On 24 February 1917, Ernst von Wrisberg (1862-1927), the officer at the Prussian War Ministry in charge of forming (and reforming) units, signed a letter ordering the 2nd Musketen Battalion to exchange its Madsen light machine guns for Lewis guns. In the course of doing this, the line companies of the two-company unit (the smaller of the two Musketen Battalions), would also exchange one table of organization for another. In particular, the companies lost nine of the twenty-seven four-man light machine gun teams that they had previously rated.
As before, the teams would be grouped by threes to form squads, each of which was led by a non-commissioned officer (Unteroffizier.) However, rather than being assembled into three-squad platoons, the squads were paired off to form two-squad platoons. (A lieutenant led one of these platoons. Senior non-commissioned officer, each of whom wore the rank of Vizefeldwebel, led the other two.)
The recasting of the 2nd Musketen Battalion may have been motivated by an overall shortage of Madsen guns. (Wrisberg’s order included instructions to transfer to the 1st Musketen Battalion some of the Madsen guns turned in by the 2nd Musketen Battalion in the course of its reorganization.) The reform may also have owed something to a shortage of men, whether in the 2nd Musketen Battalion itself or the Musketen community as a whole. (The order also made provision for transfer of soldiers made redundant by the reform to the training and replacement unit that supported both Musketen Battalions, Ersatz-Musketen-Kompanie Nr. 1.)
Sources: Prussian War Ministry, letter of 24 February 1917, preserved in Folder PH 3/1238 at the German Federal Archives [Bundesarchiv]. (For a stand-alone copy of the document, please visit this page at the Military Learning Library.)
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