ARMIES OF WWII - GERMAN continued..

The Armies, German Mountain Division

Nazi Germany formed its first Gebirgsjarer Division, or Mountain Division, in 1938 from the Bavarian Gebrigs Brigade. In the same year it gained two more Mountain Division when it invaded Austria and absorbed its army. Late in 1941, the Germans formed another batch of four Mountain Divisions.
A Gebirgs Division was essentially a standard Infantry Division, with only two Infantry Regiments instead of three. Each of the seven Mountain Divisions had a slightly different organization, but they were the same in many respects. Each battalion had three Rifle Companies, a Heavy Company and a number of Support Platoons in the Battalion Headquarters Company.

The Mountain Infantry Battalion consisted of five companies: three Rifle Companies, a Machine Gun Company, and a Heavy Weapons Company, which gave it about 150 men more than the regular Infantry Battalion. It was armed with the same number of heavy machine guns, antitank rifles, and mortars as the standard Infantry Battalion, but it had five more light machine guns and its firepower was augmented by four 28/20mm antitank guns, four 120mm mortars, and two 75mm mountain infantry howitzers.

Typical organization of a mountain division was as follows:

• Headquarters (195 troops)
• Two Gebirgsjager Regiments (each with 3,064 troops; each with three battalions)
• Gebrigs Artillery Regiment (2,230 troops, in two battalions)
• Gebrigs Reconnaissance Battalion (650 troops)
• Gebrigs Panzerabwehr Battalion (500 troops)
• Gebrigs Poineer Battalion (900 troops)
• Gebrigs Signals Battalion (453 troops)
• Divisional services (2,000 troops)
Total Strength: 13,056

Divisional Firepower

• Light machine guns: 485
• Heavy machine guns: 84
• 20mm self-propelled antiaircraft guns: 12
Antitank weapons
• Hand-held antitank weapons: 72
• 37mm antitank guns:3
• 75mm antitank guns: 24

Mortars

• 81mm: 48
• 120mm: 24

Artillery

• 75mm mountain infantry howitzers: 14
• 75mm mountain howitzers (below): 24
• 105mm mountain howitzers: 12
• 150mm mountain howitzer: 4
• 150mm howitzer: 12
• Flamethrowers: 20

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