Interesting Visualization of a German Tank Division

[panzerzombie]

While reading I was thinking of the motorization of the army and one would think that as a rubber-starved country Halftracks would be the way to go, but - apart from the fourfold IC costs - a single HT costs as much rubber as a normal truck ( In game terms you even get 4 trucks with 2 or 3 axles, using single or double rear tires ( lets say about a average total need of 16-20 tires ) for each HT).

The halftrack ofc needs rubber too - front steering wheels and many rubber coated roadwheels - but a lot less in terms of weight and in reduced wear ( the load bearing roadwheels running inside tracks and being protected by them). They were undoubtly much more complicated than trucks so an increase in IC costs is justified ( but 4 times as much is a bit hard).

The troops are better protected but there is not much incentive in terms of production to switch to HT ( more research and lost efficiency when switching from trucklines too ) even for rubber starved germany or japan.

I guess I put that in a seperate post.

 

[jamesd]

@jamesd
How about the ratio between infantry battalions and panzer battalions inside a panzer division, it remained somewhere around the middle ? 50/50 ?

1939: 4 Panzer & 2-4 Infantry
1940: 2-4 Panzer & 4-5 Infantry
1941: 2-3 Panzer & 5 Infantry
1943: 2 Panzer & 4 Infantry
1945: 1 Panzer & 5 Infantry

Those are actual battalions and not HOI4 battalions. For example the 1939 organisation had a theoretical top strength of 324 tanks, so that would be 5 HOI4 battalions at 60 tanks each. Similarly the 1945 infantry battalions were smaller than previously and would probably be best represented by 4 HOI battalions. Another thing to keep in mind is that in 1939 there were 4 Light Divisions in addition to the Panzer Divisions. These divisions included 1 panzer & 4 infantry battalions (plus a second recon battalion in 3 of them, although 1 was detached to 10th Panzer Division which was still forming at that point). There were also an additional 6 non-divisional panzer battalions that usually operated with the Light Divisions and joined them as part of their upgrade to Panzer Divisions. The motorcycle battalions were merged with the divisional recon battalions around 42/43 to form armoured recon battalions. These were quite powerful battalions with 5 companies and lots of armoured cars and light halftracks. They were much more powerful than the recon support company that we can add in game so there's a case to add them in as an additional infantry battalion from 1943.

In terms of HOI4 templates you could have:

1939
1st-3rd & 10th Pz Divs: 5 Arm & 3 Inf
4th Pz Div: 5 Arm & 2 Inf
5th Pz Div: 5 Arm & 4 Inf
1st-3rd Lt Divs: 4 Arm & 4 Inf
4th Lt Div: 3 Arm & 4 Inf

1940
1st - 5th & 10th Pz Divs: 5 Arm & 4 Inf
6th & 8th Pz Divs: 4 Arm & 4 Inf
7th Pz Div: 4 Arm & 5 Inf
9th Pz Div: 3 Arm & 4 Inf

1941/42: 2-4 Pz & 5 Inf

1943/44: 2-3 Pz & 5 Inf

1945: 1 Pz & 5 Inf

 

[meshawa]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...zation-of-a-german-tank-division-3-44.907306/

 

[gladius2metal]

Hi, I am the creator of this video.
First, thanks a lot for the praise and also a lot of thanks to OP for sharing it. I put up all my videos in the History subforum and yesterday I did a similar video about an US Army Infantry Battalion (1944), this time with a focus on attack on a organized position instead the intended vs. historical setup:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-attack-tactics-vs-organized-position.909376/


My channel is just about 6 weeks old and I am experimenting with various ways of presentation, visualizations and different formats. I have also a video on a German Infantry Division in 1939/1940, but it is an "old format", where I also explicitly credit the BICE team. (I know they are NATO counters, but their art style is awesome.)
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...rman-infantry-division-in-world-war-2.902151/

Great videos ! I look forward to the second part of the vid where he will try to prove mathematically ( i think ) which tank was the most efficient by including reliability, ease of production, resource cost etc....

thx, no will not be a math approach and it will be several videos. Next steps: Since I collected some feedback on the basic framework I will update it and put all the stuff in an excel sheet outlining the various sub-factors. Then I will do a video about that and collect some feedback as well and after that I probably present a final version of the framework and then I will start collecting the data on the various tanks and add proper references in the excel sheet + arguments. Excel will allow me to easily add various grading factors to each factor and subfactor. So basically if people say: I think this subfactor is way more important, but I agree with your overall grading of X than I can change the grading of that factor and see how much it affects the overall outcome.

I looked up the US light armoured division TOE and it included 54 armoured cars, so that would still be a fair complement for modding. I wasn't seeking to pass judgement, just provide information.

do you have a source for the TOE and what year it is? I got some TOE's already, but I am not sure if I have a light armoured division yet.

 

[jamesd]

do you have a source for the TOE and what year it is? I got some TOE's already, but I am not sure if I have a light armoured division yet.

US Army Handbook 1939-1945 by George Forty. He includes tables sub units and totals for the division. As of 14 Sep 1943 the US Armored Division had:

10,937 men with 2,187 in 3 tank bns, 3,003 in 3 mech inf bns, 1,623 in 3 SP art bns, 935 in a recce sqn, 693 in an eng bn, 302 in a sig coy and the rest in HQs, logistics, medical, MP etc.

Equipment included 186 medium tanks, 77 light tanks, 54 armoured cars, 473 halftracks, 54 SP 105mm howitzers, 17 SP 75mm howitzers, 30 towed 57mm AT guns, 30 81mm mortars & 63 60mm mortars. There was a total of 2,650 vehicles of which 1,761 were non-combat types.

When on campaign each US Armored Division would normally have an AT (36 x SP AT guns) & Lt AA battalion more or less permanently attached.

 

[gladius2metal]

US Army Handbook 1939-1945 by George Forty

thank you! It seems Forty wrote a book on nearly every army.

 

[Axe99]

Nice one @gladius2metal . Have subscribed to your channel, love the vids .

 

[Shatterfury]

Now that I`m thinking I will need to split the infantry divisions in at least two.

If I want to add one battalion of StuG III / IV to every division that would prove to be hard, have one pattern with StuGs, another without.

 

[gladius2metal]

Nice one @gladius2metal . Have subscribed to your channel, love the vids .

thank you, welcome to my channel

 

[panzerzombie]

Now that I`m thinking I will need to split the infantry divisions in at least two.

If I want to add one battalion of StuG III / IV to every division that would prove to be hard, have one pattern with StuGs, another without.

Problem is that assault guns don´t really exist in game, either you choose a TD which is not cheaper than a tank of its own level ( which was the main reason of designing them, right ?), or you choose instead SP-Guns which IMO rather represent Wespe,Hummel, Priest, Sexton etc.and are not cheaper too...

 

[The Albatross]

thank you, welcome to my channel

Just discovered your outstanding work @gladius2metal - congratulations.
For those interested - gladius2metal has a youtube channel.

It is chock full of valuable information.

 

[gladius2metal]

Just discovered your outstanding work @gladius2metal - congratulations.
For those interested - gladius2metal has a youtube channel.

It is chock full of valuable information.

thank you!!!