German Light Machineguns

[Tannenberg]

I've been recently trying to gather information on the make-up of German Stosstruppen for the latter part of WW1 and was wondering if anyone can give me some clarification on the following......were the light machinegun platoons/companies seperate entities or were the light machineguns incorporated within each platoon of Stosstruppen (and if so, how many)?  If they were seperate entities, what was the average number of light machineguns in these light machinegun platoons and how many men, on average, would there be and what were their roles?

[aircav]

here have a look at these, there's some info on them 

[Tannenberg]

Hi Kieth, many thanks for the information  I see the info was from the German Army Handbook 1918....is this a worthwhile book to have in my collection?  By the way, your 'How to paint late WW1 Germans' has been quite an inspiration for me   

[Plynkes]

It's a slightly misleading title. It's actually a British Army intelligence document on the German Army of the time. It's very comprehensive. Nearly one whole page is taken up minutely describing a German identity disc and discussing exactly what information it conveys. It is followed by a page on the paybook.

[Tannenberg]

It's a slightly misleading title. It's actually a British Army intelligence document on the German Army of the time. It's very comprehensive. Nearly one whole page is taken up minutely describing a German identity disc and discussing exactly what information it conveys. It is followed by a page on the paybook.

Would you recommend any other books that may be of some help to me.  I have some of the Osprey ones.  Do you know of anyone who makes (in 28mm) a cut down Russian 76.2 field gun which was used by the Stormtroop battalions? I'm not sure how easy this would be to do a conversion.

[aircav]

Hi Kieth, many thanks for the information  I see the info was from the German Army Handbook 1918....is this a worthwhile book to have in my collection?  By the way, your 'How to paint late WW1 Germans' has been quite an inspiration for me   

Hi, they are the only pages that I have i'm afraid, so I can't help you whether its any good 

Your welcome 

I don't think that anyone makes the cut down 76mm gun, i've been looking for one & haven't found any. I'm hoping that Scarab miniatures will do one.

[Tannenberg]

Hi, they are the only pages that I have i'm afraid, so I can't help you whether its any good 

Your welcome 

I don't think that anyone makes the cut down 76mm gun, i've been looking for one & haven't found any. I'm hoping that Scarab miniatures will do one.

Hi Keith, the info you gave will still come in very handy It was just that, in the 'German Stormtrooper 1914-1918' it mentions ''....platoons began to sudivide into 'gun groups' and 'rifle groups', capable of independent fire and movement.''

[Plynkes]

Those pages seem to be an abridgement of material spread over several chapters of the book. It's currently in print as "The German Army Handbook of 1918."

>>Link<<

I think it's worth getting if you're interested in minute details of organisation and equipment (probably enough detail to make you sorry you asked, such as how much a cavalry carbine weighs, and the various pay grades for every single rank). Even has drawings of all the Pickelhaube and Shako plates for the various German states and odd regiments (including some cool ones like the Brunswickers with the battle honour "Peninsula" on their badges), surely vital knowledge that would have come in handy to any British officer facing the full onslaught of the Kaiserschlacht in the Spring of 1918. Wouldn't want to go into battle without that, eh chaps?

Remember though it is a British intelligence assessment of the enemy from the time, for the use of British officers, and thus could well be chock full of errors.


This is another one you might find interesting, if you're into the British side of things:

>>Link<<

Though as this one isn't an intelligence manual it doesn't have the same kind of organisational detail as the other one. It's more of a "how-to" manual for junior officers. It does have platoon and company formation diagrams for various situations though, amongst about a million other things (like the rules to Bomb-Ball, a game devised to hone one's grenade skills and the muscles used for throwing them).

[Plynkes]

I can't see anywhere in the Handbook where it mentions how 08/15s were organised in Assault troop units. Just talks in general terms about how many there were in a regular company (raised from the original 3 to 6 by 1918, and distributed two per platoon, each LMG detachment being one gun, an Unteroffizier and 8 men), and then describes the gun itself in some detail and gives technical specs. Makes no mention of separate LMG platoons for anybody as far as I can see. But of course there would have been gaps in the knowledge of the British Intelligence bods, so it isn't really the best source to be using.

[Tannenberg]

I can't see anywhere in the Handbook where it mentions how 08/15s were organised in Assault troop units. Just talks in general terms about how many there were in a regular company (raised from the original 3 to 6 by 1918, and distributed two per platoon, each LMG detachment being one gun, an Unteroffizier and 8 men), and then describes the gun itself in some detail and gives technical specs. Makes no mention of separate LMG platoons for anybody as far as I can see. But of course there would have been gaps in the knowledge of the British Intelligence bods, so it isn't really the best source to be using.

As I had mentioned to Keith, in the Osprey publication 'German Stormtrooper 1914-1918' it mentions''....platoons began to sudivide into 'gun groups' and 'rifle groups', capable of independent fire and movement''.  It sort of makes sense with regards to distributing two lmg's per infantry platoon (the WW2 German platoon system being based on this make-up).  I've already read in at least a couple of the Osprey books, the mention of lmg platoons so it makes it a little frustrating to try and get more on it, . 

Marco

[WillieB]

I would like to recommend 'Stormtroop Tactics' subtitled 'Innovation In The German Army 1914-1918' by Bruce Gudmundssun ISBN 0-275-95401-3.
A 200 page (large) ¨paperback with lots of details on weapons and tactics.

Of course you had the early Musketen battalions with well over 120 LMGs!
BTW it's not just the 08/15. The (re-chambered or not) Lewis was one of the most popular LMGs in the Stosstruppen,  they also extensively used the (ex- Russian) Madsen, and in fact it all started with the Bergmann LMG.
Would make a nice model wouldn't it? .

[Tannenberg]

I would like to recommend 'Stormtroop Tactics' subtitled 'Innovation In The German Army 1914-1918' by Bruce Gudmundssun ISBN 0-275-95401-3.
A 200 page (large) ¨paperback with lots of details on weapons and tactics.

Of course you had the early Musketen battalions with well over 120 LMGs!
BTW it's not just the 08/15. The (re-chambered or not) Lewis was one of the most popular LMGs in the Stosstruppen,  they also extensively used the (ex- Russian) Madsen, and in fact it all started with the Bergmann LMG.
Would make a nice model wouldn't it? .

Hi there Willie, many thanks for that piece of information As always, it will be put to good use.  Going on from the lmg make-up side of things, do you have any reliable information on the make-up of a Stosstrupen platoon and company. My head's starting to sway with all the different bits of information on this as well,

[Wirelizard]

Thanks for those Amazon links, Plynkes. Filed away for purchase at some point soon, especially the second one.

Pity the publishers are still using out-of-date exchange rates - the Amazon UK price works out to about $8.50 Canadian, while Amazon Canada sells the same book for $12.75.