Sturmgrenadiers

[eniced73]

My curiosity jumped after playing a QB in the Risk tourney with General Specific. He took a force pick of all Crack Panzer Grenadier (Panzer Brigade) Sturmgrenadiers. All soldiers were equipped with the Stg 44. I pretty much got ran over like I was standing still. Almost impossible to defend against if the terrain does not favor you. Reminded me of playing against the Ostfront in our ongoing tourney (Soviet SMG squads wrecking havoc on most of us).

Anyhow, I am not here to talk about my whooping but had a question on the real life history of these units. I did a quick search on google and could not come up with any real good information. Did these units really exist like this? And are there any real life history accounts of them in action?

 

[Mehlsack]

As you may know there was a TO&E within the Wehrmacht that was called "Kriegsstärkennachweisungen (KStN)".

e.g.: Panzergrenadierkompanie (fG), K.St.N.1114a (fG) (1.11.1944)

The Germans made some significant changes of their TO&E starting in fall of 1944 what introduced assault units which where equipped fully with SMGs or assault rifles. However those changes were not worth the paper it was written on since the Reich was falling to pieces. Having said this, there must have been some newly formed units that were well equipped as this picture proves:



However I don't know any substantial report about their combat experience. (I guess the fighters back then did not have the leisure to write a lot, maybe they even lacked paper and typewriter...)
I remember some accounts of veterans who complaint about the long magazine of the StG44 what made it difficult to shoot on the plain ground. Needless to say that there was also shortage of ammo. (IIEC a private had only one magazine at his own disposal and had to wait for order to use the second an third one.) But in the end it was a great substitution of the old K98/MP40 with a noticeable impact on the enemies morale too.

I would appreciate any combat reports too!

 

[Sempai]

So far as I know there were 3 different meanings for the prefix "Sturm". 1.) It showed the so named unit/troops were specially trained to fight strongholds and fortresses or similar. 2.) The units/troops were merged of other units/troops to tackle some not so common battle tasks - f.e. breakthrough through a heavy fortified position. Therefor the troops were armed differently from the general equipment to raise their firepower and give better cover and support fire etc. "Stoßtrupp(en)" was another term what was used to call that troops - but more in WW1.

Citation:
"Stormtroopers (in German Stoßtruppen, "shock troops") were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches. Men trained in these methods were known in Germany as Sturmmann (literally "assault man" but usually translated as Stormtrooper), formed into companies of Sturmtruppen ("assault troops", more often and less exactly Storm Troops). The infiltration tactics of the stormtroopers are still in use today, in one form or another. Other armies have also used the term "assault troops", "shock troops" or fireteams for specialist soldiers who perform the infiltration tasks of stormtroopers."

3.) It was a honorific title for good/successful actions during battle.

Greetings

 

[Ithikial]

Yeah it's a nasty unit that was introduced in the MG module. Honestly have a look through the German TOE for September '44 and there are some nasty surprises which could make Quick Battles rather unpleasant I'd imagine. Also probably good practice for Bulge given the amount of crazy late war German formations / oddities we're likely to see.

Thankfully the StG44 was hampered by the the struggling late war German industrial base. Imagine those things appearing in '41.

 

[Badger73]

Some Sturmgrenadieren information from a post by Ts4EVER at Battlefront CMBN forum today.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119223-modules-with-ss/

"The Germans raised a new type of organization in the summer of 1944: The Panzer Brigade. This was essentially an attempt to recreate the kind of ad hoc "kampfgruppen" that had proven so apt at destroying Russian tank spearheads in the fighting in late 1943 and early 1944. One example would be "Kampfgruppe Bäke", equipped with a mix of heavy tanks and motley support troops, which had broken out of an encirclement (either the Cherkassy Pocket or the Korsun Pocket, I forget). These Panzer Brigades were smaller than a normal Panzer Division and had no high level support units like artillery or reconnaissance. Just bare bones tanks and infantry in half-tracks.

These were very well equipped, especially the first ones raised. They had Panther tanks and Panzer IV/70 tank destroyers as their main armored component. Their infantry used a somewhat unique organization: Usually armored Panzergrenadiers carred mostly K98k rifles, the MP40s and automatic rifles of the squad leader and his assistant and two MG42s for firepower. The Panzerbrigades were to have Sturmgrenadiers. These squads were equipped completely with Stg44 assault rifles (one of the few units where this was, to my knowledge, actually the case). They had no infantry crewed MGs for fire support: Instead they relied on half-tracks with 2cm or 1.5cm triple guns for this kind of work + of course aa defense. These support elements were on company level, making these units very compact and easy to manage.

In the event they were not used as intended though, but hastily thrown into the western front, first in the counter attack at Lorraine. They found out the hard way that the Americans were better organized than the Russians and the tactics of the Eastern Front instead lead to high losses. Hasty training and bad planning also contributed. Quite an embarrassing performance all things considered.

Some of the Brigades were later used in Holland, which is why you can find them in the Market Garden module."

 

[Rico]

The Panzer Brigade units were also badly or only partially trained when thrown into the Lorraine battles ... especially the Panther crews, as much as I have read.

Btw: Korsun and Cherkassy pocket is same thing ... Korsun is Russian name for battle, while Cherkassy is German.