Transport troops

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From 1904 to 1936, traffic troops was the collective term for the military departments of telephones, radio operators and field airmen in Germany . This included troops that the war effort transportation, railroads , telegraph , optical signal devices , motor vehicles and bicycles , aircraft and racing pigeons brought used and used.

history

Helmuth von Moltke , who later became Chief of the General Staff, made his first thoughts on special troops for the transport of soldiers and equipment in brief publications in 1836 and 1841. He had the fast transport of soldiers, weapons and military equipment in mind. The first major troop transfers by rail took place in the Schleswig-Holstein campaigns in 1849/51. Based on the experience gained and on the basis of a relevant memorandum , the Prussian General Staff decided to set up special transport troops. These units of the Prussian Army gained their first experience in the German-Danish War in 1864 and in the German War in 1866.

Railway troops and telegraphs

First priority was given to the field railway departments , which demonstrated their skills in the German war on the theater of war in Bohemia . In the French campaign of 1870/71, a department for the field railroad and telegraph service was set up in the Guard Pioneer Battalion with the highest cabinet order of August 10, 1869 . Immediately after the war, a railway battalion was set up, which was supplemented by a second battalion in 1876 and grew up into a railway regiment. With effect from April 1, 1899, the inspection of the traffic troops in Berlin was established. The railway troops experienced an enormous boom until 1914 and were subordinate to the General Inspection of Transport with the airship troops, the test departments of the transport troops and the motorists . In terms of structure, the traffic troops belonged to the Guard Corps of the Prussian Army ; the top line of the traffic troops lay with the general staff. In the same year the telegraph troops - with a telegraph regiment - were reorganized.

Airship troops, balloonists and hang-gliders

The first formation of airship troops began in 1880, the first airship force was installed in Prussia in 1884 and expanded in 1894 to include an airship training institute. After they were first assigned to the railway troops, in 1894 they were subordinated to the Prussian Railway Brigade as an independent unit. This was followed in 1901 by the establishment of an airship battalion based in Berlin-Reinickendorf . The battalion, each consisting of two companies , grew up to three battalions of two companies each. The airship troops were assigned to the General Inspectorate of the Transport Troops together with the railway troops, the motor vehicle and telegraph troops.

tasks

With their test departments, the transport troops tested means of transport and telecommunications that were to be used in the event of war. Plans for the utilization of transport capacities for tactical operations were drawn up in the staffs. The use of telegraph equipment for the rapid transmission of military situations and orders. The relatives were also trained to destroy enemy means of transport and telegraph stations. The railroad troops that belonged to the transport troops consisted of former pioneers and were responsible for the expansion of the rail network. In addition, they were also responsible for the destruction of tracks and rolling stock during the war.

Prussian Army

In 1914, before the outbreak of World War I, the Prussian transport troops were brought together in the General Inspection of Military Transport in Berlin. You were subject to:

  • Inspection of the railway troops
1st Railway Brigade in Berlin
Railway Regiment No. 1
Railway Battalion No. 4
2nd Railway Brigade in Hanau
Railway Regiment No. 2
Railway Regiment No. 3
  • Field Telegraph Inspection
Memorial plaque for the fallen of Telegraph Battalion 3
1. Inspection of the telegraph troops in Berlin
Telegraph Battalion No. 1
Saxon Telegraph Battalion No. 7
2. Inspection of the telegraph troops in Karlsruhe
Telegraph Battalion No. 3
Telegraph Battalion No. 4
Telegraph Battalion No. 6
3. Inspection of the telegraph troops in Gdansk
Telegraph Battalion No. 2
Telegraph Battalion No. 5
  • Military Air and Force Landing Inspection
Inspection of the airship troops
Airship Battalion No. 1
Airship battalion No. 2 (with airship yard)
Airship Battalion No. 3
Airship Battalion No. 4
Airship Battalion No. 5
Inspection of the air force
Aviation Battalion No. 1
Aviator Battalion No. 2
Air Battalion No. 3
Aviator Battalion No. 4

Bavarian Army

In the armed forces of the Kingdom of Bavaria , a railway company was set up in 1873 and expanded to a railway battalion in 1887; a motor vehicle department was attached to it in 1908.

Airship training department established in 1890 was converted into an airship department in 1895 and in 1911, with the incorporation of the motor vehicle department, which was previously part of the railway battalion, it was converted into an air ship and motor vehicle department. In 1912 the department was renamed the Aviation and Motor Vehicle Battalion. Under the Luftschiffer- Kraftfahrabteilung a flying company was established in 1912, which was converted into an independent military aviation station in 1913 and renamed the Fliegerbataillon. The military telegraph school formed in 1888 was replaced by the cavalry telegraph school in 1901, which was expanded to a telegraph detachment in 1906 and renamed the telegraph battalion in 1911. Another telegraph battalion was set up in 1913.

The " inspection of the engineering corps and the fortresses ", which was part of the Genie Corps command, was repealed in 1912. In their place came the inspection of the engineer corps, to which the engineer inspection, the inspection of the traffic troops and the fortress inspection were subordinated. The inspection of the traffic troops in turn was subject to the railway, motor vehicle and telegraph troops, as well as the airmen, aviators and the cavalry telegraph school. The transport troops were disbanded in 1919 after the First World War.

Württemberg Army

In 1887 the first railway company is set up in the Kingdom of Württemberg and subordinated to the Prussian Railway Regiment as the 16th (Königlich Württembergische) company. In 1893 it was reclassified and became the 4th (Königlich Württembergische) Company of the Prussian Railway Regiment No. 4. In 1899 it was completely taken over by the Prussian Army. In 1899 a Württemberg detachment was set up with the Prussian Telegraph Battalion No. 1. From 1911 to 1913, further formations of Württemberg detachments and traffic troops followed:

  • with the 4th radio company of the Prussian Telegraph Battalion No. 1
  • at the operations department of the Prussian Railway Brigade
  • at the Prussian experimental department and experimental company of the military transport system
  • at the Prussian Airship Battalion No. 3
  • in the Prussian Motor Vehicle Battalion
  • with the Prussian Air Force
  • Establishment of a Württemberg railway company and subordination to the Prussian Railway Regiment No. 4
  • Establishment of a Württemberg detachment at a Prussian fortress telephone company.
  • Establishment of a Württemberg airship company in Friedrichshafen with the elimination of the detachments in the airship battalion No. 3 and the air force.
  • Establishment of a Württemberg telegraph company in Karlsruhe with the elimination of the detachment at Telegraph Battalion No. 1.

Reichswehr and Wehrmacht

In 1919 the inspection of the traffic troops was integrated into the Reichswehr Ministry as In 6 (F = Fahrtruppen) and In 6 (K = Kraftfahrtruppen) , and in 1935, with the renaming of the Reichswehr Ministry to the Reich War Ministry, In 6 was dissolved. The last chief of the motor vehicle troops in 6 (K) was from October 1, 1931 to October 14, 1935, who later became Colonel General Heinz Guderian . The transport troops were now in separate special units like engineering corps , Signal Corps , supply troops and transport troops , military police force grew and organized into battalions and regiments.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The development of the telegraph troops up to the First World War hgkampe.homepage.t-online.de
  2. ↑ Claus von Bredow : Historical ranking and master list of the German army. Verlag August Scherl, Berlin 1905, pp. 219-220.
  3. ↑ Handbook of the Bavarian offices, municipalities and courts 1799-1980. Edited by Wilhelm Volkert. Publishing house CH Beck. 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 books.google.de
  4. ^ Military handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg. Large edition (as of May 6, 1913), published by the War Ministry, printing house of the Royal War Ministry, Stuttgart 1913
  5. ^ Arnulf Scriba: Heinz Guderian. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )