Company Officer's Handbook Of The German Army - Command and ...

Section V.
COMBAT TEAMS
27. GENERAL
A high degree of flexibility is a characteristic of German organization,
and it is best exemplified in the fluid composition of combat
teams, or "battle groups" (Kampfgruppen). Consequently, German
tables of organization, though useful for a basic understanding of
unit strength, are of little practical value for operational purposes.
A German division, whether it is on the offensive or the defensive,
is organized into one or more combat teams. While 'it is important
to establish the order of battle of each German division as it is
engaged, it is even more important to determine its disposition by
teams.
In the German conception, an infantry combat team may vary
in size from a reinforced rifle company to a reinforced regiment.
Normally, however, a team consists of a regiment of infantry, a
battalion of artillery, an engineer unit, and an antitank-antiaircraft
detachment. Divisions that include tanks will attach tanks
by companies or battalions to combat teams. Sometimes troops
of different divisions are mingled in forming a team, units from one
team may be fransferred to another, or a team may be dissolved
and its components assigned to the remaining teams in the division.
The flexible character of a German combat team is further emphasized
by the fact that it is normally identified by the name of
its commanding officer (see fig. 58, p. 73) rather than by the designation
of its principal unit. Although the components of a team
may change considerably within a short time, its designation
does not change until its commanding officer is relieved or reassigned,
or until the team is dissolved. It cannot be assumed, therefore,
that the strength and fire power of a German combat team
remains constant over a period of days merely because its designation
remains unchanged.
The flexibility typical of the infantry combat team is applied
in forming combat teams with the infantry (panzer-grenadier) and
tank components of the German armored divisions. In the armored
division the team is likely to consist approximately of one infantry
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