Luftwaffe armor ...?

[Rob Murray]

I want to create a QB & I need a little help please. I want to use Luftwaffe armor units but I'm not too sure which AFV's they used. I know they did use Stugs but that's about all I know on the subject. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[Andreas]

Would it not have been created as a standard 1943 Panzer Division? I.e. Panzer IV 75L48, and Panzer III 50L60 and 75L24?

[JasonC]

There were a few independent StuG brigades in the Luftwaffe, each a battalion sized formation. Several fought only in the west, however. The only true panzer unit with turreted tanks was the Herman Goering Panzer division. Which wasn't a division until mid war, and then fought in the west rather than the east, until mid 1944. So on the eastern front, you'd only see Luftwaffe panzers from the summer of 1944 until the end.

Specifically, regiment and then brigade "general Goering" or GG was a flak and infantry formation in 1941 and 1942, and fought in Russia in that capacity. As yet it had no tanks. In 1942 it was sent to France and built up into a motorized infantry division, which was then sent to Tunisia. Only some elements made it out of Tunisia.

It was reformed as a full Panzer division on Sicily, and fought there and at Salerno, was refitted again, and then fought at Anzio etc. At this point it was organized with 2 panzer battalions and one StuG battalion, with 4 Pz Gdr battalions as in a Heer panzer division. By late in the Salerno fight, however, it was down to about 50 AFVs, ~30 tanks and ~20 StuG.

About 4 months after its last refit, it was sent to Warsaw in the summer of 1944 to help rebuild the front behind the collapsing AG center. It fought in the east for the last year of the war. In that period it was expanded to corps size and fought as 2 KGs.

HG-1 had 2 panzer battalions and 5 Pz Gdr battalions, like a Panzer division stripped of its div level assets. You'd expect one battalion of Panthers and one of Pz IVs, as in other late war Pz divisions.

HG-2 was a Pz Gdr division with a StuG battalion and a Pz Jgr battalion - so the division level unturreted armor was effectively used to support additional Pz Gdrs. Most Pz Jgr battalions in Panzer divisions had been equipped with Jagdpanzers by this point, but I have not seen any direct confirmation that HG Pz Jgrs had them. They may have used StuG, or towed guns.

I hope this helps.

[Gpig]

Welcome back, JasonC.

Where yah been?

Gpig

[Rob Murray]

Thanks.