The 13th Company
Between 1913 and the middle of the First World War, most German infantry regiments possessed thirteen companies. Of these, twelve, all of which were configured as rifle companies, belonged to the component battalions of the unit. One, which bore the number thirteen and wielded sled-mounted Maxim guns, reported directly to the commanding officer of the regiment.
In August of 1916, the regimental machine gun companies, which had grown considerably in size, split into three parts, each of which found a new home with a battalion. Thus, for the rest of the war, no company within a typical German infantry regiment bore the number ‘13’.
In 1920, the army of the new German republic revived the thirteen-company, three-battalion infantry regiment. However, rather than being armed with heavy machine guns, the thirteenth companies of these outfits employed Minenwerfer.
In the course of the great expansion of the German Army that began in 1935, the infantry guns took the place of the old trench mortars. To be more precise, six light (75mm) infantry guns took the places vacated by six light (76mm) trench mortars and a pair of heavy (150mm) infantry guns replaced the two medium (170mm) trench mortars rated by each Minenwerfer company.
At the same time, each infantry regiment received a fourteenth company. Initially armed with 37mm anti-tank guns, this unit would eventually trade its towed ordnance for Panzerschreck rocket launchers.
This structure persisted for much of the Second World War. Thus, between 1939 and 1943, the standard German infantry regiment fielded fourteen companies. Of these, three (numbered ‘4’, ‘8’, and ‘12’) were configured as the machine gun companies of battalions and two (‘13’ and ‘14’) belonged to the regiment as a whole.
In 1943, the standard German infantry regiment lost its junior battalions and, with it, its ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth companies. However, rather than renumbering the two standalone companies, the authors of establishments at the Army High Command allowed the autonomous companies to keep their old numbers. (This, I presume owed much to the hope that an improvement in the supply of suitable soldiers would permit the return of the disbanded battalions.)
In 1944, when the 13th companies of many infantry regiments traded some (but not all) of their infantry guns for 120mm mortars, this decision preserved German infantrymen from the need to coin a sesquipedalian designation for the rearmed unit. Thus, rather than being called something like Infanteriegeschütz und schwere Granatwerfer Kompanie, each of the infantry gun companies that experienced re-armament became known simply as the ‘13th Company’ [13. Kompanie].
Sources:
General der Infanterie beim Chef Generalstabs des Heeres, Nr. 3160/ 44g vom 5.9.44, microfilmed at the U.S. National Archives, Captured German Records , Series T-78, Reel 763. (The link will take you to a PDF of this document on file at the Military Learning Library.)
Organizations Abteilung/Generalstab des Heeres Nr. I./44 g. K dated 1 September 1944, Bundesarchiv, RH 2 1295 (The link will take you to a page on the website of the Bundesarchiv.)
Sesquipedalisch.
Actually sounds better.
“In 1943, the standard German infantry regiment lost its junior battalions and, with it, its ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth companies.” So it lost one of its junior battalions and became similar to the panzer regiments?