Invasion Sweden 1943 (Untested Campaign)

[RetLT]

I am a fan or airborne ops as well as amphibious landings.

For WW2 I would be interested in an Operation Varsity campaign or scenarios. For the largest airborne op in history it is hardly mentioned.

For fictional WW2 a Downfall 46 campaign vs Japan or an Allied invasion of Spain would be fun

For MBT I like helicopter operations.

A USA vs Texas rebels would be interesting as would a Russian civil war.

[RetLT]

Ok edit won't work so it will have to be a new post

Some Sea Lion scenarios or a campaign would be good too.

An air/sea invasion of Malta (Operation Mercury) would be good too.

[wulfir]

Ok - then there's really only two things I need to know:

a) Sealion - do you want to play it as Allies or Germans?

b) Malta (Unternehmen Herkules) - do you want to play it as Axis or Allies?

[RetLT]

Axis. I like playing the historical underdog.

[MarkSheppard]

Here's a possibly fixed Invasion '43 campaign that goes in slot 20.

Still researching the OOB for a hypothetical invasion to help improve the scenario briefing.

[MarkSheppard]

OOB put together from various sources:

http://www.history.army.mil/html/boo...Pub_104-23.pdf

http://ww2-weapons.com/Armies/German...macht/1943.htm

plus cross referencing with Wikipedia and some Nafgizer books I have.

There's some interesting stuff in CMH Pub 104-23:

P.247 (Summarized) Operation PARKPLATZ; an offensive with the intention of capturing Leningrad after transferring troops in theater following a successful Kursk offensive.

P.108 (Summarized) June 1940 proposal to occupy ICELAND codenamed Operation IKARUS. Would have used liners Bremen and Europa as troopships; and they believed it could be done after September 1940; but the damage to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, combined with planning for SEA LION shelved this plan.

Page 252 (physical) onwards gets into the nitty gritty for this campaign:

P.255 "In March 1943 it [25th Panzer] was just beginning to receive some German Mark III and IV tanks, but, for the most part, its tank armament consisted of obsolete German Mark II's and French Hotchkiss and Suoma tanks. It had a ration strength, probably somewhat higher than the actual strength, of 11,000 men."

P.257 The 25th Panzer Division was to be brought up to full strength before the end of June. It would be given ten Panzer IV's five self-propelled assault guns, and ten heavy antitank guns per month during April, May, and June.

P.262 Most remarkable was the transformation of the 25th Panzer Division from a collection of odds and ends into a powerfully equipped (for Scandinavian conditions) panzer division. By the end of June the division had been completely re-equipped with German artillery and small arms; it had received well over 1,000 trucks and other vehicles; and its strength (ration strength) stood at 21,000 men. It had 7 Mark II tanks, 41 Mark III's, 16 Mark IV's, 40 Hotchkiss (French), 15 Suomas (French), and 15 self-propelled assault guns.

The map (attached) shows paratroop landings; which are interesting in themselves.

AOK Norway (Armeeoberkommando Norwegen) (directly subordinate to OKH)
---AOK Norway Reserves:
------25. Pz Div
------------extremely understrength with French R35, H39 and Char B1 tanks.
------------Artillery regiment had modern guns was just the size of a battalion.
------------Recon battalion had no armored cars; all motorcycles.
------196 Inf Div
------275 Fortress Div
---XXXIII Corps
------14 Luftwaffen Field Division
------702 Infantry Division
------181 Infantry Division
---LXX Corps
------269 Infantry Division
------280 Infantry Division
------214 Infantry Division
------710 Infantry Division
---LXXI Corps
------230 Infantry Division
------270 Infantery Division
------199 Infantry Division

20th Mountain Army (20. Gebirgsarmee): Colonel-General (Generaloberst) Eduard Dietl
---XVIII Mountain Corps (Northern Finland)
------6. SS-Mountain Division "Nord" (Northern Finland)
------7. Gebirgs Division (Northern Finland)
------18. SS-Polizei-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment (Northern Finland)
---XXXVI Mountain Corps (near Kandalaksha, Murmansk Oblast)
------169. Infantry Division (near Kandalaksha, Murmansk Oblast)
------163. Infantry Division (near Kandalaksha, Murmansk Oblast)
---XIX Mountain Corps (Northern Finland)
------2. Mountain Division (Northern Finland)
------6. Mountain Division (Northern Finland)
------210. Infantry Division (Northern Finland)
------Four Infantry regiments (Northern Finland)

[MarkSheppard]

Ignore this if you may; I'm just making notes for myself:

So 25 Pz Div had in June 1943:

7 x PzII
41 x PzIII
16 x PzIV
40 x Hotchkiss (French)
15 x Suomas (French)
15 x SP Assault Guns

This compares with 11 Pz Div (at Kursk) at the same time period via Jentz Panzertruppen vol.2, 1943-45

8 x PzII
11 x PzIII (Short)
51 x PzIII (long)
1 x PzIV (Short)
25 x PzIV (Long)
4 x Panzerbefehlwagens
13 x Flammpanzers

According to Leo Niehorster, in Mid 1943; the official organization for a Panzer Regiment was:

Regiment HQ: 3 medium tanks
Regimental Recon Platoon 7 x Pz II

I. Panzer Battalion:
Battalion HQ: 3 x Medium Tanks + 7 Pz II
Flame Platoon: 7 Flame tanks (Only authorized in specific divisions)
4 x Pz Co (17 medium tanks each company*)

II. Panzer Battalion:
Battalion HQ: 3 x Medium Tanks + 7 Pz II
Flame Platoon: 7 Flame tanks (Only authorized in specific divisions)
4 x Pz Co (17 medium tanks each company*)

(* The original TOEs authorized had 22 tanks per company, but the fourth platoon was never authorized, reducing tanks per company to just 17.)

If we go by 13+1 tank platoons per Panzer Battalion, that means that an "official" Panzer Div had room for 28 operational tank platoons; or 112 tanks.

Doing simple math on what 25 Panzer had on hand in June 1943 means that "modern" German tanks like the Pz III/IV in 25 Pz Div's inventory would only fill 57 slots; while French tanks filled another 55 slots; for a total of 112 tanks.

We have some idea of how the captured tanks were organized from Wikipedia (I know I know...but unless we can spend a lot to research 25th Pz Div's inventory returns at the National Archives, it's the best we can do)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_H35

Additional vehicles were sent to Finland as part of the independent Panzerkampfwagenzüge (tank platoons) 217, 218 and 219, which were attached to the 20th Mountain Army in February 1942.[9] The platoons were the same as those of Panzerabteilung 211, consisting of one SOMUA S35 and four Hotchkiss tanks.

From the above, it stands to reason that (possibly):

25 Pz:
Regimental HQ: 3 x Medium Tanks
Regimental Recon Plt: 7 x Pz II

I. Pz Battalion
Bn HQ: 3 x Medium Tanks
2 x Pz Company (17 medium tanks each, 34 total)
2 x Captured Pz Co (3 x S35 and 12 H39 each, 6 x S35 and 24 H39 total)

II. Pz Battalion
Bn HQ: 3 x Medium Tanks
2 x Pz Company (17 medium tanks each, 34 total)
2 x Captured Pz Co (3 x S35 and 12 H39 each, 6 x S35 and 24 H39 total)

For:

9 x Medium Tanks in HQ units
68 Medium Tanks in Pz Companies
12 x Souma and 48 Hotchkiss in Captured Pz Co

This actually comports well with the 'on hand' inventory of captured tanks, suggesting that the captured Panzer companies would be at close to TOE strength, while out of 77~ slots for medium tanks, there are only 57 medium tanks actually on hand; so the 'regular' Panzer units would be understrength (missing or understrenth platoons).

[MarkSheppard]

I've found online a 400+ MB file containing the NARA roll containing the war diary (in German) of 25 Pz Div.

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%...&action=locate