The Complete WWII German
Infantry Regiment

Introduction

by Tom Harris

Tom Harris is a rather talented member of the local CD Mafia who is often called on to provide troops and vehicles for Frank Chadwick's games. In so far as Tom is often notified at the last minute that a unit is needed. he has had experience at converting units from one TO&E to another. In the process, he has worked out some guidelines which should be of interest to the CD gamer.--GN

More and more as time goes on I have found that I need to build in some flexibility in those units that I build for COMMAND DECISION. What started life as my 1944 German Infantry Regiment served last year in games that were set from 1940 to 1945, and in fact at least half of the time it drove into action as a motorized infantry regiment instead of marching forward on foot. It seemed that I was always painting another stand to cover this weeks TO&E, and yet next week I found myself needing yet another stand. This process started me thinking on what stands and equipment were needed to build a truly flexible German Infantry Battalion.

Collecting data on all of the infantry battalion OB's published to date, as well as those written by Frank Chadwick to cover specific units. I decided that I needed to expand my studies to Include other units as well when their assets were often used with or in place of the Infantry battalions. Accordingly I added the divisional recon battalion, the engineer battalion, and most important of all. the Infantry Regiments "regimental troops" to my pool of data. Once everything was laid out, some interesting bits of data emerged.

For example, throughout the war, no German Infantry Battalion ever needs more than two double stand gun crews. The weapons may change as the war continues, but only two such stands need to be painted. Weapons follow the same principles as well. for while at times some infantry battalions have 37mm AT Guns attached, and there is a Regimental Antitank Gun Company equipped with the 37mm AT Gun, they don't exist at the same time. Thus putting together 3 sets of gun crews and guns allows either element to be used on the game table, without going to an additional cost.

I am presenting my assembled data in five sections: The Complete Infantry Battalion, The Complete Infantry Regiment Assets, the Complete Engineer Battalion, the Complete Recon Battalion, and a special section on "PIGGYBACKING" Stands between the Infantry Regiment and Battalion. In the first four sections I will present the total number of stands needed to cover all TO&Els for the purist (or those who wish to gain status points by conspicuous consumption.) All of my OB data uses the separate command stand option, which actually simplifies this exercise. For the fifth section, "PIGGYBACKING", being rather misery myself I have included a section on substitution for the more economically minded.

Given the length and extent of World War II. I know that there are some units that don't fit into my system, but those commands can be dealt with on a case by case basis. Specifically, the German Parachute Divisions are excluded, as well as elite units such as GrossDeutchland which followed their own TOE's throughout the war.

Aside from the standard German vehicle designations, the following abbreviations are used in this article:

    AA = Antiaircraft
    AT = AntiTank
    DS = Double Stand
    IG = Infantry Gun
    S/R = Staff Radio
    SMG = Submachine Gun
    F/T = Flamethrower
    MMG = Medium Machine Gun
    TB ATR = Taper-Bore Antitank Rifle

The Complete WWII German Infantry Regiment

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