Division troops

Rocket artillery system MARS of the Artillery Training Regiment 5 of the 5th Armored Division

Division troops are units or associations that are led directly from the staff of a division . Because units of the division troops are not incorporated into the brigades subordinate to a division , they are sometimes referred to as independent battalions or independent regiments .

assignments

Division troops mostly serve to provide direct command support to the division commander and subordinate staff departments . If necessary, some division troops also make their skills available to the brigades subordinate to the division. The headquarters company makes directly to by staff and utilities Headquarters Service . The numerous units of the telecommunications company operate divisional command posts and thus secure communication with the neighboring, superior and subordinate staffs . Units and units of the hunter's troops and the auxiliary batteries of the artillery secure the divisional and artillery command posts , special ammunition , special weapon systems and units of the division troops. This relieves the combat troops of the subordinate brigades. The reconnaissance aircraft represent the division lead with its own wide-ranging resources reconnaissance results available so that the division commander in the sense of mission command independently a military situation picture gets. In order to relieve the subordinate battalions, independent units of the logistics force or the medical force are often tasked with repairing the equipment, supplying and providing medical care for the division troops and sometimes subordinate brigades.

At the division level, groups of troop types are also grouped together that do not serve to directly support the divisional staff, but instead directly support or strengthen the subordinate brigades in combat as combat support troops or combat troops . These units often have extensive ( tactical ) operational resources or weapon systems that exceed the area of ​​operations of a brigade and which therefore cannot be coordinated by the brigades. Examples are the army aviators that can be deployed over a wide area and the far-reaching weapon systems of air defense or artillery . While the brigades mostly “only” had barrel artillery , the divisional artillery often had extensive rocket artillery systems (see rocket artillery battalion ).

"Smaller" branches of service as military police ( military police ), the NBC defense and pioneers and training units and spare associations were also bundled in the army at the level of divisions.

Leadership and organization

Division troops are led directly by the division from the division staff . So you are not part of any of the subordinate brigades. In the Bundeswehr , the commander of the division troops is usually the deputy division commander with the rank of brigadier general . "Ordinary" battalions of the division troops in the Bundeswehr are mostly led by lieutenant colonels . Regiments of division troops or particularly important or large battalions of division troops are usually commanded by colonels in the Bundeswehr .

The size of the division troops varies depending on the armed forces and army structure. In the Bundeswehr during the Cold War, however , the overall size was often one or two brigades; Today the size of the division troops of the Bundeswehr is reduced to a few battalions. Not all land forces have or had division troops in every army structure. In some army structures, for example, the division staff uses the resources of the subordinate brigades instead. Some of the tasks of the Division troops are also several divisions at the level of the corps in the Corps troops or other organizational units bundled and stand only when needed Division leadership available.

As an example of the division troops a typical division of the Army of the Armed Forces in the Army structure IV below the outline of the 7 "Westphalian" Panzer Division to 1989:

• Headquarters / Headquarters Company 7th Panzer Division, Unna
  • Division troops:
    • Army Music Corps 7, Düsseldorf
    • Telecommunications Battalion 7, Lippstadt
    • Telecommunication company 7, Clausthal-Zellerfeld
    • Army Aviation Squadron 7, Rheine
    • 7th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, Augustdorf
    • 7th anti-aircraft regiment, Borken
    • Engineer Battalion 7 , Höxter
    • NBC Defense Company 7, Emden (at peace with NBC Defense Battalion 110)
    • Medical battalion 7 (partially active), Hamm
    • Supply Battalion 7 (partially active), Unna
    • Repair Battalion 7 (partly active), Unna
    • Field Replacement Battalion 71 (GerEinh), Paderborn
    • Field Replacement Battalion 72 (GerEinh), Ahlen
    • Field Replacement Battalion 73 (GerEinh), Ahlen
    • Field Replacement Battalion 74 (GerEinh), Menden
    • Field Replacement Battalion 75 (GerEinh), Paderborn
    • Jägerbataillon 76 (GerEinh), Preussisch Oldendorf
    • Jägerbataillon 77 (GerEinh), Paderborn
    • Security Battalion 78 (GerEinh), Paderborn
    • Telecommunications training company 1/7, Lippstadt (in peace to telecommunications battalion 7)
    • Training company staff service and military drivers 2/7, Wuppertal (in peace to rocket artillery battalion 72)
    • Tank reconnaissance training company 3/7, Augustdorf (in peacetime to tank reconnaissance battalion 7)
    • Repair training company 5/7, Unna (in peacetime to repair battalion 7)
    • Repair training company 6/7, Unna (in peace to repair battalion 7)
    • Resupply training company 7/7, Ahlen (dissolved in 1988)
    • 7th Artillery Regiment
      • Staff / Staff Battery Artillery Regiment 7 , Dülmen
      • Accompanying battery 7, Dülmen
      • Field Artillery Battalion 71, Dülmen
      • Missile Artillery Battalion 72, Wuppertal
      • Observation Battalion 73, Dülmen
  • Brigades ( not division troops):
    • 19 Panzer Grenadier Brigade , Ahlen
    • Panzer Brigade 20 , Iserlohn
    • Panzer Brigade 21 , Augustdorf

See also : Structure of the field army (Bundeswehr, Army Structure 4)

See also

Analogously, corps and brigades of troops to the command support. They are known as corps troops or brigade units . Similarly, the military area commands of the territorial army were subordinate to the defense district commands, which were designed similar to the division troops.