order of battle

[jamesroe16]

Can some one tell me or direct me to a site that list all the cmbb countries order of battle and there supoort units (battalions, companies , ect..)

I want to create a large scale offensive using close to accurate companies and units. Exp- a German Armor Companie.

[JasonC]

The reason you aren't getting responses is because your question is not focused enough to make sense of it. There are too many things you might want orders of battle of.

The term "order of battle" usually refers to the military stuff one side actually had in some particular campaign or fight. A seperate term, "TOE" for "table of organization and equipment", is used to specify what units were *planned* to have, or built around having, if at 100% strength.

Units often had less than their TOE, and occasionally more (attachments of other units, or just overstuffed in this or that respect). Especially once in combat for any length of time, which tends to reduce unit strengths.

In addition, all of the different countries had a variety of different formation types. And these changed over time. A Panzer division of 1940 is not the same in TOE as a panzer division of 1944 - even in terms of what they wanted them to have, let alone what they actually did have.

There are many sites around that have bits and pieces of TOEs. But you have to know what level you are looking for (divisions? platoons?), when, what front, what formation type... Just pointing you toward every site that has any OOB or TOE information on anything, would be too long a list, and wouldn't help you very much.

So, maybe a better way to proceed is with a much more specific question. You mentioned a German armor company. Here is one site that has info on varieties of German armor formations, at various times -

http://www.panzerdiesel.com/data/e/2s0.html

Here is the particular page on that site that gives the TOE organization of a panzer regiment from February 1941 through August 1942.

http://www.panzerdiesel.com/data/e/2g4102.html

The regiment has 2 battalions, an HQ platoon, and a light tank platoon of Pz IIs. Each battalion has 2 light and 1 medium companies, plus an HQ platoon, light tank platoon of IIs again, and a few more tanks "staff", and the battalion level.

A light company, below all of these, and the most likely answer to your actual questions, had -

2 Pz IIIs for the company HQ

5 Pz IIs in a light platoon (for scouting, etc)

15 Pz IIIs, in 3 platoons of 5 each

The medium company in each battalion was similar, but with Pz IVs instead of IIIs, and only 4 tanks per line platoon instead of 5.

From the summer of 1942 on, the IIs were relegated to the battalion and regiment command groups, one large platoon for each (thus far fewer overall), while the line companies had none.

Remember this is a TOE, not an OOB. It does not mean whenever a panzer company fought somewhere, it had exactly that. Some units had Czech tanks instead of Pz IIIs, some used them in place of both IIIs and IVs.

Later in the war, you would see the mixing of tanks at a higher level, with Panthers in one late war battalion of the regiment, and Pz IVs in the other battalion. While the companies under each were uniform, in terms of type. Poke around the site if you have additional questions.

Or, ask a more specific question (or three) here, and people will be quicker to oblige you. They just didn't know what you need info about.

[ February 01, 2003, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: JasonC ]

[Viceroy]

Jamesroe16,

here's a website with some good general info about Axis/Allied units in WWII.

Gary Kennedy's Site