Volksgrenadiers: Model for Late War Divisions?

[Raellus]

I know it's really a moot issue but I continue to be curious about the structure of late Twilight War "divisions". I've been doing a little research into the concept and execution of late WWII Volksgrenadier divisions and it seems like they might make a decent model for late Twilight War divisional structure, at least for NATO infantry divisions.

Volksgrenadier divisions were Germany's attempt to address the devastating loss of dozens of divisions resulting from the destruction of Army Group Center during and after the Soviet's summer of '44 Bagration offensive.

Many VGDs were formed around cadres of survivors drawn from destroyed infantry and panzergrenadier divisions and bolstered by "unemployed" Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personel, services and support personel, soldiers recently discharged from hospital, and those civilians on the outer fringes of the age ranges already mobilized for military service. In the last year of the war in Europe, some VGDs fought particularly well while others performed rather poorly.

They had few heavy weapons, were relatively light in the artillery department, and the Volksgrenadier division's three "grenadier" (i.e.plain ol' infantry) regiments only had two battalions each for an authorized divisional strength of around 10,000 men. (Most VGDs were, however, well equipped with automatic weapons.)

This is still well above the divisional strengths listed for most U.S., NATO, and Soviet/WTO strenghts listed in the various canonical T2K sources (few divisions are above Brigade strength). But the concept seems to have applications in the late Twilight War, at least for NATO infantry divisions.

[Abbott Shaull]

Well I always found it hard pressed that many US Division weren't radically altered after 1998. Then that is just me.

I think Germany would of loved to make more units, but then again as fast as they trained people they would be off to reinforce the other Divisions.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

Well I always found it hard pressed that many US Division weren't radically altered after 1998. Then that is just me.

I think many US Army divisions probably were radically altered from July, 1997 onward. The NATO divisions falling back through the smoking wreckage of Poland following the initiation of nuclear war will have sustained considerable losses during the offensive across Poland and horrible losses during the burst of tactical nuclear activity. They will have to reorganize virtually on the fly in order to survive.

Surviving troops in each division probably were consolidated once the NATO forces had fallen back behind the Oder. The same would be true of other NATO forces in southern Germany and Austria, which probably were hit by Soviet tactical nuclear devices during the fighting in July. The fighting during the Summer 1998 campaign in Germany, Austria, and Czechslovakia probably would have solidified whatever reorganizations had been undertaken. We might imagine that USAEUR undertook some sort of systematic reorganization during 1999, such that the term "division" had a halfway decent chance of meaning something reliable, if not exactly "division". Replacements, who by 1999 were largely East Coast draftees of highly questionable quality, local recruits of equally questionable quality, and turned Pact EPW (who might have been the best of the lot) would be incorporated in whatever numbers they were available.

Webstral

[Raellus]

I agree with both of you. Something would have to be done to adjust divisional structures due to the massive loss of manpower and equipment and the lack of adequate replacements for both.

I think that most NATO and WTO infantry divisions would replace most (if not all) of their trucks with horses. Horses would be used to tow supply wagons and artillery pieces. Trucks would be needed more by the armored and mechanized infantry (motor rifles) divisions.

I also take the division strengths given in canon to refer to refer to each division's combat strength. In other words, infantry and combat vehicle and artillery crews. I think that, by 2000, most if not all of supply and logistics would be taken care of by people "drafted" out of the local population (and/or volunteers) in each division's cantonment area (under the supervision of military personel, of course).

Another interesting tidbit about VGDs that might reappear in the Twilight World is that in many VGDs, one of the three infantry regiments would be assigned bicyles to give the division some semblance of a mobile reserve.

Based on armor strengths listings in canon, it looks like, by 2000 at the latest, armored divisions would be down to one very understrength armored [tank] regiment (at company strength). One of the armored infantry regiments would be mounted in IFVs and APCs while the other would likely be mounted in trucks (due to a lack of proper APCs and IFVs). Most of the supply chain would also have trucks so that it could keep up with the fighting components of the divisions. This follows the model of early and late WWII Panzer divisions where one regiment of Panzergrenadiers in each Panzer division were mounted in halftracks while the other was mounted in trucks.

Also, I think you'd see the widespread return of desotankniki [sic] or "tank riders". In WW2 Soviet armored divisions, most of the armored infantry rode into battle on the decks of tanks or followed the spearhead in trucks. Very few were lucky enough to be mounted in Lend-Lease M3 halftracks. To be clear, I think that "tank riders" would be common in all armies, c. 2000.

[Slappy]

Agree. One addition I would have is that I think non-US units would have relatively more conscript and civilian additions than US units in the 98-00 timeframe.

Units in catonment in their home countries (most German and Polish units) would have easier access to locals and less of a language barrier to overcome. Those units and units nearer to their country of origin would also have more conscripts delivered by their governments to the divisions. The proximity of Soviet divisions to Russia (not close, but you can walk there) means one would expect more VGD like replacements to actually show up, etc. Nationalities like the UK probably somewhere in the middle.

Eventually it would become clear that the trickle of reinforcements from the US was not going to do and local recruiting would pick up, but I'd still expect US divisions to have a higher proportion of trained soldiers. Overall I think this means that these units are smaller than their non-US equivalents, but probably also of higher quality.