German Combat Officer armament

[Commissar]

I am wondering if German officers in actual combat were ever armed with standard rifles. My understanding is that they normally carried a pistol like the Luger or PPK and an SMG like the MP40 while in actual combat. Was it unheard of for them to actually use a rifle like the Kar98? Just curious. Thanks for any info.

[Michael Dorosh]

Sniper conscious officers may have carried rifles - this was common in the Commonwealth armies, but I don't think widely practiced in the German Army.

Officers were ordered to blacken their belts, for example, so as not to stand out, but many German officers considered the brown leather a symbol of authority - and defied the official regulations. I am doubtful that carrying rifles was very common among German officers for the same kinds of reasons.

Not many officers in an infantry company anyway - most had only two authorized, one company commander and one platoon commander - the other platoons were led by sergeants. That's at full strength. Often, the company commander might be the only officer in the company.

[Commissar]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

Sniper conscious officers may have carried rifles - this was common in the Commonwealth armies, but I don't think widely practiced in the German Army.

Officers were ordered to blacken their belts, for example, so as not to stand out, but many German officers considered the brown leather a symbol of authority - and defied the official regulations. I am doubtful that carrying rifles was very common among German officers for the same kinds of reasons.

Not many officers in an infantry company anyway - most had only two authorized, one company commander and one platoon commander - the other platoons were led by sergeants. That's at full strength. Often, the company commander might be the only officer in the company.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In that case, what about the NCO's? Would their armament be all that different from the rest of the grunts?

[Michael Dorosh]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Commissar:

In that case, what about the NCO's? Would their armament be all that different from the rest of the grunts?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Section commanders were usually ranked Unteroffizier, though in combat again, lower ranks might be found in this position - and armed with MP 38 or MP 40 machine pistols. Early in the war in some units (notably SS units) automatic weapons were in short supply and section commanders/squad leaders had to carry rifles.

By 1944, the wider variety of machine pistols and assault guns meant that an NCO would probably be armed with them in the majority of cases. Perhaps someone else has a source for a TO & E that will bear this out.

Bear in mind that a section or platoon leader would sometimes use his machine pistol for marking targets with tracer so that the MG42 could see it - read the other thread by Sergeant Steiner about the importance of the lMG. The lMG was the most important weapon in the infantry squad - the squad maneuvered around it and relied on its firepower. The rest was often security for the lMG, and the object was to get the riflemen within range of grenades, or, if it came to it, bayonets (or spades!)

The squad and platoon NCOs may indeed have been too busy identifying targets for the heavy weapons and directing the squads/teams to actually do much shooting themselves.

Their armament would also include flare pistols; these were used to signal many different things - gas alert, "we are here", "enemy tanks", "objective reached", "SOS" etc.

NCOs and heavy weapons teams were armed with a pistol as secondary armament - usually a P-38 Walther, which replaced the P-08 Luger, though not completely by war's end. The P-38 was a more reliable combat pistol, but like all pistols used for last ditch situations only.

German troops in Russia liked to use captured PPSh SMGs, and some were even rechambered for German 9mm.

An NCO would also have a compass and set of binoculars as standard equipment.