Sturmgeschuetz Brigades 31 and 45

[Sequoia]

I see both of these under major new formations for the Germans on the Gustav Line web page. To my knowledge a Sturmgeschuetz Brigade consisted of a StuG III battalion, an Infantry company and some FLAK. What's the diference between these two types of formations?

Thanks.

[akd]

The names were carried over from CMBN. They have already been updated to:

Sturmgeschütz Battalion 31 (independent StuG battalion; 31 guns; has option for StuH)

Panzer-Sturmgeschütz Battalion 45 (StuG battalion in a Panzer/Panzergrenadier division; 45 guns; does not have option for StuH)

In February 1944, the name of independent sturmgeschütz battalions changed to "brigade," but as far as I know this did not bring about any immediate changes to organization.

[JasonC]

Because StuGs were descended from the artillery branch of service, their formation names were basically a step larger than you'd expect for their actual number of vehicles and men. An AFV group of platoon size was designated a *battery* because it had about that number of guns. Understand, a battery is in manpower terms is a company sized formation in towed artillery units.

31 vehicles was the full complement of a StuG "brigade", which is thus a small battalion sized armor formation in all other sense of the term.