Re: DAR: GE Long campaign - small core
According to Dr. Niehorster's data, 3rd panzer division had 18 PzIV's on 1 September, 1939. It had 4 'heavy' tank companies, which gives either 4 each with a section reserved or 3 of the 'heavy' tank companies had 6 each and one had none. This was the common case for all the panzer divisions except for 1st panzer which had 56!!
PzIII's were in much shorter supply, 3rd division only had 6 of them, although I wonder if a few ended up categorized as Bef-Pz and used as command tanks. There were slightly fewer 38t's fielded than PzIII's, but almost as many 35t's as PzIV's. Of course, the numbers for all the heavier tank models combined is dwarfed by the numbers of PzI's and PzII's.
The thing about german TOE's in WWII, even early on, is that it is so varied as to defy any attempt to describe a 'common' formation. After about 1941 the data gets sketchy, much of what appeared on official documents was wishful thinking.
|