Attachments to the 213th Division

Manstein's First World War

In the month of May of 1918, in anticipation of an operation with the codename of Görz, the 213th Infantry Division received an extraordinary large number of attachments. Some of these, like field artillery battalions, batteries of 15cm howitzers, and Minenwerfer companies, were of types already serving with the formation. Others, such as the 1st Assault Battalion (Sturmbataillon) and batteries armed with “heavier” and “heaviest” artillery pieces, provided new capabilities.

Like the organic Minenwerfer company of the 213th Division, the attached Minenwerfer units - five companies and a complete battalion - were armed with various combinations of heavy (25cm) and medium (170mm) trench mortars.

Mountain Machine Gun Detachment (Gebirgs Maschinengewehr Abteilung) 227 transported its six heavy machine guns, in the manner of mountain artillery, on the backs of pack animals. (This is indicated by the horizontal bar resting upon the basic symbol for machine gun.)

The 1st Assault Battalion consisted of a battery of four 7.5 cm infantry guns, a detachment of eight light Minenwerfer, a company of twelve heavy machine guns, and three assault companies. (The “box missing a smaller box” symbol indicates a battalion with three line companies.)

Each of the assault companies was provided with six light machine guns, some of which may have been captured Lewis guns. (These are indicated by the machine gun symbol resting upon a vertical bar. )

The combat engineer (Pionier) battalion consisted of six companies: three organic companies of Pionier Bataillon 35 (depicted by another “box missing a smaller box”) and three companies borrowed from other battalions (depicted by smaller rectangles.) (Two other smaller rectangles indicate the presence of a pair of companies of a Landsturm battalion. Composed of men deemed too old or unfit for front-line service, the men of these companies provided some of the labor, traffic management, and security services required by a division taking part in a major offensive.)

Of the nine heavy gun batteries attached to the 213th Division, five were armed with 10cm guns and four with 15cm guns. While all of the 10cm guns were of relatively recent vintage, one of the 15cm batteries was armed with Ringkanonen, which dated from the years immediately following the Franco-Prussian War.

Of the eleven heavy howitzer batteries provided to the 213th Division for Operation Görz, seven were armed with 15cm howitzers, three with 21cm howitzers, and one with a pair of 30.5cm “coastal mortars.” (The latter had taken part in the bombardment of the Belgian fortresses of Liège and Antwerp in 1914.

Most of the twenty heavy artillery units attached to the 213th Division lacked organic transport. They were thus dependent on horse teams borrowed from other units to move from one firing position to another. One of the 15cm howitzer batteries and three of the 10cm gun batteries were bespannt. That is, they were provided with a full set of horses, harness, limbers, and wagons. Two of the 15cm gun batteries, and the coastal mortar battery were among the relative handful of German batteries of the First World War to use motor vehicles to pull their pieces.

Source: Documents of the 213th Infantry Division on file at the Military Archives of the German Federal Archives (BA/MA), PH 8 I/56 and Chef der Kriegsvermessungs Wessen, Taktische Zeichen, BA/MA PH 3/ 2011.