The Infantry Gun Platoon
The Volksgrenadier Division of 1944
The establishment for a Grenadier battalion of a Volksgrenadier division of the 32nd Wave authorized the issue of four 75mm infantry guns to every unit of that sort. Ideally, these would be weapons of a model, the 7,5-cm-Infanteriegeschütz 37, that had been created by mating the barrel of another 75mm infantry gun (the 7,5-cm-Infanteriegeschütz 42) to the carriage of the (ubiquitous but woefully obsolete) 37mm anti-tank gun (The model numbers of these weapons bear no relation to the years in which they were introduced.)
The four infantry guns resided in the ‘3rd (infantry gun) platoon’ [3. (leichte Infanterie Geschütze) Zug] of the ‘heavy company’ [schwere Kompanie] of the Grenadier battalion. This unit consisted of a small headquarters, three supply wagons, and four infantry gun squads.
The headquarters of the infantry gun platoon resembled that of mortar platoon. Each, for example, rated a mounted platoon commander, six signallers, two aiming circle operators, as well as a position sergeant, an armorer, and a medic. (The symbol for the medic can be found on the diagram that shows the vehicles of the platoon headquarters.)
However, where all six of the communicators in the mortar platoon carried radios, four of those in the infantry gun platoon strung telephone wire. Likewise, where both of the aiming circle operators in the mortar platoon ranked as sergeants, only one of those in the infantry gun platoon wore the badges of an Unteroffizier.
The establishment for the headquarters of the infantry gun platoon also authorized three men not found in the headquarters of the mortar platoon: a transport sergeant [Führer der Gefechts Fahrzeuge], a bicycle-mounted messenger, and a rangefinder. (The symbol for the rangefinder resembles the logo of Transport London.)
Where the headquarters of the mortar platoon packed its gear on the vehicles of mortar squads, the headquarters of the infantry gun platoon rated three supply wagons of its own. One of these carried ‘equipment and baggage’ [Gerät und Gepäck]. The other two, which were pulled by heavy horses [schwere Pferde], carried ammunition. (One of the heavier carts also provided a home for a light machine gun.)
Five teamsters served with the headquarters of the infantry gun platoon. One drove the lighter of the two-horse carts and four handled the heavy horses. (Of the latter, two drove the heavy wagons and two walked behind them.)
Each of the infantry gun squads consisted of a leader, six gunners, a teamster, a two-horse limber, and a single infantry gun.
Source: 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.)
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