Platoons of a Minenwerfer Company
The second part of a series about a trench mortar unit from 1934
The table of organization for a Minenwerfer company that became official on 1 November 1934 provided for four platoons. The first three of these, which employed light (7.58 cm) Minenwerfer, were often described as ‘light platoons’ [leichte Züge]. The fourth, armed with medium (17 cm) Minenwerfer, was known, mirabile dictu, as the ‘medium platoon’ [mittlerer Zug].
Regardless of the weapon it wielded, each platoon broke down into two elements: a ten-man ‘platoon section’ [Zug Trupp] and a twenty-three-man ‘platoon’ [Zug]. The ‘platoon’, in turn, consisted of a ‘mortar officer’ [Werferoffizier] and two eleven-man ‘mortars’ [Werfer].
While the Werferoffizier ranked as a senior sergeant [Feldwebel], the leader of each Werfer [Werferführer] was a sergeant of the ordinary kind [Unteroffizier].
In addition to its leader, each ‘mortar’ rated four ‘saddle drivers’ [Fahrer vom Sattel], and a six-man mortar crew [Minenwerfer Bedienung]. Thus, it could both move and shoot as an independent unit. (If the leader wished to be able to communicate, he would have to borrow a telephonist from the ‘platoon troop’. Likewise, if he wished to do more than fire over open sights, he would probably need the help of one of the two aiming circle sergeants of the platoon.)
The platoon section might be described as a smaller version of the ‘company staff and company section’ [Kompanie Stab und Kompanie Trupp]. It consisted of:
a platoon leader [Zugführer] (not depicted on diagram)
two aiming circle sergeants [Richtkreis Unteroffiziere]
one surveyor [Entfernungsmeßmann]
one mounted messenger [Meldereiter]
one dismounted messenger [Melder]
one horseholder [Pferdehalter]
three telephonists [Fernsprecher]
Like his counterpart in the ‘company section’, the mounted messenger of the ‘platoon section’ carried a pair of tripod-mounted rabbit-eared binoculars. However, while some of the signallers at the company level turned the dials on radio sets, all of the communicators in each platoon were telephonists [Fernsprecher].
Source: Chef der Heeresleitung, letter of 1 November 1934 Organization of the Minenwerfer Company of an Infantry Regiment [Gliederung der Minenwerferkompanie eines Infanterie-Regiments] German Federal Archives [Bundesarchiv] Folder RH 26-12/534 pages 57-60/120-125 [as marked on documents/as shown on slide on viewer]
Source for Photo: US National Archives
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Bruce, I understand why you wanted to retain the silhouette rank structure for this series, but between my general unfamiliarity with German rank structure and the _very_ small differentiations among the figures, I find it's distracting me rather than informing me. Could you consider switching to something either larger or more distinct or even using more modern equivalent insignia?