'Schematische Kriegsgliederung' for 1940?

[genstab]

It's true that there are schematische Kriegsgliederungen in the KTB-OKW but there are only 22 of them. The Geheimen Tagesberichte already mentioned is the far better source, containing 150. Die Geheimen Tagesberichte is in 12 volumes (volume one, in two parts, contains all the earlier Kriegsgliederungen up to 22-12-42.) Die Geheimen Tagesberichte is material amassed for the KTB-OKW but not included. There are some rather good maps of theater or army group situations on certain dates also.

The Gliederungen for January to May 1943 for some reason aren't in the set, but can be obtained from the Bundesarchiv-Militaer Archiv in Freiburg.

When getting my manuscript together I didn't have all the money in the world (and still don't!) so I found out what volumes had Die Geheimen Tagesberichte and asked a university library that the set to copy them for me, at maybe ten cents a page. You in the US can find out from the OCLC what libraries have it. Volumes 7 through 9 contain the Kriegsgliederungen from June 1 to December 28, 1943. There were none issued for January thru Match 1944. Volume 10 has those from April 15 to August 15, 1944 and volume 11 August 31 to December 31, 1944 and volume 12 has the 1945 ones, two per month through late April.

And then I got a fantastic deal online and bought the whole set for I think $1200 (roughly half going price in 2005) from a German antiquarian bookstore as one volume was bound upside down!

The Gliederungen from the KTB-OKW contain a fair number of errors (mainly division numbers) but usually the Die Geheimen Tagesberichte had them for the same dates and I could correct the errors. The Geheimen Tagesberichte contained the occasional error in division number or location (junior Generalstab officers weren't perfect) but I figured out what they should be as the same division was usually found somewhere else and using Tessin's division locations by month figured out which belonged where. (I don't have Tessin but borrowed volumes 1 to 14 and printed all the dvivision, corps, army and army group histories and threw them into large binders.

If anyone working with these schematische kriegsgliedrungen sees an error or omission I will be glad to look at my compiled errata list and let you know what it should be (almost always confirmed by the questioned division where I thought it was in the next O/B or from Tessin).

There's something neat about working with papers that only Hitler or the Army High Command saw, most stamped secret- by officer only.

Best,
Bill in Cleveland

[Germanicus]

Outstanding Bill

I really enjoyed reading what you wrote

Thank you

Germanicus

[jpz4]

Thanks Bill, very interesting.

For those interested, I just received my digitized copies from T78 R710.
Haven't checked which other rolls with Schematische Kriegsgliederungen are already digitized, but those include at least T78 R649 and T78 R708.

[stone2]

Hello, jpz4.

For those interested, I just received my digitized copies from T78 R710.

I'm interested in Schematische Kriegsgliederungen for these dates:

June 8, 9, 13, 16, 20-22, 25 1940
July 21, 26, and 31 1940
Aug. 1, 7, and 19 1940
Sept. 13, 17, and 28 1940
Oct. 7 and 27 1940
Nov. 7 and 15 1940
Dec. 12 and 21, 1940

I have Mehner's volumes, but I'd like to see digitized copies of the originals. Unfortunately, so far they have eluded me at both National Archives and Bundesarchiv. (The latter has a folder containing a note saying order of battle documents for those dates were taken by the Americans in 1961.)

Did you happen to run across OBs those dates in T78 R710? (Or anywhere else?)

Thanks for any information you (or anyone else) can provide for finding digitized copies for those dates.