German Organizational Tables and Diagrams

The goal of this article is to help understand the German Army's system of documenting the organization and equipment of their unit types.

To illustrate the document types, a leichte Panzer-Aufklärungskompanie (gepanzert) (freie Gliederung) (light, armored, armor reconnaissance company without non-combat sections) is used as an example throughout. Note that the examples are from different dates (1 July 1944, 1 November 1944, and 1 April 1944 respectively) so there are some differences in the numbers.

Only parts of the documents are shown, as they are only intended as illustrations of the structure of the documents. Note that armored armor is not a writing error, but rather refers to it being a reconnaissance unit that is allocated to an armored parent unit (such as a tank division), and that the reconnaissance unit itself is equipped with armored vehicles.

Document Format

Because modern computers did not exist at the time, documentation within the German armed forces during the Second World War were largely based on the A4 paper standard size (210 by 297 millimeters, slightly shorter than the US Legal paper size). Larger paper sizes did exist, but other than for printed maps, they were impractical for field use. Most documents were written on standard typewriters, which were unable to fit paper sizes larger than the A4 size. As a result, document folders, binders and boxes were also designed around that format.

Documentation of organization and equipment followed the same format, to allow them to be typed up on a typewriter and to be stored easily. Due to this format limitation, the information in the tables had to be condensed. This meant using both abbreviations and notation standards that are not always explained on each document. The documents can therefore be difficult to understand without knowing a lot of information in advance, and even then, can be tricky to fully decipher.

While pre-printed templates were sometimes used, especially early in the war, the contents of the documents was almost always filled out on a typewriter. This naturally created variations due to spelling errors and different ways of writing by different typists.

Document Types and Use

German unit types were documented using three types of documents:

Gliederung (structure)

A very overall drawing of the unit structure and its combat capability.

Stärkenachweisung (strength allocation)

Detailed list of the personnel of the unit, as well as all weapons and vehicles.

Ausrüstungsnachweisung (equipment allocation)

Full list of all the weapons, equipment, and ammunition of the unit.

During wartime, the documents had Krieg (war) added to their names, i.e., Kriegsgliederung, Kriegsstärkenachweisung (K St N), and Kriegsausrüstungsnachweisung (KAN). In peacetime, the Stärkenachweisung instead had the word Frieden (peace) in front, i.e., Friedenstärkenachweisung.

Unit modularity

The standard unit types were usually at company or platoon level. These standard units could then be used to design larger units, such as a battalion, a regiment, or a division. This allowed the same standard unit, such as a reconnaissance or maintenance company, to be used in multiple battalions and divisions.

Naming standard

Each Kriegsstärkenachweisung and Kriegsausrüstungsnachweisung had a three- or four-digit number, a date, and a name. These numbers, dates, and names were identical, to easily associate them with each other.

Number

The numbers were roughly grouped according to branch. For example, most armored units had numbers in the range 1100 to 1200.

In addition to the number, different variants of a unit type often existed at the same time. These variants would typically be units with slightly different personnel size or different major core equipment. This could for example be whether a reconnaissance company had wheeled, half-tracked or tracked reconnaissance vehicles. These variations received different lower-case letters after their numbers, starting with a.

While a majority of the standard units could function independently, some were designed to be even smaller building blocks. These units were referred to as Teileinheit (T.E.) (component units), which was added to the front of their number.

As the war progressed and Germany was facing manpower shortages, many units had their organization adjusted to increase the overall fighting strength of the German Army. These units were given the header Kriegsetat 44. In addition, many company-sized units had their non-combat support sections, such as the maintenance section, combat train, and baggage train, removed. This allowed non-combat personnel to be transferred to combat units. These units were referred to as having freie Gliederung (f.G.) (free structure), which was appended to their number.

Date

In addition to the number, a date was always mentioned with the number. This allowed the same number to be used as new equipment became available, while still making it clear which version was being referred to. The date was not necessarily the exact date at which the unit organization table was officially published, and many related unit organization tables typically had the same date.

Example of Unit Design

This example shows how the reconnaissance battalion of a 1944 tank division is designed using a number of standard sub-units:

Kriegsgliederung

This representation used tactical symbols, usually at the company level. The representation showed the main equipment, such as vehicles, guns, and machine guns. This equipment was defined very broadly, showing only its tactical capability, such as chassis and gun type for tanks, caliber and gun length for anti-tank guns, weight capacity of transport units, etc.

In this example, the information that can be identified from the drawing is:

• It is a company-sized unit (the wider left-side edge of the large rectangle)
• It is a reconnaissance unit (the half-circle at the top)
• The unit is half-tracked (the circle and rounded rectangle at the bottom)
• The unit has two medium mortars (the number 2 below the angled shape with the lower-case m)
• The unit has two 75 mm howitzers (the number 2 below the the arrow with the 7,5)
• The unit has 44 light machine guns (the number 44 below the line with the dots)

To a field commander, this would sufficient information to determine the missions for which the unit could be used, without having to go through detailed unit descriptions.

Kriegsstärkenachweisung (K St N)

These were the most commonly used documents to identify the composition of manpower and equipment of a unit.

The equipment listed only specified as much as was needed to identify their use. It did not differentiate between, for example, an MG 34 or an MG 42.

For cars and trucks, the document would usually specify the weight class (light, medium, or heavy), whether it could drive cross-country, and, for trucks, the cargo capacity in tons.

Prime movers and armored vehicles were referred to specifically by type and variant, but not by Ausführung (model).

The columns depended on the unit type. For example, units with horses had columns identifying the number and types of horses and their wagons. The columns also changed during the war. The columns in the example below can be divided into these groups:

1: Line number

Used together with the page letter to identify a specific item.

2: Stellengruppe (rank group)

A single letter identifying the rank level of the person. Note that the levels below do not mean that the person had command of a unit, but only refer to the rank level. For example, a regimental staff officer could have rank level K, and a field medic could have rank level G.

• A: Army and army group level officers
• F: Army corps level officers
• D: Division command level officers
• J: Brigade command level officers
• R: Regiment command level officers
• B: Batallion command level officers
• K: Company command level officers
• Z: Platoon command level officers
• O: Higher non-commissioned officers
• G: Lower non-commissioned officers
• M: Enlisted

3: Main column

This was a text description of the line, such as the role of the soldier or the type of equipment.

4 to 7: Person count

The number of officers, Beamte (civil servants or administrators), non-commissioned officers, and enlisted.

8 to 11: Weapons

All weapons of the unit, including both personal weapons and weapons towed and mounted on vehicles.

12 to 17: Weapons

All vehicles of the unit.

In several columns, rounded and square brackets are used to differentiate between subtypes within that category. Note that there was no J column, and I and J were used synonymously in German at the time.

K St N example

This snippet shows 8 lines from a two-page document with a total of 65 lines.

Kriegsausrüstungsnachweisung (KAN)

These documents listed all the equipment managed by a unit. They not only included combat equipment such and weapons and combat vehicles, but also other equipment such as compasses, wrist watches for the artillery observers, first aid kits, and field rations.

Personal equipment, such as uniforms, helmets, gas mask canisters, etc., were not included in the list, as these would be carried with the soldier when they were re-assigned.

While these documents always accompanied the Kriegsstärkenachweisung, far fewer have survived today.

KAN example

These two snippets are from a ten-page document with 131 different types of equipment and ammunition.

Changes After Publication

Minor changes were frequently made after the initial publication. These changes were distributed through the German Army news bulletin, specifying the exact page and item to be updated, leaving it up to the individual units to update their records, for example:

Sources

1. Gültigkeitsliste der Kriegsstärke- und Ausrüstungsnachweisungen - Kartei - Stand: 15.7.44. Organisationsabteilung. 139 p. NARA T78 R391 H 1/1.
2. Allgemeine Heeresmitteilungen : Elfter Jahrgang 1944. Berlin : Oberkommando des Heeres, 1944. BArch RH 1/167.
3. leichte Panzer-Aufklärungskompanie ( gepanzert ) ( freie Gliederung ). Berlin : Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, 1944. 10 p. KAN Nr. 1113 (gp)(f.G.) v. 1.4.44. DHI 500-12451-0144.
4. leichte Panzer-Aufklärungskompanie (gepanzert) (freie Gliederung) (Panz.Aufkl.Kp.(gp.)(fG)). Berlin : AHA, 1944. 2 p. K St N 1113 (gp)(fG), 1.11.1944. NARA T78 R393.
5. Stärkeberechnung der Panz.Div.44. Berlin : Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, 1944. 15 p. Gen. Insp. d. Pz. Tr. Abt. Org. Nr. I/2500/44 g.Kdos.. NARA T78 R410.