Battle of the Bulge: Volks-Grenadiers

I highly recommend Douglas E Nash's Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp for anyone seeking

information on the Volks-Grenadiers. The subject is the 272nd Volks-grenadier Division which fought in the Battle of Hürtguen Forest and concentrates on Füsilier Company 272, the division's reconnaissance company.

The Volks-Grenadier divisions were Germany's answer to an ever decreasing pool of manpower by trading troops for firepower. The success of these divisions depended on the experience of the founding cadre and time available to train green, or in the case of drafted Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personnel, reluctant recruits.

Chapter 2 of this book discusses how the Volks-Grenadier divisions came into being, the politics behind them, and has a wealth of organizational information. So far, this chapter contains the most comprehensive coverage in the English language I can find on the Volks-Grenadiers and I will share some interesting facts from the book below.

For anyone interested in the administration of a German company in WW2, this book is a must. Much of the book's information came from records recovered from a suitcase containing a treasure trove of Füsilier Company 272's records which the dedicated Kompanie Schreiber (company clerk) carried with during the retreat into Germany to be left long forgotten in a small village in the Harz Mountains.

Battle of the Bulge: OOBs for the Battle of the Bulge

Below are copies from two of George Nafziger's OOBs.

The German OOB can be found under file  # 944GLAA and the American under 944ULAA:

German LXVI Corps

Notes from the original:
2 - The 18th VG Division was formed during 9/44 in Denmark from the cadre of a Luftwaffe field division and drafts from the Luftwaffe and Navy. At full strength and two months experience on the defensive in the Eifel.
3 - Numbers date from 12/1/44 and are "ist starke" (total), "Gefecht stärke" (action), and "Kampfstärke" (battle strength).
4 - 62nd VG Division rebuilt after being destroyed in Russia. Heavily composed of Polish and Czech conscripts who spoke no German.

And a couple of additional notes at the end of the document:

Jung provides a statement at the bottom of his return for 12/1/44 that indicates the "Ist staäke" (total strength) of a Type 44 infantry division would probably be at 54% (6,708 men) and that a Volksgrenadier division would probably be at 58% (6,410 men) of their total authorized strengths.

Note on Equipment:
Jung and Parker are frequently at odds about the numbers of tanks, sturmgeschutz, and guns assigned. Jung is using official records and appears to be more accurate, but there is no apparent reason as to why Parker indicates a Jagdpanzer IV and Jung indicates only heavy anti-tank guns (PAK).

Parker, D.S, Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944-1945, 1991, Hong Kong, Combined Books Inc.

Jung, H., Die Ardenne Offensive 1944-1945, 1971, Frankfurt, Musterschmidt Gottingen.

American 106th Infantry Division

No notes.

Sources:

Stanton, S.L., Order of Battle, U.S.Army, World War II, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 1984.

Parker, D.S, Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944-1945, 1991, Hong Kong, Combined Books Inc.

Project 1944

Hiwi with yellow armband (recruited
or forcibly drafted from the East Front). 

While looking for information on Volksgrenadiers I came across Project 1944. 

They can be categorized as reenactors but what strikes me is that they have taken the diorama aspect of military modeling and brought it into real life ("living history"). 

Take a look at this series on German horse drawn artillery and the minute attention to historical detail. On the first page there is a discussion on keeping the horses warm during winter: "When standing outside, the "Woilach" (this is the German Army saddle blanket) was used to cover the horses back and fixed with the "Deckengurt" (blanket strap)." 

The post then goes on to highlight "freiwillig-gezogener-Hilfswilliger (HiWi)" troops. We are told that since many of them came from rural backgrounds they were often assigned to horse drawn units.

Other projects include refugees fleeing the German advance in 1940, deploying a Vickers machine gun in WW1, and even one on Russian partisans.

Too much good stuff to list and next thing for me to do is add them as a permanent link to this blog.