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List of German divisions in WWII

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This is a list of German divisions in WWII. Only ground units are covered; "divisions" of aircraft are not.

Upgrades and reorganizations are shown only to identify the variant names for what is notionally a single unit; other upgrades and reorganizations are deferred to the individual articles. Due to the scope of this list pre-war changes are not shown, nor are upgrades from units smaller than a division.

Table of contents
1 Name elements not usually translated
2 Heer
3 Kriegsmarine
4 Luftwaffe
5 Waffen-SS
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Name elements not usually translated

;Grenadier: A traditional term for heavy infantry. ;Jäger: A traditional term for light infantry (literally "hunter"). ;Lehr: A demonstration unit (literally "learning-" or "teaching-"). ;Nummer: "Number". (See description in Infantry Series Divisions, below.) ;Panzer: Armored (literally "armor"). ;Sturm: "Storm" or "Assault". ;Volks: "of the People". ;zbV: Abbreviation for "Special Purpose". Volks, Sturm, and Grenadier were sometimes used simply as morale-building epithets, often without any significance to a unit's organization or capabilities.

Heer

Panzer Divisions

Numbered Panzer Divisions

Named Panzer Divisions

Light Divisions

The designation "Light" (leichte) had various meanings in the German Army of World War II. There was a series of 5 Light divisions; the first four were pre-war mechanized formations organized for use as mechanized cavalry, and the fifth was an ad hoc collection of mechanized elements rushed to Africa to bail the Italians out and organized into a division once there. All five were eventually converted to ordinary Panzer divisions.

Various other divisions were dubbed "Light" for other reasons, and are listed among the Infantry Series Divisions.

Infantry Series Divisions

Types of division in the series

German infantry divisions had a variety of designations and specializations, though numbered in a single series. The major variations are as follows: ;Fortress (Festung): Divisions of non-standard organization used to garrison critical sites. The smaller ones might consist of only two or three battalions. ;Grenadier: A morale-building honorific usually indicative of reduced strength when used alone. ;Light, Jäger: Provided with partial horse or motor transport and usually lighter artillery, and reduced in size compared to an ordinary infantry division. Some of these were essentially identical to mountain divisions, and were sometimes referred to as Gebirgsjäger ("Mountain Light Infantry") divisions.

;Motorized: Provided with full motor transport for all infantry and weapons systems. Usually reduced in size compared to an ordinary infantry division. ;Division Nummer: A sort of placeholder division, with a number (Nummer) and staff but few if any combat assets. These divisions started out without any type in their name (e.g., Division Nr. 179), though some acquired a type later on (e.g, Panzer Division Nr. 179). ;Panzergrenadier: As motorized, but with more self-propelled weapons and an added battallion of tanks or fully armored assault guns. ;Static (bodenständige): Deficient in transport, even enough to move its own artillery. Many of these were divisions that had been mauled on the Russian Front and were sent west to serve as costal defense garrisons until sufficient resources were available to rehabilitate them. ;Volksgrenadier: A late-war reorganization with reduced size and increased short-range firepower. Many previously destroyed or badly mauled infantry divisions were reconstituted as Volksgrenadier divisions, and new ones were raised as well. ;zbV: An ad hoc division created to meet a special requirement. (E.g., Division zbV Afrika)

Most of the size reductions listed above were by about a third, either by the removal of an infantry regiment or the removal of one infantry battalion from each of the three regiments.

Infantry divisions were raised in waves, sets of divisions with a standardized table of organization and equipment. In general the later waves (i.e., the higher-numbered divisions) were of lower quality than the earlier ones.

Numbered Divisions

Named Divisions

Mountain Divisions

Ski Division

Cavalry Divisions

According to Davies, the Cavalry divisions were mounted infantry and the Cossack divisions were "true cavalry", modelled on the Russian cavalry divisions.

Landwehr Divisions

Artillery Divisions

Named Fortress divisions

Named Training Divisions

Field Replacement Divisions

Kriegsmarine

Naval Infantry Divisions

Luftwaffe

Hermann Göring Divisions

The Hermann Göring formations grew from a single police detachment to an entire armored corps over the course of the war. The later epithet Fallschirm ("parachute") was purely honorific.

Airborne Divisions

In order to keep its existence secret, the first German airborne division was named as if a Flieger ("flier") division in the series of Luftwaffe divisions that controlled air assets rather than ground troops:

The division was later reorganized to start a series of nominally airborne divisions. Though named Fallschirmjäger ("paratrooper") divisions, most were not actually trained for airdrops, and in practice all operated as ordinary motorized infantry throughout their existence. The lower-numbered ones maintaned an élite status, but quality generally declined among the higher-numbered ones.

Field Divisions

These were ordinary infantry divisions organized from Luftwaffe personnel made available after mid-war due to the manpower crunch. They were originally Luftwaffe units but were later handed over to the Heer, retaining their numbering but with Luftwaffe attached to distinguish them from similarly numbered divisions already existing in the Heer.

Training Divisions

Anti-Aircraft Divisions

These were headquarters for controlling aggregates of FLAK ("anti-aircraft artillery") assets rather than ordinary combined arms divisions organized for ground combat.

Waffen-SS

All divisions in the Waffen-SS were ordered in a single series, regardless of type. Those tagged with nationalities were at least nominally recruited from those nationalities. Many of the higher-numbered units were small battlegroups, i.e. divisions in name only.

Waffen SS formations from Aryan nations were called SS-Divisions wheras volunteer formations from non-Aryan nations were diven the title Division der SS.

Also Panzer Division Kempf, a temporary unit of mixed Heer and Waffen-SS components.

See also

References

External links



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