Panzergrenadier Squad Tactics '44 

For late-war German infantry tactics involving the StG44 (MP 44 / MP 43) check out our book: » The Assault Platoon of the Grenadier-Company November 1944 (StG 44) - sturmzug.com If Panzers are more your thing, check out our translation of the a 1941 regulation: » Army Regulation Medium Panzer Company 1941 - www.hdv470-7.com >> Errors & Corrections

"Half-track is driving peacefully"

My father was a panzergrenadier machinegunner with the 3 rd Panzerarmy,Armygroup Center. After a short training in Denmark he was shipped to the the eastern front october-43 only 17 years old. His introduction to the front was a veteran showing him three bodies on a tarp all with a nice hole in their forehead killed by sniper. The veteran told my father pointing at the bodies ,one at the time. "He was a machinegunner,he was a machinegunner and he was a machinegunner". My father told me that his legs went spaghetti. It was the veterans way of teaching my father that only when necessary have his head over the edge of the trench. Those replacements with only short training died like flies but my father managed to stay alive even though at the beginning he was set on winning medals for the fatherland so he volunteered for every mission. After a while surviving the missions he was seen as a bringer of luck so the others soldiers always wanted that he would participate in their missions. As he said "They took me along on all kind of shit". Fighting in urban areas was what he favoured least. They would work in teams of three. One moved and the other two covered the moving one. He told me when he came to a streetcorner he would shoot out a bit of the housecorner so he could rest his machinegun while spraying the street or be ready to cover the guy who was moving. He had a czech machinegun .Probably the same machinegun as the british Bren machinegun which is a licensebuilt from a czech machinegun. They used to sit on tanks behind the turret going in to the combat area and it happened that the tankhatch opened and one of the crew with a submachinegun pointing at them told them that it was time to get off the tank. Guess they had asked polite before with a bad result so the crew learnt how to do it the with a successful outcome. Maybe the crew didn't want to enter combat with a lot of soldiers on their tank hampering their combatreadiness or making them an more attractive target. He did get a more than fair share of fighting standing in the way of the russian offensive "Operation Bagration" summer 1944. He was surrounded by the russians in the town of Vilnius but managed to fight his way out. He was surrounded by the russians in a polish city by the Baltic sea and got evacuated by submarine which got attacked with depthcharges by a russian destroyer . He had made bayonetcharges towards russian machinegunpositions and much more.He told me when the russians had attacked and the germans counterattacked they had to have some soldiers who put a bullet or bayonet in the russian bodies so they wouldn't suddenly pop up throwing handgrenades or start shooting around them. After being a month behind russian lines he managed to get back to the german lines . Being only skin and bones he got two weeks R&R in Denmark. At the end of the stay which was end -44 or beginning -45 he was asked if he would like to go to the russian front or the west front. He told me that it was no choice as the russian front was so much more brutal so he answered west front. He was then sent to Paderborn to learn guerillawarfare (Rueckkämpfer) but as he said "The americans were near so it was getting out in the surroundings and start practising directly". They put together kampfgruppen with all sort of soldiers even from the navy. He fought near Paderborn and also at Kassel. He told me they were holding a crossroad when the got incoming fire from all directions thus beeing surrounded by the americans. They could fight their way out by blasting an american tank in the process but not without losses. Later 8 th of april 1945 he was captured by US 5th armoured division outside Springe. After that he went to Attichy as a pow and ended up in a prisoncamp at Reims. Being a pow had it risks also.He could have been killed many times as a pow but that would take hours to tell. He was released after the summer in 1946 returning to Germany.

2:35 "Which might sound odd, but it is just precise." The German language in a nutshell, really.

Danke. These tactics videos are my favorite. You never know what the next christmas gift will be. Maybe a squad of Panzergrenadiers.

10:13 - "halftrack moves *_peacefully_* along the road" laughs in Generalplan Ost

So according to the final example, if they encounter an MG, then it just becomes a drive-by

"My Schutzen made a kill." - Panzer grenadier CoH2

I really appreciate how you do your annotations and show your sources. I wish more youtubers who make informative videos would make them like this. It's really important, especially in this day and age, to know exactly where you information is coming from and that it's factual. Keep it up man! I love watching these during my lunch break!

Everyone who has ever served in the infantry knows that since the invention of man portable machine guns an infantry section or squad is just protection for the machine gun.

Thank you so much for the amazing content. I appreciate your non biased realistic view on the war. Please keep this amazing work up!

Assignment to a PzG Spitzengruppe sounds like an assignment to Himmelfahrtskommando.

Always found Panzergrenadiers super interesting. Kein Mensch, kein Tier, sondern Panzergrenadier!

Intresting how the tactics have not changed much: I have basic training as a mechanizedjaeger(Panssarijääkäri) in the Finnish defence forces. Basicly the principles are the same: fire and move, fast, powerful and do not stop. Only the carrier vehicles have changed. And they have gotten bigger guns.

Nice, more tactics videos are allways very appreciated.

Sums up this whole channel: "May seem odd, but it's just precise"

Something about hearing a strong German accent describing the workings of the Nazi military is so satisfying to me

I wonder what was the chance a panzergrenadier squad would meet a single gun in the open rather than an enemy infantry platoon supported by said gun.

Danke. In the US army of Vietnam, we had not practiced squad tactics except advance, cover, and fire. So this is very good. It is most interesting and, even though I am 76, I will pay attention.

Very kind of those AT guns to skimp on infantry support. Also, interesting that the on board MG is used against an emplaced AT gun but not an exposed one.

Thanks, I was having a hard time visualizing the difference between mounted and Unmounted fighting. This helped clear it up

Danke für deine Arbeit

I don t want to be the lonely machine gunner taking the enemy by the front

Very interesting but in truth those troops can only achieve success after continuous training, with a good experienced commander and surviving the first fighting or even a battle. Having a much needed veteran commander was becoming more and more a luxury in the final year of war. As I really enjoyed this video I just subscribed and looking forward to see your new videos 👍 👍

Great content as always. Looking forward to when you can get back into museums again. Would love to see a colab between yourself and David Fletcher on British tanks and their tactics at some point. Though even just doing it yourself would be great as it would provide good contrast to the German content you have already mad because, as you have mentioned, these systems are only as good as the opposition the enemy provides.

I have to be at work in 30 minutes and here I am learning about the tactics of panzer grenadiers

Alright, time to try it out in Post Scriptum or Squad.

I wonder how often the marsh wasn't known until the squad was half way committed to trying to cross it in a flanking tactic?

This remind me a lot of the American Grenadier training videos. "After the enemy misses you, just casually run up to them and throw a grenade."

Fair play to the first machine gunner in those scenarios. Weighed down by an mg42 and a massive pair of balls! :-D

According to the Wrezsien 1939 magazine & wargaming model kit series, German squads only consisted of 8 men, prior to October 1939, because this was the maximum capacity of a Protze & other troop transports at the time. It would be interesting if you did a video on squad & platoon organisation, plus tactics, before October 1939, during the Polish campaign.

Motorized and half-motorized units with dudes partially or entirely mounted on trucks was starting to appear when budgets allowed. And with more tracked and/or armoured troop transports being introduced. This is a long period of transition, you could still find platoons of bike-mounted infantry around Europe into the 60's.

Fascinating. TY for uploading.

You my friend are doing what i consider my dream job, hystory and military tactics :D.Good job!!

5:55 Can I suggest the smoke grenade provides obscuration / concealment, not "cover". That is the AT gun's view of the target is reduced but the smoke doesn't provide protection from any subsequent fire.

I have noticed in a lot of allied military history that German "Advanced Elements" (Wehrmacht and SS) were also called "Recon Elements".

Particularly excellent Video & especially enjoyed the animation.

One day you will have no related footage of the Panzermuseum, but you'll be legally obliged to mention them anyway because you're wearing a shirt bought there on that day.

These training instructions seem to ignore that the attacking AT or machine gun might have it's own flanking protection.

Excellent, practical. This could have some use in reenactments, etc.

Very informative. Some German WW2 halftracks have 2 MGs. (One front as mentioned and one at the rear) i think the rear MG could provide additional suppresive fire.

Thank you again for the great vids!

Excellent stuff as always, thanks!

i love the visual element and examples you showed, say would there by chance be any plans on showing in a similar way for how they employed tanks?

Paradox entertainment needs to sponsor you - every time I view one of your nice videos - I end up playing a few hours of HoI IV.

great video. it seems in all scenarios described the panzer grenadiers had force superiority... did the manual mention what to do when they dont have force supremacy? would it be disengaging? I feel a enemy squad + anti-tank gun is a greater challenge for an armored panzer grenadier squad.

the last scenario can be concidered as the first drive-by in history

Could you make a video on Operation Bagration?

I love half-tracks. In my opinion some of the most versatile vehicles of the Second World War. Now, I know that this is a matter of personal taste, but I always liked the looks of the German half-tracks (especially the Sd.Kfz 251 and Sd.Kfz 11) better than those of the other countries. I used to own quite a few models of different variants when I was a kid and had a lot of room to store them ;)

7:05 this seems very flawed. How does the suppressing MG know to stop firing to prevent them hitting the assault force behind the AT gun? The assault force also risks hitting the suppressing MG and half-track beyond their target....

Richtig starkes video

To have two MG 42s machine guns gave the half-tracks a terrifying firepower against infantry or AT positions!

It's interesting that the squad composition doesn't have an anti vehicle specialist. Maybe it's a recon element and meant to be lightly equipped?

I just wanted to go start another Army General in SDII so I am all here for this.

Do they talk about what to do against a PaK-Front, instead of a singleton AT-Gun?

another great video as always :)

I have LOVED those half tracks since i was a kid!! I want one, I want one!! (And an MP 40)..

If the half track was that close the forward gun wouldnt be able to hit it with the gunshield on it. I think most didn't have the gun shield though but one of the other MGs could suppress from the half track bed.,

Nice video

Hard target that can damage them: complex infantry flanking tactics Soft targets that can't damage them: DRIVE BY

3~4 MGs... Jesus, that's a hell of fire power.

Well done. Great break down.

I've allways wondered why regular infantry platoons didn't get two MG.

I want to reenact as a Panzergrenadier in the Heer. As soon as I stop spending so much on WW2 small arms.

Bernhard, are you sure about the rifles for driver/co-driver ? It makes a lot more sense if the 2nd MG gunners had these rifles in case the MG42 had a malfunction (happened a lot) or the gunners had to reload/change barrel. The driver should be occupied with driving the HT and the co-driver had his own MG to play with.

Are we ever going to see a Einsatzgruppen training, organization, weapons, and tactics dissertation?

I‘ve also always been curious about recon forces, since a lot of these formations include Platoons, Companies or even Bataillons that are designated recon, but I‘ve never seen anything concrete about how these were used. The only thing I was able to find on YT was one video about modern doctrine, which notes that recon forces always tend to get roped into regular fighting which isn‘t supposed to be their job. I think one of the tactics reports you quoted from the eastern front also stated that recon forces need more firepower.

Question: As the majority of panzergranadiers squads use regular trucks, what changes in terms of tatics. I think you could cover that.

I really enjoy these training manual videos. It brings out the Wargamer in me. Do you do any miniature tabletop wargaming Bernhard?

Thank you.

Enjoyed this. There is a RU-vid US WW2 training video on the German MG42 and how they really aren't dangerous and are much inferior to US machineguns. Not of course that the MG42 depicted is actually deployed like the Germans would have used it. The US WW2 tank training films are also "hilarious". As you know training films start out at the lowest level possible - the squad. Following that would be the platoon video on how to deploy a platoon - likely add a squad to the defenders. Then the one on how to deploy a company where they run into a platoon, possibly with a tank supporting it. The first is taught to the entire squad. The second would be taught to the platoon and squad leaders. The third to the Company CO, 2nd in Command, and the Platoon leaders. Everyone would also run sand table exercises and possibly field exercises although late in the war there wouldn't be fuel to do that. Any veterans including the training personnel at the German schools would also add their experience. German training was much more realistic than ours which by 1974 still wasn't very good (I left the US Army in Germany in 1974). The 1944 Panzergrenadier Platoon (gp) on paper had a HQ 251/1 or 251/10 or 251/17 command track with the platoon HQ and gun crew in it, three 251/1 each with a squad for a total of around 33 men, 9-11 LMG (3-4 mounted on the tracks plus 1 in HQ and 2 in each squad) and possibly one 37mm gun (251/10) or 20mm autocannon (251/17). Two company HQ half-tracks each with 1-2 machineguns plus two more 251 platoons plus the weapon platoon with a 251/1 or 251/10 or 251/11 command half-track, and 2 251/9 with 75L24 cannon and 2 251/2 with 81mm mortars rounded out the company. The weapon company could also have 2 251/1s each with 2 MG with heavy mounts or 3 251/17 each with a HMG crew with a MG42 and heavy mount. Again on paper. The 250/1 company in the reconnaissance battalions of the Panzer and Panzergrenadier Divisions was organized the same except there were 2 250/1 for every 251/1 squad vehicle. A 250/10 or 250/11 replaced the 251/10 and 251/11. There were no 251/17 and the 250/7 replaced the 251/2 mortar carrier and a 250/8 the 251/9 75L24 gun vehicle. A platoon had 1 250/10 or /11 command vehicle (or 250/1) and six 250/1. A U.S. Army armored infantry platoon had 1xM3A1 with .50 M2HB, a rifle squad with the Platoon HQ mixed in, 2xM3 with .30 M1919A4 LMG and a squad of riflemen each (12 men, 1 driver), a MG squad with a M3A1 w/.50 M2HB and two M1919A4 light machinegun (LMG) teams, and a M3 or M3A1 with a M1919A4 LMG and a 60mm mortar squad (which used the mortar from outside of the vehicle). Each vehicle had a bazooka for a total of 5 with the crews coming from the squads. SMG were issued by the Company HQ to squads on an as needed basis. 2 M3A1 half-tracks for the HQ, 2 more Armored Infantry platoons and a platoon of 4 M3A1 half-tracks and 3 towed 57mm anti-tank guns made up the Company (plus some jeeps, trucks, a maintenance half-track). Added LMG and BAR were scrounged or removed from knocked out vehicles.

I wonder how halftracks deal in case of an air-attack, such as a fighter bomber strafing.

Where does the rear machine gun in the last example come from? Is it one of the squad machine guns?

The AT-Gun symbol seems counter intuitive as the barrel sticks out the front of the frame and wheels.

Excellent video! The assault on the prepared MG position clearly assumes that the MG will be static and not move out - also, why assault the AT gun from the rear, when it takes a great deal less time to manoevre and assault it from the side / both sides? Also, surely the AT gun would be supported by infantry, especially when in a prepared position, so you might get a nasty surprise when trying to get round to be behind it!

Awesome, and i always thought they were used a long side tanks to give support.

I don't think individual halftrack squads were of much tactical use. All the solutions assume a single enemy opponent. Such assessment will only get the squad destroyed when another enemy remains undiscovered until the squad deploys. The minimal unit should be a platoon. Which would at least have one anti-tank rifle or Panzerschreck.

The speed of combat must have been overwhelming against non-mechanized units.

all i know is to blast Initial D and drive at full speed intro enemy line while doing sick moves, only to get oblitareted by the enemy tank -me in BF5

unfortunatelly the ambush did not really work out that way as shown around 4:15 cause not a single enemy truck / tank appeared, but and endless stream of those and the ambush would turn in a trap soon.

Okay but what are the tactics if the AT gun actually hits the Hanomag? Or if its flank is protected by an infantry squad?

Hmm thanks for leaking this info to me.

So, and what if the enemy has an AT gun and a heavy machine gun guarding the road, with a rifle squad somewhere in the bushes? Because thats a far more realistic scenario. That manual is pretty optimistic when it comes to the enemies TOE, especially for a book that has been written for people who train recruits. I understand that you have to teach the recruits the basics, but these scenarios are probably a bit optimistic when it comes to a real fight. Well, maybe they talk about in a latter part of the book.

Excuse me sir, why I can't find your video on the German Panzergrenadier Division as mentioned at 2:13 on the top right hand corner? Removed? Blocked by YT?

Do the squad's MG 42s get mounted on the SdKfz 251? Does the squad possess four MGs or two? Fully dismounted except driver and co-driver the squad could use their own two mg 42s and then the co-driver still has the front (or rear) MG mounted for use, correct? I'd assume they had four, but with the Wehrmacht in '44 what was on paper wasn't necessarily so in the field.

I'll use these tactics to dominate the raccoons outside.

The road at 7:40 is east/south-east not east/north-east.

2 machine gunners 2 assistant machine gunners ... and a co-pilot, that was also a machine gunner for the onboard... Hans do you think we got enough machine guns? No, we still have 2 rifle men left who are not machine gunning, that is not acceptable.

For the 4:20 map was there no distance scale? I was confused as to how the armored car crew didn’t see the half track

If i am correct Panzergrenadier wasnt used till mid to late 1942 and they were called Forerunners (Schützen) right? What did they use then

I thought the on board MGs doubled as the squad MGs. How many MGs are there between the halftrack and grenadieres?

Confused, 2 MGs with squad and one on half-track, total of 3 or dismount the MG from the half-track for total of 2?

Danke

Was there someone designated to operate the rear machine gun position? On a related note, was there a standard seating arrangement for the squad?

I am confused. how many MGs had a armored Panzergrenadier squad? 2 or 3? the halftrack keeped one mg, when they dismount? flames of war (historic ruleset for tabletop) is claiming they had 3 MGs

With your clarity of thought, how did you guys lose the War.?......No wonder my brother wanted to stay in (West) Germany.....

This reminds me of your video to the Panzergrenadier-Division, were you explained, that they were actually motorized and not mechanized infantery. How ever the idea of the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen being equipped with armoured halftracks like in the Panzer-Divisionen always seemed stranfe to me. Because before the establishment oft the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen, the motorized infantery divisions were called X. Infanterie-Division (motorisiert/mot.). Which indicates that they were just regular infantery divisions but motorized and listed together with the infantery divisions. So why there was the 1. Infanterie Division, the 2. Infanterie-Division was motorized so 2. Infanterie-Division (mot.) with no other 2. Infanterie-Division. And after the establishment of the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen, those units disapeared, or rather were reorganised. And if those units were then to be equipped with halftracks, they would have a huge amount of trucks from those divisions, that they just could gave used for other purposes, leaving out the massive shortage of oil the axis had. But that seemed strange to me for one mayor reason. It would mean that the Wehrmacht had a huge overstock of halftracks, they could just assigne to the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen to replace the trucks. However I have read (I don’t know were exactly but I think it was the Typenkompass: Panzer der Wehrmacht Rad- und Halbkettenfahrzeuge 1939-1945 by Alexander Lüdeke) that the Wehrmacht, more specificly the Panzergrenadier-Regimenter of the Panzer-Divisionen lacked Sd. Kfz. 251, the halftracks which were ment as the transports for the Panzergrenadiere and thus often had to use Sd. Kfz 250, which were ptetty similar but shorter and couldn't fit an entire squad of Panzergrenadiere. And if the Panzergrenadiere in the Panzer-Divisionen lacked in the halftracks they needed, then were should all the halftracks cone from, that would be needed to equipp the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen and make them mechanized infantery? It just wouldn't habe been possible. Putting aside the huge overstock of trucks that would resort from this and change of doctrin of those formations. So it is pretty plausible, that the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen were motorized infantery division and not mechanized. But if it so obvious once you dig into the matter, why do so many people believe tgat the Panzergrenadier-Divisionen were mechanzied? In Unity of Command and Unity of Command II for example, Panzergrenadier-Divisionen are portayed as mechanized infantery and many other video games and media does that too. But were does this misconseption come from? Maybe because documentaries have to show mostly propaganda footage of the nazis, because there aren't many other film sources available, and that footage of course always showed the best equipped units, which were the Panzer-Divisionen. And when a documentary then talks about the Panzergrenadiere, the pictures seen are mostly mechanized Panzergrenadiere from the Panzer-Divisionen, which makes people associate Panzergrenadiere with mechanized infantery and the Sd. Kfz. 251. Of course the fact, that the terms Panzergrenadier nowadys is only used to refer to mecgamized infantery, could also be a reason or one of the reasons.

Four ways of getting ambushed while driving along a road. If you are in a half-track, much better to avoid the roads and drive cross country.

Good video! Also, why am i watching this a 10:00 PM at night?

Was there any mention of Panzerfaust use? Were they deemed too precious to waste on an armored car, weren't given out on patrols or was that scenario mentioned precisely as what to do when Pzf wasn't available?