Marching Battalion

Marching battalions (also marching companies / escadrons / batteries , more rarely " marching regiments ") were called units that were formed to reinforce and refresh units in the field. As the name suggests, they were only formed for the time of the march, i.e. the transfer from the installation rooms to the troops.

Early forms

With the widespread establishment of standing armies in Europe, the forms of military organization also changed. If troops had previously been formed ad hoc from mercenaries who were released after a campaign , now established peace organizations existed for each regiment . If the regiments moved out and then suffered losses in action, then they had to be replenished with personnel reserves from newly trained recruits . After the training, the replacement crew had to be relocated to the actual designated troop units in the operational area. In order to increase protection and the ability to self-defense, but also to be able to control and supervise the soldiers, they were grouped into provisional units for the duration of the march. Depending on the size of the unit, one could speak of a marching company to a marching regiment , although the marching battalion was the most common occurrence.

The term itself prevailed throughout most of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars (1805–1815). Mostly they consisted of around 500-1000 soldiers. Although they were actually only provisional units, some marching battalions were also directly involved in a battle, where they suffered great losses due to their lack of organizational strength. General von Müffling wrote about the deployment of Russian marching battalions in the Battle of Bautzen (May 20/21, 1813):

“Instead of immediately disbanding such a marching battalion, which contained soldiers from all regiments of the Russian army, and employing people in their regiments, such battalions were brought into action near Bautzen, where they fought unreliably without organization, without officers and non-commissioned officers , were fed irregularly and, when they lost their marching battalion, could not find their way again. "

- General von Müffling

From the 19th century the term can be found explained in most dictionaries. For example in the “General Real Encyclopedia of the Entire War Art” from 1827 or in “Pierer's Universal Lexikon” from 1860. The formation of marching battalions took place in practically all European wars of the 19th century, including the German War of 1866 and the German War. French War 1870/71.

Austro-Hungarian Army

In the Austro-Hungarian armed forces of the First World War , marching formations served as a means of replacement. After it had become necessary due to the inevitable personnel losses, the replacement had to be arranged via the marching battalions, companies, cadrons or batteries. After the end of the mobilization phase, the reserve battalion cadres set up these marching units and, when they were complete, transferred them to the respective main regiments in the area of ​​operation. The dissolution of the marching battalions and the allocation of the men to the troops concerned took place through the regiment, unless the brigade or division (in Austria the designation infantry or cavalry was "troop division") decided otherwise. In practice, this meant nothing more than that if the replacement was urgently needed, it was intercepted and sent somewhere else before it had reached its actual destination - the main regiment. Quite a few marching battalions fought as independent units. The name was given in continuous Roman numerals followed by the name of the main troop unit. For example: XI. Marching battalion 2nd TJR ( Tyrolean Jäger Regiment ).

The first marching formations of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces left at the beginning of the war. Since the Imperial and Royal Landwehr, in contrast to the Honvéd and the Common Army, originally had no marching formations, they first had to be set up at the Landwehr. From September 1914 until December 1915 marching battalions could be formed roughly monthly, so in December 1915 the XVII. and at the kk Landwehr the XVI. March battalions departed. From 1916, the replacement position had to be gradually reduced due to a lack of staff. In the first half of 1916, marching formations could only be sent about every 40 days, and from the second half of the year onwards only at irregular intervals.

Wehrmacht

The German Wehrmacht used marching battalions during the Second World War to refresh or regroup their troops. The marching battalions were formed from units of the replacement army . They had an average manpower of 800 to 1,000 men, divided into three to five companies as well as a small command company and a field kitchen . Equipment, which reflected the temporary nature of the units, usually consisted of small arms and some machine guns . In order to keep the marching battalions more or less uniform, the army issued a binding war strength certificate on May 1, 1944 , which, in addition to the organization of the battalion staff, also regulated the percentage composition of the substitute teams by type of service.

An exception to the march battalions in the army presented the Tunisia Campaign of 1942 and 1943. In order after the Allied Operation Torch occupy and French Tunisia from the advancing Allies as a refuge for battered Panzer Army Africa and other fighting in North Africa associations of the German Reich and Italy win To be able to do so, the Wehrmacht High Command needed freely available troops. The Commander-in-Chief of the South, Albert Kesselring , charged with the occupation , took up Africa marching battalions in southern France, Italy and the Balkans and sent them, partly renamed to Tunis Field Battalions , despite inadequate equipment and training, to Tunisia, where they fought with other units secured the German withdrawal. In the course of the campaign, they were, in keeping with their original task, integrated into regular units or disbanded and distributed over several formations.

France

In the French army , during the mobilization in 1914, most of the infantry regiments each set up their own reserve regiment with an adapted regiment number. (The 51st ^e régiment d 'infanterie set up the 251 ^e régiment d' infanterie) After that was no longer sufficient, the marching formations were also used here. They were called "battalion marché". This system was used until the end of the First World War.

Remarks

1. ^ Friedrich Karl Ferdinand Müffling: From my life , Berlin 1851, p. 45
2. ↑ “Marching battalion, those larger divisions are called during war, which consist of convalescents, recruits, rancied prisoners, etc. exist and be led to the army ”, cf. HF Rumpf: General Real Encyclopedia of the Entire Art of War , Vol. 2, Berlin 1827, p. 66
3. ^ "March battalion, battalion, provisionally from the most diverse troop units, etc. provided with commanded officers to follow the army with the sick, commanders, recruits, etc. ”, cf. Pierer's Universal-Lexikon , Vol. 10, Altenburg 1860, p. 921
4. ↑ Alexander Jordan: War for the Alps - The First World War in the Alpine Space and the Bavarian Border Guard in Tyrol , Berlin 2007, p. 177f
5. ↑ Fritz Franek: The development of the east-hung. Wehrmacht in the first two years of the war . Supplementary booklet 5 to the work "Austria-Hungary's Last War", Vienna, Military Science Communications, 1934 pp. 9-10
6. ^ Douglas E. Nash: Rommel's Lost Battalions. 2012, p. 8.
7. ^ Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939-1945 , Bd. 15, Osnabrück 1988, Doc. KStN 2301 Marsch-Batl. (Inf.- and Panz.Tr.)
8. ^ Douglas E. Nash: Rommel's Lost Battalions. 2012, p. 12.

literature

• Douglas E. Nash: Rommel's Lost Battalions. In: Army History. No. 84, 2012, ISSN  1546-5330 , pp. 6–24 ( PDF; 11.1 MB ).
• Austrian Federal Ministry and War Archives (Ed.): Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914–1918. Volumes I to VI, Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, Vienna 1931–1933.
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945 , Vol. 15, Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1988. ISBN 3-7648-0941-8 .