List of German divisions in World War II

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This article lists divisions of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces), including the Heer, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine, active during World War II.

Upgrades and reorganizations are shown only to identify the variant names for what is notionally a single unit; other upgrades and reorganizations are deferred to the individual articles. Due to the scope of this list pre-war changes are not shown, nor are upgrades from units smaller than a division. Most of these divisions trained in Berlin which is also where new military technology was kept and tested.

Name elements not usually translated

Grenadier
A traditional term for heavy infantry.
Jäger
A traditional term for light infantry (Translated "Hunter").
Gebirgsjäger
Traditional term for mountain and ski troops.
Lehr
A demonstration/training unit (Translated "Teach").
Nummer
"Number" (See description in Infantry Series Divisions, below).
Panzer
Armored (Translated "Armored").
Sturm
"Storm" or "Assault" (Translated "Storm").
Volks
"of the People" (Translated "People's").
zbV
Abbreviation for "zur besonderen Verwendung" Meaning "Special Purpose" (Translated "For Special Deployment").

Volks, Sturm, and Grenadier were sometimes used simply as morale-building adjectives, often without any significance to a unit's organization or capabilities.

Army (Heer)

Panzer divisions

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See also: Panzer division

Numbered panzer divisions

Named panzer divisions

Light divisions

The designation "Light" (leichte) had various meanings in the German Army of World War II. There was a series of 5 Light divisions; the first four were pre-war mechanized formations organized for use as mechanized cavalry, and the fifth was an ad hoc collection of mechanized elements rushed to Africa to help the Italians and organized into a division once there. All five were eventually converted to ordinary Panzer divisions.

Various other divisions were dubbed "Light" for other reasons, and are listed among the Infantry Series Divisions.

Infantry series divisions

GermanWW2-1939

Types of division in the series

The backbone of the Heer (German Army) was the infantry division. Of the 154 divisions deployed against Soviet Union in 1941, including reserves, there were 100 infantry, 19 panzer, 11 motorised, 9 security, 5 Waffen-SS, 4 "light", 4 mountain, 1 SS police, and 1 cavalry. A typical infantry division in June 1941 had 17,734 men organized into the following sub-units:[1]

  • three infantry regiments with staff and communications units
    • three battalions with:
      • three infantry companies
      • one heavy weapons company
    • one PAK company (mot.)
    • one artillery company
    • one reconnaissance unit
  • one Panzerjäger battalion with:
    • three companies (each with twelve 3.7 cm guns)
  • one artillery regiment
    • three battalions
      • three batteries
  • one pioneer battalion
  • one communications unit
  • one field replacement battalion
  • Supply, medical, veterinary, mail, and police

German infantry divisions had a variety of designations and specializations, though numbered in a single series. The major variations are as follows:

Fortress (Festung)
Divisions of non-standard organization used to garrison critical sites. The smaller ones might consist of only two or three battalions.
Grenadier
A morale-building honorific usually indicative of reduced strength when used alone.
Jäger
Reduced in size with only two regiments compared to an ordinary infantry divisions three and provided with less transport and lighter artillery. Those divisions were trained to fight in difficult terrain.
Light (Leichte)
There were several meanings of the term light division in the Wehrmacht:
  • The initial light infantry divisions. Lighter than a normal infantry division; they had only two regiments and no heavy artillery. Most of them were converted to Jäger divisions in 1942.
  • The light africa divisions. Created partially ad-hoc and sporting a unique composition, e.g. including penal units, they were usually lighter than a standard infantry divisions.
  • The light division. Any division with a lack of units, like only having two regiments, or less support units could be styled light. Usually only applied temporarily to a division; the respective unit would be drawn off from the front to reorganize and renamed again after it regained the lost units and manpower.
  • The light (mechanized) divisions that were the predecessors of the Panzer divisions. Those are already covered in the Panzer division section.
Motorized
Provided with full motor transport for all infantry and weapons systems. Usually reduced in size compared to an ordinary infantry division. Motorized infantry divisions were renamed Panzergrenadier (armored infantry) divisions in 1943.
Division Nummer
A sort of placeholder division, with a number (Nummer) and staff but few if any combat assets. These divisions started out without any type in their name (e.g., Division Nr. 179), though some acquired a type later on (e.g., Panzer Division Nr. 179).
Panzergrenadier
As motorized, but with more self-propelled weapons and an added battalion of tanks or fully armored assault guns. What motorized divisions were referred to from 1943 forward.
Static (bodenständige)
Deficient in transport, even enough to move its own artillery. Many of these were divisions that had been mauled on the Eastern Front and were sent west to serve as coastal defense garrisons until sufficient resources were available to rehabilitate them.
Volksgrenadier
A late-war reorganization with reduced size and increased short-range firepower. Many previously destroyed or badly mauled infantry divisions were reconstituted as Volksgrenadier divisions, and new ones were raised as well. Their fighting worth varied widely depending on unit experience and equipment. Not to be confused with Volkssturm a national militia in which units were supposed to be organized by local Nazi party leaders; trained by the SS; and come under Wehrmacht command in combat.
zbV
("zbV" is an abbreviation meaning "for special employment") An ad hoc division created to meet a special requirement. (E.g., Division zbV Afrika)

Most of the size reductions listed above were by about a third, either by the removal of an infantry regiment or the removal of one infantry battalion from each of the three regiments.

Infantry divisions were raised in waves, sets of divisions with a standardized table of organization and equipment. In general the later waves (i.e., the higher-numbered divisions) were of lower quality than the earlier ones.

Numbered divisions

1st to 99th
100th to 199th
201st to 999th

Named divisions

Mountain divisions

Ski division

Cavalry divisions

According to Davies, the Cavalry divisions were mounted infantry and the Cossack divisions were "true cavalry", modelled on the Russian cavalry divisions.

Landwehr divisions

Artillery divisions

Named fortress divisions

Named training divisions

Field replacement divisions

Navy "Kriegsmarine"

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Main article: Kriegsmarine

Naval infantry divisions

Air Force "Luftwaffe"

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Main article: Luftwaffe

Hermann Göring divisions

The Hermann Göring formations grew from a single police detachment to an entire armored corps over the course of the war. The later epithet Fallschirm ("parachute") was purely honorific.

Airborne divisions

To keep its existence secret, the first German airborne division was named as if a Flieger ("flier") division in the series of Luftwaffe divisions that controlled air assets rather than ground troops-named 7th Flieger Division (often translated 7th Air Division - which see: 1st Parachute Division (Germany)) The division was later reorganized to start a series of nominally airborne divisions. Though named Fallschirmjäger ("paratrooper") divisions, only some of them participated in airdrops in the early part of the war, and in practice most operated as ordinary infantry throughout their existence. The lower-numbered ones earned and maintained an élite status, but quality generally declined among the higher-numbered divisions.

Field divisions

Luftwaffe Field Divisions were ordinary infantry divisions organized from Luftwaffe personnel made available after mid-war due to the manpower crunch. They were originally Luftwaffe units but were later handed over to the Heer, retaining their numbering but with Luftwaffe attached to distinguish them from similarly numbered divisions already existing in the Heer.

Training divisions

Anti-Aircraft divisions

These were headquarters for controlling aggregates of flak ("anti-aircraft artillery") assets rather than ordinary combined arms divisions organized for ground combat.

Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel)

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Main article: List of Waffen-SS divisions

All divisions in the Waffen-SS were ordered in a single series up to 38th, regardless of type. Those tagged with nationalities were at least nominally recruited from those nationalities. Many of the higher-numbered units were small battlegroups (Kampfgruppen), i.e. divisions in name only.

Also Panzer Division Kempf, a temporary unit of mixed Heer and Waffen-SS components.

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Mueller-Hillebrand B., Das Heer, 1933-1945. vol. II, E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1969, pp. 161-162.
  • Astel, John; Goodwin, A. E.; Long, Jason, Bengtsson, Sven Ake; & Parmenter, James D. (1998). "Orders of Battle". Data booklet from the Europa game Storm Over Scandinavia. Grinnel, Iowa: Game Research/Design. ISBN 1-86010-091-0.
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  • Parada, George (2004). "Panzer Divisions 1940-1945". Retrieved April 1, 2005.
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