Friday, April 4, 2014

West German infantry platoon TO&E

Last weekend, I covered the TO&E that I use for my Danish infantry platoon stands, so it seems fitting that I continue the theme and talk about my West German infantry platoons. 

As with my other TO&E's, this is somewhat stylized because I'm forced to adapt to what O8 actually produces. I also ignore things like grenatpistoles and G3 SG1 sniper rifles, which at this small scale would be pretty well invisible anyway. In any case, in 1981, a West German panzergrenadier platoon consisted of 3 squads. A squad varied from 5-7 men, depending on strength levels. I've settled on using 7, which gives me 21 per platoon stand. Each squad was 5 riflemen armed with G3's:
One Panzerfaust 44:
And one MG3 LMG:
Giving a platoon total of 15 riflemen, 3 PzF44, and 3 MG3. 

The early 80s was a time of profound restructuring for the West German Army, which was in the midst of transitioning from Heerstruktur 3 to Heerstructur 4. Because of this, some platoons would still have had a Carl Gustav or even two:
While others would already have replaced them with a Milan launcher (later in the 80s it was increased to two Milans): 
So I randomly give some platoons a Carl Gustav and others I give a Milan launcher. 

Panzergrenadier companies often had one or more Redeye launchers attached, though some didn't, which generally (but not always) would've been cascaded down to the platoons. So to ease my woes, I've elected not to put any on my platoon stands, instead keeping them grouped at company level. 

Panzerjägers had an identical structure with the exception that their squads had 2 extra riflemen, for a platoon total of 21 riflemen, so I have two types of West German stands, as if all this wasn't headache enough!!

More from me later this weekend, hopefully....

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