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fallschirmjager · 12 years

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German Order of Battle for Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (part 1)

OKW RESERVE

Nine units appear in the Order of Battle of Heeresgruppe B as being in OKW reserve, of which five were being commited to 'Wacht am Rhein' by Heeresgruppe B and the other four by Heeresgruppe G, mainly for Operation "Nordwind". By comparison Heeresgruppe B reserve consisted of one division-an indication of the degree of initiative left to von Rundstedt and his senior commanders. The five were:

Führer-Begleit-Brigade

As the Führer-Begleit-Battalion, the brigade originated in 1939 as a motorized escort unit for for the Führer and from 1941 was stationed near the Führerhauptquartier at Rastenburg. Elements were sent to the Eastern Front to gain battle experience but Russian pressure soon cause the bulk of the battalion to be sent into action, leaving only a small detachment on guard duties at the Wolfsschanze. In May 1944 it was expanded into a regiment and in November into the Führer-Begleit-Battalion. It soon moved west under the command of Oberst Otto Remer and detrained in the Daun area of the Eifel between December 10 and 13. Now organized as a fighting unit it contained: a panzer regiment, an anti-aircraft regiment, and two motorized battalions of grenadiers plus a bicycle battalion, Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 928. Its panzer regiment was still embrionic: II. Abteilung of Panzer Regiment of 'Gross Deutschland' having been transferred to the brigade as its 1st Battalion, whilst Sturmgeschütz Brigade 200 acted as a substitute for its 2nd. According to the situation maps, on December 17 Panzer-Regiment 'Führer-Begleit-Battalion' then comprised: 1. Abteilung with twenty-three Panzer IVs and twenty sturmgeschütz: and (in place of II. Abteilung) 1. Abteilung with twenty-eight Sturmgeschütz.

Führer-Grenadier-Brigade

This unit originated in April 1943 as Führer-Grenadier-Battalion and fought as such on the Eastern Front. Raised to brigade strength in April 1944 it was reorganized as as Fallingbostel in September as by mid-October was committed to 4.Armee against a Soviet breakthrough near Gumbinnen in East Prussia. At the end of November it withdrew to Cottbus for rest and refit. When the brigade moved moved west between December 11 and 17 its composition was: a panzer regiment, an anti-aircraft battalion, an artillery battalion, a panzergrenadier regiment of two motorized battalions and one bicycle battalion, Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 929. The brigade commander was Oberst Hans-Jochim Kahler. On December 17, according to the situation maps, Panzer-Regiment "Füh.Grenadier-Brig." comprised: 1. Abteilung with eleven Panzer IVs and thirty-seven Panthers (a handful of them Jagdpanthers); standing in for II. Abteilung was Stu.Art.Brig.911 with thirty-four Sturmgeschütz. 9. Volks-Grenadier-Division

The Original 9. Infanterie-Division had been formed in 1935 as one of the early Wehrmacht divisions and had fought in the West in 1940 and on the Eastern Front from 1941. Destroyed in Romania in August 1944, it had been written off on October 9. he 9.Volks-Grenadier-Division which came into being on the west coast of Denmark on October 13 thus bore no resemblance to the former experienced infantry division of old but resulted merely from from a change of number, having been formed as 584. Volks-Grenadier-Division at Esbjerg, where it had been assembling since September; its Stu.Gesch.Kp.1009 equipped with the Jadgpanzer 38(t) at Milowitz in Czechoslovakia. The division moved out on December 14 and scheduled to detrain at Gerolstein, to be in readiness west of the town on December 19.

167. Volks-Grenadier-Division

The 167. Volks-Grenadier-Division was another of those veteran divisions which disintegrated itself on the Eastern Front and which disappeared in August of 1944 with 8. Armee in Romania. What remained of it, Divisiongruppe 197, was refitted Dollersheim with the remnants of 17. Luftwaffe-Feld-Division, shattered in France, to become the 167. Volks-Grenadier-Division on September 2, its Stu.Gesch.Kp. 1167 issued with the Jagdpanzer 38(t)at Milowitz. The division was due to arrive in the Gerolstein area December 24. 3. Panzergrenadier Division

As 3. Infanterie-Division it fought in Poland and the West, becoming a motorized infantry division in October 1940. From the summer of 1941 it fought in the East until it was destroyed at Stalingrad. Reformed in south-west France 386. Infanterie-Division (mot.), it became 3. Panzergrenadier-Division in June 1943. It fought in Italy until late August 1944 when ordered to France to counter tyhe Allied threat in Lorraine and then moved up to the Aachen sector, being pulled out at the beginning of December. On December 10 the division's Panzer Abteilung 103 could field forty-one StuGs and its Panzerjäger-Abteilung 3 twenty-five Jagdpanzer IV/70s, although operational on the charts for the offensive the number of StuGs was put at twenty.

The other formations in the OKW reserve were 257. Volks-Grenadier-Division, 6. SS Gebirgs-Division, 11. Panzer-Division and 110. SS-Panzer-Division, none of which was commited as such, although elements(for instance part of SS-Panzer-Regiment 10) saw action with other units. The introduction of 11. Panzer-Division into the battle delayed by problems over its transfer to Heeresgruppe G in the south; a disagreement between von Rundstedt and the Heeresgruppe G commander, General Hermann Balck, about moving an entire Panzer division across a disjointed railway system, and such by December 18 the disruption was such that the move had to be called off. All von Rundstadt's repeated requests for the deployment of these reserves were fruitless, except for both 9.VGD and 167. VGD which were ordered forward on December 23 albeit not released from OKW control. Three days later, when Model made another of his persistent demands to be allowed to make use of the OKW reserve-the armor specifically-he was given control of these two divisions. By this date the three divisions remaining in reserve were already earmarked for Operation 'Nordwind'.

#German Order of Battle for Wacht am Rhein #Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Reserve #Heeresgruppe B #Führer-Begleit-Brigade #Führer-Grenadier-Brigade #9. Volks-Grenadier-Division #167. Volks-Grenadier-Division #3. Panzergrenadier Division #Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 928.#Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 929 #Stu.Art.Brig.911 #1. Abteilung #Stu.Gesch.Kp.1009 #its Stu.Gesch.Kp. 1167 #Abteilung 103 #Panzerjäger-Abteilung 3 #WWII ETO #Hitler's Last Gamble in the West

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