German Small Unit Armored Tactics on the Eastern Front in 1944: Part 1

[George MC]

This is Part 1 of a short series giving a summary and overview of the tactical fundamentals and principles behind WWII German and Soviet armoured unit tactical drills and combat formations commonly used in 1944 using examples from Combat Mission Red Thunder to illustrate key points.

Part 1: What is the difference between formations, drills, principles and tactics?
This video defines these terms and may also help the viewer differentiate between a potentially bewildering array of terms and puts them into context with German armoured doctrine.

[Vacillator]

9 minutes ago, George MC said:

Part 1: What is the difference between formations, drills, principles and tactics?

Looks like an excellent series coming up George . 

One comment is that it moves pretty quickly and has no delays between text loading, so without trying to pause I found it difficult to catch everything at the end of each 'slide'.  Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

[George MC]

4 minutes ago, Vacillator said:

Looks like an excellent series coming up George . 

One comment is that it moves pretty quickly and has no delays between text loading, so without trying to pause I found it difficult to catch everything at the end of each 'slide'.  Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Ah useful feedback. I’m a fast reader! Aye can dial back the speed. It’s been a bit of a learning curve with timings, more used to doing stuff ‘live’!

[snarre]

nice work  but yah speed of text / video could be slower 

[George MC]

On 7/8/2023 at 11:20 AM, snarre said:

nice work  but yah speed of text / video could be slower 

Roger - aye noted thank you. I'll go slower in the next one

[Aragorn2002]

I agree with you, George. The lack of proper time to train tank crews after 1943 does explain why the German tank divisions weren't the decisive factor on the battlefield anymore. A good example is the Hitleryouth division in Normandy which lost a lot of tanks because of badly prepared and badly executed attacks. Mainly because of the lack of fuel and ammo during the training period, which sealed the fate of many young tank crew members.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

That and the constant push to attack whenever any significant panzer forces were built up, instead of using them in defense and making it much harder for the allies to advance without prohibitive casualties.

[Aragorn2002]

1 hour ago, Vergeltungswaffe said:

That and the constant push to attack whenever any significant panzer forces were built up, instead of using them in defense and making it much harder for the allies to advance without prohibitive casualties.

Yes, that also happened at Kursk for example. Those German Panzer forces could have been much more effective while defending the retreat behind the Dnjepr. The only thing with defending and retreating is that you can't recover damaged or immobilized tanks, because you don't dominate the battlefield. Yes, the constant push to attack didn't do the Germans much good after 1943.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Aragorn2002

[Halmbarte]

The German way of war is the audacious attack, even when it doesn't make the most sense. 

It works sometimes, especially when an opponent isn't expecting speed & ferocity (France, initial attack into Russia, Kasserine Pass). It fails when the enemy had time to prepare (Kursk) or when the Germans didn't have the logistics to support exploitation (Bulge, failure to reach Moscow).

H

[George MC]

All good points.

But just to clarify - this series of wee vids is firmly fixed on the tactical level - platoon/company I might stretch to battalion... So I'm only covering the sort of stuff that might be relevant or useful within a Combat Mission setting. Once you move to the operational many other factors (operational and strategic) start to impact on the effectiveness of the German armed forces, especially the panzerwaffe.

Its useful to put this into that wider picture so thanks for adding the background. I'll chuck in my own view re the wider picture. With the wider industrial, societal and geographic factors the German war effort was doomed to failure in the long term. Very little in the amount of 'superior' training/tactics was going to fundamentally change that, though a few limited tactical 'successes' might slow that bloody process.