Luftwaffe Ground Troops - Good or Bad?

[Wally's World]

Seeing that CMBB has Luftwaffe ground troops, I was wondering if anyone has an opinion on how good the quality of these troops were? I've read both good and bad points about them. I read that they performed well in Italy but poorly on the eastern front and that Goering only formed these divisions because of his jealousy of Himmler's SS.

I admit I don't know much about these troops so does anyone have any opinions about them?

[ October 09, 2002, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Wally's World ]

[Michael Emrys]

A distinction needs to be made between the Fallschirmjäger—which were pretty uniformly excellent—and the field divisions, which were pretty uniformly poor. Oh, and the Herman Göring Panzer Division, which was also pretty good.

The paratroops and the Panzer division were well trained and highly motivated and usually well equipped. The field divisions were less well trained and equipped and their leadership was inexperienced except in those cases where Heer officers had been seconded to them. They tended to melt away in heavy combat faster than Heer formations.

Michael

[Michael Dorosh]

Mixed bag - I have some info on them (a brief overview) in my Who's Who at my GD site below. The early incarnations of Luft ground troops appear to have been ok, but the follow ons were poorly equipped compared to Army units. When the Army took control later in the war, I think (I don't recall now) the quality may have gone up a bit, but overall, the weapons, trucks, etc. that went to equip them actually prevented more Army units from being created (such as new panzer divisions) and on the whole were a waste.

[rune]

Look for a scenario called Pride of the Luftwaffe, heading towards you soon.

Rune

[Nidan1]

Later in the war when the Luftwaffe, the actual aircraft and support personnel, was so badly decimated that it nearly ceased to exist. Luftwaffe support personnel were gathered into regular Wehrmacht units and trained as infantry.

Their quality was initially spotty, but they usually performed well in their new roles.

This information has been received from various books I have read over the years, and seems to be consistent across accounts by different people.

[Lindan]

And also look for "South of Heaven", another scenario involving them. (*coming soon*)

[Scott B]

Originally posted by rune:

Look for a scenario called Pride of the Luftwaffe, heading towards you soon.

Rune

Soon = Tonight, if all goes according to plan, actually.

Scott

[Chad Harrison]

The rifle squads are no different than the Army rifle squads in early war. I dont know about late war however. The Fallscrims though are the same as they were in CMBO, lots of full auto weapons, but now not a lot of ammo!

Chad

[KNac]

If you have played AA (Airbone Assault, if you haven't you should), I can say that in that place and that timeframe they are horrrorous! But that's western front and a specific zone and timeframe.

However, I don't know why, I think they were, well mostly of poor quality. However we must separe them in 3 categories:

-Independent luftwaffe field troops: usually in battallion strengh, mostly bad, I would say.

-Luftwaffe field divisions: not as good as Heer, but not they could fight, training, (equipment sometimes), and probably leadership and morale was lower.

-Fallschirjager regiments/divisions: excellent quality in general from the beginning to mid-late war, at late war they were decreasing in quality but as the whole german army.

[apex]

Luftwaffe had first pick on recruits afaik, so the human material was top-notch. However, lack of infantry training and an officer corps that for the most part wasn't trained for ground combat made them rather ineffective in practice. Would have been a lot more effective to issue them as replacement into regular units.

apex

[Breakthrough]

The non parachute Luftwaffe 'Field Divisions' raised in 1942 for the Russian Front were a disaster on the whole. They were composed of two light 'Jaeger' infantry regiments of two battalions each supported by 75mm instead of 105mm artillery. 88mm guns were a specialty of the Luftwaffe but the divisional AA battery only had 8 guns. The LW Field Divs only numbered about 7000 men each.

[Andreas]

I have heard little, but that little was uniformly bad. A case treated at length that I have is recounted by CO 114th PzGrenRgt Col. Zollenkopf, happened 28/29 Dec 42. On their flank a LW Field Division was posted. Its GOC was a General of the home AA troops, no experience either in ground combat or Russia. Same for the regimental and battalion commanders. The Soviets must have figured it out, and attacked the division. The GOC refused to believe he was being attacked and accuses the soldiers of PiBtl 57 (who reported loss of contact to the LW unit on its flank, as well as receiving fire from LW positions, and Russian language shouts and orders from LW positions) of panic-mongering. Then comms ceased. K6 (motorcycle BN of 6. PD) sends a company to investigate. Finds the divisional CP raided, the whole staff shot. The whole LW division overrun. Remnants that make it to KG Zollenkopf ask to be adopted. Apparently it was well-equipped with weapons, but had zero idea of fieldcraft and how to guard a position.

All sounds pretty damning to me.

[Rob Murray]

Apparently the German army lower ranks referred to the Luftwaffe field divisions as " Luftwaffen Felkonstruktions-Divisionen - " mistakenly constructed air force divisions ". Field Marshall von Manstein & General Warlimont ( among others ) had opposed their creation but were overruled.