In 1939/1941 when German panzer units played the leading part in the blitzkrieg, motorcycle infantry units were always in the vanguard of the units. In 1940, all of the German motorcycle infantry battalions were under the command of the motorized infantry brigade of tank divisions, and there were three types of battalion organisation as in the following: Type A: Consisted of battalion HQ and five companies. The 1st--4th Companies were organised as shown in the figure below. The 5th Company had one engineer platoon and was heavily equipped with two 75 mm infantry guns and three 37 mm anti-tank guns, which characterised the company. This organisation was employed by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tank Divisions in 1940. Type B: For the 6th Tank Division only. Consisted of four companies. Light machine guns were increased in number from nine to eighteen to replace 75 mm infantry guns. The number of vehicles used by each company was the same as that of Type A. Type C: Special organisation for the 7th Tank Division only. Consisted of three companies. Equipped with eighteen light machine guns in addition to two 75 mm infantry guns which were not used by Type B. Strange to say, other tank divisions did not have any independent motorcycle infantry battalions. They only had one motorcycle infantry platoon in each motorised infantry regiment. The 9th Tank Division, however, adopted reconnaissance regiment organisation which had been used by divisions and had one motorcycle infantry battalion of Type B in the reconnaissance regiment. The Kfz 69 or 70 of the company HQ had 2 heavy machine guns. The Kfz69 or 70 of the 1st - 3rd platoons carried one 81mm mortar. Three sidecars of each of the 1st - 3rd platoons were equipped with a light machine gun. A company therefore possessed 2 hmg's, 3 81 mm mortars, and 9 lmg's, in addition to 16 rifles/smg's. Back to Frontline Vol. 1 Iss. 2 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com