Reconnaissance Battalion 13

1937-1942

Armored cars on parade, 1937

In 1935, in the course of the trebling of the building blocks of the German Army that took place that year, the III. Defense District (Wehrkreis III) expanded its single infantry division into three formations of that type. In 1937, one of these three organizations, the 13th Infantry Division, traded its horse-drawn vehicles for automobiles of various sorts. Later that same year, the newly motorized division, which had been formed without divisional cavalry of any sort, organized a small reconnaissance battalion (Aufklärungs Abteilung).

Like most of the other one-of-a-kind units of the 13th Infantry Division, such as the 13th Communications Battalion, and the 13th Anti-Tank Battalion, the new reconnaissance battalion received the number ‘13’. As a result, the two component companies of the unit, the armored car company (Panzer Späh Kompanie) and the motorcycle infantry company (Kradschützen Kompanie) became known, respectively, as 1./AA 13 and 2./AA13.

Carl Becker A Man of the 10th Hussars