Ontario WWII Re-enactors :: View topic - Interesting replacements statistics for the Heer.
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:05 pm Post subject: Interesting replacements statistics for the Heer.
KStN 2301, dated 1.5.1944 and therefore the product of considerable wartime experience, is the document that specifies the organization of a "Marschbataillon f�r Infanterie und Panzertruppen". Marschbataillon was a unit responsible for conveying new recruits to the front and feeding them in to combat units to maintain their strength.
Armoured units drew recruits from a different type of Marschbataillon.
Looking at these numbers, you get a good sense of where the turnover in these units largely occurred: disproportionately in the infantry units, and most especially the light machine gunners (every man in a rifle Gruppe was trained as a LMG gunner, and fell in to this category for replacement purposes). Artillery barely turned over at all under normal combat conditions. Also noteworthy is the high percentage of signallers, indicating the priority the Germans continued to place on battlefield communication, and how close to the firing line these guys often operated.
I sourced this document from the KStN's on [url]wwiidaybyday.com[/url]. Translated by me.