Infantry Units of Quick Divisions
Quick Divisions of the 1930s (Part IV)
The infantry brigade of the Schnelle Division consisted of four large motorized infantry [Kraftfahrjäger] battalions, with no intermediate headquarters. Each battalion consisted of a motorcycle rifle company, two rifle companies carried in six-wheeled all-terrain personnel carriers, a small machine gun company, a headquarters [Kommando] company, and a company of bicycle-mounted riflemen.
By the standards of comparable units of the French and German armies, the Kraftfahrjäger battalions were poorly supplied with crew-served weapons. Each battalion was equipped with twelve tripod-mounted machine guns: eight in the machine gun company, two in the motorcycle company, and two in the bicycle company. In addition to this, each headquarters company possessed two 47mm infantry guns, two 81mm mortars, and two anti-aircraft machine guns.
Whatever their mode of transportation, the Austrian Kraftfahrjäger fought on foot. For this reason, neither machine guns nor weapons of any other sort were mounted on their vehicles. The same can be said for the "cavalry riflemen" (Kavallerie Schützen) of the German light divisions. Indeed, the chief difference between the Kavallerie Schützen of the light divisions and their counterparts in muscle-powered formations lay in the way that infantry guns, anti-tank guns, and pioneers were assigned. In infantry divisions, each infantry regiment possessed a company of infantry guns, a company of anti-tank guns, and a platoon of pioneers. In light divisions, each battalion received two platoons of infantry guns, a platoon of anti-tank guns, and a platoon of pioneers.
None of the Kavallerie Schützen brigades of the light divisions had combat units mounted on motorcycles. (The only motorcyclists were the messengers of the regimental motorcycle platoons.) Thus, when the Schnelle Division was converted into the 4th Light Division, the motorcycle-mounted riflemen were either transferred to one of the motorcycle companies of the Reconnaissance Regiment or converted into truck-borne infantrymen.
Like the Kavallerie Schützen brigade of the 4th Light Division, the brigade of motorized dragoons [brigade de dragons portées] of the division légère mechanique consisted of two regiments. However, rather than being cast in the same mold, each of these was mounted in vehicles of different types. While the men (other than motorcyclists) of the first regiment of motorized dragons [régiment de dragons portées] traveled in trucks, their counterparts in the "all terrain regiment” [régiment dragons portées à tous terrains], rode in unarmored half-tracks. In addition to this, each battalion of the all-terrain regiment possessed a squadron of twenty automitrailleuses de reconnaissance.
All articles in this series:
