Building the Beast: The World War II Training and Replacement Systems of the German Army

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Building the Beast: The World War II Training and Replacement Systems of the German Army

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The following is an article taken from Hitler's Army (1996). It provides a summary/overview of the system created in the aftermath of World War 1, that allowed Hitler's Germany to continually create divisions and regiments until the very end of the war (albeit , units of decreasing quality).

It is important to understand the ability to rebuild units quickly, that are not simply raw recruits.


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Building the Beast

The World War II Training and Replacement Systems of the German Army

by Dirk Blennemann



Prior to the start of World War II the organization and administration of the German army were based on the division of the country into 15 command areas, or Wehrkreis. Each contained the headquarters and component divisions of a corps. At the same time, the command areas provided the territorial basis for conscription, administration of army property, local defense, and virtually all other military matters. The commander of each command area was also the commander of its corps, which he would lead into the field on the outbreak of war.

The command areas and their corps were numbered with Roman numerals from I to XIII, plus XVII and XVIII when Austria was annexed. Thus I Corps was located in command area I, and so on. The missing numerals, XIV, XV and XVI, were used for three non-territorial corps set up to control the motorized infantry, light, and armored divisions, respectively. In 1938 another non-territorial corps (XIX) was created to control Austrian light and armored divisions. After the Polish campaign in 1939, two new command areas (XX and XXI) were put in place in the newly annexed areas there.


Field Army & Replacement Army

In August 1939 the German army was split into two parts that were each to perform different functions for the remainder of the war. The field army conducted active military operations. Accordingly its corps were immediately organized into armies, an administrative unit that had not existed during peacetime. Those armies, in turn, were placed under the control of army groups, which were directly responsible to the army high command for the conduct of operations.

The replacement army was devoted to training, procurement and administration in the zone of the interior (basically the national territory of Germany). It was put under the deputy commander-in-chief, and was responsible for maintaining the field army at authorized strength by the dispatch of replacements, the formation of new units, and the supply of material, as well as continuing to perform normal military administrative functions at home.


Mobilization

The German mobilization for the Second World War was a gradual process lasting several months. The armed forces high command was determined to avoid the mistakes of 1914, when millions of men were drawn into the army almost overnight, where they hurriedly formed mostly second-rate reserve and national guard (Landwehr) divisions. So many men pulled so quickly from the economic life of the country also brought on great disruption in that sphere of life. For World War II, the reservists were called up individually, and upon induction were mixed into regular divisions already containing experienced personnel. Thus most of the units formed during 1939 quickly became as efficient and well organized as the original ones.


Replacement & Training System

The German replacement and training system was based on two factors: 1) the soldiers in each division should be drawn from the same command area; and 2) there should be direct affiliation between the units of the field army and those of the replacement army.

At the outbreak of the war, each German division had one field replacement battalion with three companies of riflemen. Those units were pools of trained soldiers standing by to replace casualties. After the Polish campaign most field replacement battalions were used to form new divisions, and by the time of the invasion of the west in May 1940 there were only a few such units still holding men. But by the time of the invasion of the USSR in 1941, all divisions had reformed their field replacement battalions. Over the course of the war many of these battalions were used in critical situations as combat units, and so were lost, but through V-E Day all German divisions maintained them as part of their structures.

The field replacement battalions' ranks were filled by drawing from the divisional replacement unit (see below), and from stragglers, veterans of dissolved formations, and soldiers returned from field hospitals. The field replacement battalions of new divisions would first be termed field recruit battalions, and were completely filled out with new men. Such units would have their titles changed after three months of training.

In addition to the divisional replacement battalion, which accompanied the division into the field, every German unit in 1939 left behind in its home command area a battalion cadre designated as its replacement unit. An infantry regiment, for example, left behind an infantry replacement battalion, bearing the same number, which inducted and trained recruits, dispatched them to its field regiment as needed, and received personnel back from the field when they were to be discharged, and back from the hospital after recuperating.

Field units were authorized to request replacements when there was a manpower deficiency of more than 10 percent in its authorized strength. Replacements for specialist troops, such as communications personnel or technicians, were to be requested as soon as their absence began to hamper the efficiency of the unit.

After the Polish campaign nearly two thirds of the replacement battalions were used to form new divisions, and a basic change occurred in the affiliation system for the infantry regiments. Single replacement battalions became the replacement unit for all the infantry regiments of one infantry division or two static or security divisions. The other components of a combat division – the artillery regiment, the reconnaissance, anti-tank, engineer, and signals Battalions – were similarly affiliated with replacement battalions of their types back in the command area. This modified system was used until the end of the war.

It was also common practice in the command areas to collect groups of trained replacements of various combat arms and organize them into transfer battalions, for the purpose of overseeing their move to the combat zone. Transfer battalions would usually be attached to the rear echelons of a fighting division on the front, and from there the personnel were sent forward into the various divisional components as needed. Normally all cadre personnel left the transfer battalions as soon as they reached their destination division, moving back to the replacement battalion headquarters in the home command area. But in emergency situations so-called combat-transfer battalions were formed and put into the line as fighting units.

To make control of the system more efficient, up to six replacement battalions might be organized into replacement regiments. At the beginning of the campaign in the west in May 1940 the available replacement regiments were even organized to form six replacement divisions designated A through F. Those divisions were made part of the field army and stood ready to replace the expected heavy casualties. The following August all the field replacement divisions were dissolved, but the same procedure was again repeated in the east during 1941 and 1942. In May 1941, replacement battalions were used to form an occupation division in the Balkans, but that summer the unit was converted into a regular light infantry division and given to the field army.

The growing shortage of manpower and the need to garrison conquered territories necessitated the split, in August 1942, of all replacement battalions into two elements. One element of each was assigned to continue handling induction and replacement, and retained the replacement battalion designation. The other element was designated a training battalion. They were to receive new soldiers from the replacement battalions, give them the necessary training, then send them back to the replacement battalion. About 80 percent of the original strength of the old, unified replacement battalions was moved into the new training battalions. While the diminished replacement battalions remained in their home command areas, the new training battalions were sent to occupied territories.

The purpose of this change was to use the training soldiers as occupation forces – thus freeing more field army units for the active fronts – while not seriously disrupting those recruits' induction and training. During 1944, as occupied areas were lost, most replacement and training battalions were again brought together in their home command areas and given the combined designation of replacement and training battalion.

While used as occupation units, the training battalions were put under the control of training regiments and training divisions, but still remained as part of the replacement army. In the east, some of these units were also assigned line of communications and anti-partisan duties, and a few were even redesignated ''security divisions.''

Also starting in 1942, the training battalions located outside Greater Germany were organized into a new type of unit designated as reserve divisions (but again remaining part of the replacement army). Unlike the training divisions, these reserve divisions were organized as regular field army infantry or armored divisions and were controlled by reserve corps. They proved excellent units for occupation and defensive missions, as well as for conducting training exercises. Due to the high losses suffered in the east, in 1943 some of the reserve divisions were redesignated as regular divisions of the field army. In February 1944, five reserve divisions were redesignated as static divisions and sent to man the Channel coast in anticipation of the Allied invasion.


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Divisions destroyed at the front still left a core of affiliated survivors in the replacement army – mainly staff and rear echelon personnel and specialists – bringing about the establishment of yet another new kind of division during 1944 and 1945. So called "shadow divisions," were built up from such surviving training and replacement units, along with whatever survivors of the destroyed parent division might be returned from hospitals. After a few weeks of retraining, the shadow divisions took the number of their destroyed parent and were sent to the field army for combat service. Given the desperate circumstances, this expedient of mixing veterans with green troops to form new divisions – but ones that also came with instant traditions – proved highly successful.

During the summer and autumn of 1944, more than half of the existing reserve divisions were converted into regular divisions of the field army. That resulted in the shrinking of the replacement army from 2 million soldiers at the end of 1943 to about 1 million late in 1944. Then, in January 1945, Hitler prohibited the further use of the terms reserve, replacement and training in reference to divisions.


Conclusion

At first glance the replacement and training system of the German army appears complex and cumbersome, but it worked well. For example, during 1944 the Germans lost a total of 75 infantry-type divisions totaling 229 regiments (47 divisions/160 regiments in the east; 28 divisions/69 regiments in the west and Italy). During that same period, however, this system allowed for the creation of 66 new divisions totaling 200 regiments. If the resulting units could not be favorably compared in quality to the ones destroyed, such numbers still remain amazing given that it was the fifth year of a world war. In addition to its original training and replacement function, the replacement army was also successful at conducting occupation, anti-partisan and line of communications duties.

The successes of this system came from strong organizational and historical foundations. Systematic universal military training of all the manpower of a country was first introduced in Germany, and was developed there to the highest degree of refinement. At the same time, the traditional affiliations between the regular units of the field army and those of the replacement army, combined with its mixing of recruits and veterans, formed great cohesion among the men in each unit. Of course, by 1945 even such an outstanding system could no longer overcome the high casualties and materiel shortages brought on the German army by a series of high-level strategic, political and economic blunders unmatched over the entire course of world history.



Sources

Klebe, R. Das deutsche Ersatzheer. Rotterdam: Lekturama-Verlag, 1978.

Mueller-Hillerbrand, B. Das Heer 1933-1945. Frankfurt: Mittler & Sohn, 1969.

Riedel, H. Die deutschen Ersatz-und Ausbildungseinheiten 1939-1945. Stuttgart: Desch Verlag, 1972.

U.S. War Dept. Handbook on German Military Forces. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ., 1990 (reprint of 1945 U.S. Army documents). -- Ready access: HTML or PDF

See also: Learning Under Fire, A Monograph, By Maj. Edward Gibbons, US Army

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