towed leIG - 10 were on strength. I believe the units holdings were: 2 in the Recon battalion and 6 in a regimental IG company. That adds up to 8. What was the distribution of the 10 on strength?

15cm towed sIG - 6 were on strength. I believe that 2 were authorised in a regimental IG company. What was the distribution of the 6 on strength?

PaK 40 - 25 were on strength. I believe there were 3 in each Pz Gren battalion and 3 more in the Recon Battalion. Does that mean 9 were in the towed PzJg company in the PzJg Abt?

2cm flak - 48 were on strength. I believe the unit holdings were: 12 in each Pz Gren regiment and 18 in the flak battalion. What was the distribution of the 48 on strength?

2cm flak vierling - 7 were on strength. I assume that's 3 per panzer battalion. There should have been 10 in total. Where were the other 4 supposed to be?

Thanks very much,

Neil

[Martin Block]

Distribution of mortars, a/t and light Flak guns among subunits of 2. Pz.Div. as of 1.6.1944
8 cm mortars = 43 (8 dropped since 1.5.1944, reason unknown)
Div.Begl.Kp. = 2
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 2 = 14
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 304 = 14
Pz.Pi.Btl. 38 = 6
Pz.Felders.Btl. 82 = 7

7,5 cm le.I.G. (towed) = 6 (4 dropped since 1.5.1944, reason unknown)
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 304 = 3
Pz.Aufkl.Abt. 2 = 2
Pz.Felders.Btl. 82 = 1

15 cm s.I.G. (towed) = 6
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 2 = 3
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 304 = 3

7,5 cm Pak (towed) = 25
Div.Begl.Kp. = 3
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 2 = 9
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 304 = 9
Pz.Aufkl.Abt. 2 = 3
Pz.Felders.Btl. 82 = 1

2 cm Flak = 48
Div.Begl.Kp. = 2
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 2 = 6
Pz.Gren.Rgt. 304 = 6
Pz.Art.Rgt. 74 = 9
H.Flak-Art.Abt. 273 = 24
Pz.Felders.Btl. 82 = 1
In addition to that there were 12 2cm Flakpz. 38 with the Pz.Rgt. 3

2 cm Flak-Vierling = 10 (increased by 3 since 1.5.1944)
Pz.Rgt. 3 = 6
H.Flak-Art.Abt. 273 = 4

It is quite time consuming to pick out this data from a status report and it's just one month for one unit out of the 50+ units you are interested in. And just in order to enable you to do some weight of fire calculations? What's the difference when you add a few mortars and light Flak guns to the data on major weapons for instance provided by Zetterling in his Normandy book? How exactly does the result of such a calculation look like and what's the benefit of it?

Regards


Martin Block

[WAKEN]

Martin,

Thank you for taking the time to research and post that answer. That's very kind of you . Yes I do have Zetterling's book. He doesn't give details for MGs and mortars in battalions for 2nd Panzer Divsion as he does for some other divisions. My weight of fire study is being done for a Normandy game that is being designed by GMT at the moment. I'm also doing the research because it's something I find very interesting. You are correct in assuming that the odd mortar or leIG won't affect firepower too much. After you were kind enough to post the weapons holdings for 1/5/44 on AH I've researched all the 1/11/43 panzer division KSTNs I could find and that left me scratching my head as the totals didn't add up with the reality, hence my post.

Regards,

Neil

[Kelvin]

Neil

That's quite a list. Even where they do survive, you'll find that not all units sent in lists of small arms numbers every month and there's also variation in the detail they reported. Within my own area of research (20 Gebirgs Armee), most of these reports remain for june to dec '44 and they cover 3 microfilm rolls. To give you an idea of what you may find i've attached 2 examples from Jul'44 (ie. reporting for the month of June) from the 6 Geb.Div. and 6 SS-Geb.Div.
The other elements of the returns include a divisional gliederung, a strength return on personnel, vehicles and horses along with a short note on combat worth and state of training, sometime also notes on major deficiencies.

Another avenue of approach for you might be to look at the O.Qu. records. Sometimes you'll find ammunition lists which also included numbers of each weapon within the army. I've come across several such lists withing the 20 Geb.Armee and they're very useful.

Hello, Simon, your data is interesting and I rarely see data on 20.Gebirgs Armee. May I ask do you have weapon lists of 2. and 7.Gebirgs Divisions ? thank