German Training in Mid to Late War

1943. New Wehrmacht recruits being given their kit

As a German conscript in to a combat unit in the Wehrmacht in mid to late war, first your journey would have begun with the arrival of a notice to report to the nearest training and replacement battalion to wherever you lived.

You’d report to the Stammkompanie of the replacement unit in question- a reception company of sort intended to introduce you to military life. You’d turn in your Wehrpaß, a booklet you were given when you registered for the draft(you’d receive it back when you were discharged) and you’d be issued your uniform, ID disc, and Soldbuch. You’d spend about a week or two along with other called up recruits at the Stammkompanie camp.

After the acclimatization, during which you were taught the basics of military life, you’d be sent to an Ausbildungskompanie, a training company, of your replacement battalion. A year or two back, these units would probably have been separate entities sprawled across occupied Europe, in order to provide extra occupation troops in form of recruits being trained and the training cadres. By mid and late 1944, as the Germans were being pushed out of most of their occupied territories, many of those formations would be unified again as they were in 1940 and stationed in Germany proper.

Nevertheless, you’d receive your basic training in this company alongside your batch of recruits for about the next few months- a total of 14 weeks in total. This was training for infantrymen- more specialized branches like artillerymen would’ve received longer and different training.

Basic training was tough and vicious in entirely realistic ways: the day would start from sunrise and last well past sundown. You’d receive training with rifles, pistols, submachine guns, grenades and machine guns. Long marches with full gear and regular field exercises were hallmarks of training. Navigation, fieldcraft, and other important aspects of infantry warfare were heavily emphasized.

You and your fellow recruits hardened by rigorous training would then be sent back to the Marschkompanie, transfer company, of your replacement battalion, whereupon all of you, as a batch, would be issued to a division. Ideally, this division would be the one which the replacement battalion was specifically assigned to- but by 1944, it wasn’t unheard of for recruits from replacement units to be sent to other divisions receiving their replacements from the same district, depending on how needed replacements were in which division. You could’ve also been sent to a new division being formed in your area, if desired.

You and your comrades from training would arrive to their designated unit- most likely either at the frontline, or pulled back for rest and refit. There you’d be assigned to the division’s field replacement battalion. You’d spend a few more weeks there, receiving training from the veterans of the division, being acclimatized to the specific conditions of the front, and be imparted the particularly relevant methods and knowledge that the division had learned through experience. In the meanwhile you’d gather a bit of practical experience yourself, as the battalion was employed for guard, rear area protection and anti-partisan sweep duties.

Assuming nothing went wrong for you, like the battalion being pressed into the frontline on an emergency(or the rear area becoming the frontline on an emergency…), after a few weeks in the field replacement battalion you and your fellow recruits would be issued to the division’s frontline formations.

Between reporting for your draft and leaving the field replacement battalion for the frontline elements of your division, you’d have spent slightly more than four months.

In all likelihood, you’d be well received by your division. In a country with strong regional identities, all your comrades would be coming from the same region as you. If you were sent to the assigned frontline unit of your replacement battalion(which was the ideal circumstances, and it was tried to make that happen as much as possible) as opposed to being diverted to another unit in dire need of replacement, things would be even better: your old-timer comrades would have gone through the same training program in the same unit and same barracks. Your instructors, veterans from the division, would’ve been people your old-timer comrades personally knew. And of course, no unit would be unhappy to receive much-needed reinforcements.

The existence of regional recruitment districts, replacement formations assigned to specific field units, and the field replacement battalions made for a replacement system quite effective at ensuring unit cohesion and esprit de corps. You’d be serving alongside the same men you spent four months training alongside, and formed friendships with. This gave German formations quite strong esprit de corps down to the last day of the war.

 
Source :
https://www.quora.com/As-a-German-conscript-in-to-a-combat-unit-in-the-Wehrmacht-in-mid-1944-What-was-my-training-like-How-did-veteran-members-of-my-unit-see-me-How-much-time-in-between-training-and-being-thrown-in-to-an-active-combat
https://www.treasurebunker.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2864-high-quality-color-exceptional-bw-photographs-german-side/#comments

Wehrmacht Winter Training

 

Wehrmacht winter training in the barracks, pre-war or early-war period. The picture come from the color slide estate of Siegfried Keller. Looking at other frames, this unit appears to be a Machinengewehr-Bataillon (you can see "M" on their shoulder boards). It is most probably MG-Bataillon 8 whose peacetime base was Züllichau im Wehrkreis III. It is also interesting that the guy marching the formation is wearing a Schützenschnur. Still awarded today!

Source :
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223840436992333&set=gm.1743370425848373

10th Mountain Division Soldier Climb a Rocky Cliff

A U.S. 10th Mountain Division Solder uses a rope to climb a rocky cliff, 1943 or 1944. He is wearing a helmet and field jacket. An orderly camp is visible in the valley below. Although the notion of operating and moving in a mountainous environment seems very simple at first glance, the soldiers realized that many of the instructors were instilling a sense of sagacious perfection in all tasks. "When you have Soldiers' lives hooked into a rope system that you built, there is no such thing as 'this should hold'," said First Lieutenant  Torrey Crossman. It also reinforced the notion that Soldiers should train as they fight. Soldiers who proved adept at tying knots in the barracks would struggle once they had to do so on the mountain with a full load of equipment and clothing affecting their performance.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
https://www.army.mil/article/162945/10th_Mountain_Division_Soldiers_conquer_Basic_Mountain_Course/

10th Mountain Division in Formation at Camp Hale

View taken from above looking down at Camp Hale, Colorado, showing 10 columns of men in formation and an honor guard, 1943 or 1944. Probably this parade included the most of the members of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division then in training. Vistors and their cars are parked on the farside of the field to view the formation parade. The photograph also provides a good view of the barracks and what appears to be the mule barns.  In 1942, Pando, Colorado, was a two-room train depot situated in the picturesque Eagle Park valley. By January 1943, an army camp filled the valley and was receiving the first men of the 10th Mountain Division for instruction in mountain and winter warfare, mountaineering, skiing and rock climbing. In less than eight months, the camp grew to accommodate a full U.S. Army Division of 14,000 men. On Maneuvers Ski troops trained in the Rockies at altitudes up to 14,000 feet, often under brutal weather conditions and for weeks at a time. As if nature were not enough of a challenge, the men carried rucksacks sometimes weighing as much as 90 lbs. Tents were home to 10th Mountain Division soldiers while on maneuvers. Thin fabric provided the only shelter from the elements. Rock Climbing was an important element of Divisional training. While some soldiers were recruited for their rock-climbing and mountaineering skills, the majority received specialized training. Mountains and rock formations around Camp Hale provided the ideal classroom for the soldiers. The training proved essential as troops from the 86th Regiment would make a night climb to capture German-held Riva Ridge in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
http://candiecoded.com/DarlingDollz//Violablu/Colorado/Colorado.html

Photographer David B. Allen Wearing 10th Mountain Division Insignia

Portrait of the photographer of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division, David B. Allen, in front of the door to a barracks, 1944. He is wearing a cap and a field jacket and is standing in such a manner that the Tenth Mountain Division insignia, "the mountain patch" on his sleeve faces the camera. The 10th Mountain Division ACU patch features a powder keg shaped background with two bayonets crossed upwards. The bayonets are symbolic of infantry while the position of the bayonets simulates the numerical designation of the organization. The shoulder sleeve insignia was originally approved for the 10th Light Division on 7 January 1944. It was designated for the 10th Mountain Division and a mountain tab was added on 22 November 1944. Although the proper branch insignia was crossed bayonets, some 10th Mountain Division soldiers in the three infantry regiments and one reconnaissance troop of the division wore crossed skis, often with a small US, eagle, or regimental number placed over or under the skis' intersection. Officers and some enlisted men wore the ski insignia above the left pocket, although a larger insignia intended for wear like a badge. Many enlisted men also wore the ornaments on the cap.

Source :
Book "Encyclopedia of United States Army Insignia and Uniforms" by William K. Emerson
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
https://store.nwtmint.com/product_details/6444/U.S._Army_Patch_10th_Mountain_Infantry_Division_ACU_pair_/

David B. Allen in "Whites"

Portrait of David B. Allen in his "whites" or winter uniform posed in the same postion as the "Ski Trooper" cover of the Saturday Evening Post. He is crouching close to the ground and carrying a knapsack with a white cover, a rifle and is holding his skis and poles crossed in front of him. Snow covers the ground and Camp Hale barracks are in the background. The picture was taken in 1943 or 1944

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html

Barracks at Camp Hale (Colorado)

View taken from the corner of A and 18th streets at Camp Hale, Colorado (the training center of the US 10th Mountain Division), showing the streets signs, barracks and a jeep. The aspen trees on the surrounding hills have spring leaves. Creating this camp was quite a feat of engineering and wartime construction. Beginning in April of 1942, an army of workmen completed the camp by December of that year... all for a price tag of $30 million. There were accommodations for over 16,000 troops and 4,000 mules and horses. The 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment moved into the new camp in January 1943, while another regiment, the 86th, was being formed. The picture was taken by David B. Allen in 1943 or 1944.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
http://www.slideshare.net/tcattermole/10th20-mountain20division20-20introduction1-7846475

View of a Chapel at Camp Hale

View of a chapel at Camp Hale, Colorado, training headquarters of the Tenth Mountain Division, showing the chapel at the right, telephone poles, a road and barracks in the background. The chapel is a standard army chapel, administered by military chaplain. Chaplains have served in the various branches of the United States armed forces since their formation, including in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Congress authorized the hiring of an Army chaplain in 1791.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_chaplains

Barracks at Eagle Creek, Camp Hale (Colorado)

View of a wooden bridge over Eagle Creek, Camp Hale (Colorado), 1943 or 1944. The barracks are on the left, beside a wide dirt road, poles for electricity or telephone wires follow both the road and the creek. In the distance on the right side of the creek are various storage buildings. Snow covers the tops of the surrounding hills. Camp Hale filled the valley—an instant city, built over one short summer at a cost of $30 million, specifically for the ski troops. (It was named for Brig. Gen. Irving Hale, a Colorado hero of the Spanish-American War.) White-painted barracks marched in precise rows beside the headwaters of the Eagle River, dredged ruler straight by the Army Corps of Engineers. Hale had bunks for fifteen thousand
soldiers. Natural water sources from the Eagle River and Homestake Creek were deemed sufficient for camp use, and regional supplies of coal existed in sufficient quantities to meet fuel demands.

Source :

Book "Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of World War II's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops" by Peter Shelton

http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
https://www.msudenver.edu/camphale/camphalehistory/

10th Mountain Division Soldiers March in Formation

U.S. Tenth Mountain Division soldiers march in formation down a street at Camp Hale, Colorado, 1943 or 1944. They are carrying black regimental flags. Three barracks are in the background. Recruitment of the 10th was unique in Army history, in that a civilian organization selected and validated volunteer recruits, who came from ski clubs and schools, college skiing teams, and local search-and-rescue ski patrols. The National Ski Patrol vetted potential volunteers closely, and the National Ski Association aided in selection and screening. This was an era when such diversions as skiing and mountaineering were largely limited to the affluent, and an impressive number of the applicants held winter sports event and climbing records. Many volunteers were athletically inclined college students or graduates, resulting in the recruiting slogan “college boys to cowboys.” It was reasoned that it would be easier to turn experienced skiers into soldiers rather than train soldiers to ski. This gave the division a higher than normal number of college graduates, often from “Ivy League” universities, making them the most highly educated ground units in the service! This provoked complaints about creaming off potential officers and NCOs for other units, at a time when junior leaders were much needed. (By the time the division went to war the educational level had been watered down to some degree, but it was still higher than average.)

Source :
Book "US 10th Mountain Division in World War II" by Gordon L. Rottman and Peter Dennis
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html

View of Camp Hale Colorado

View of barracks at Camp Hale, Colorado, which was the training headquarters of the Tenth Mountain Division from 1943-1944. Beyond the barracks is a view of the rifle range. For traditional training, Camp Hale had three bayonet courses, three grenade courts, one rifle range, a machine gun range, a combat range and a gas chamber. In addition to the outdoor ranges, Camp Hale's dirt-floored, concrete-walled training halls each included a fifty-foot indoor .22-caliber rifle range for markmanship training during the winter months when conditions did not warrant sitting on the outdoor range. Finally, Camp Hale boasted a Mountain Obstacle Course of around ten thousand feet in elevation. This course combined the features of a regular obstacle course with added elements of advanced mountaineering.

Source :
Book "World War II at Camp Hale: Blazing a New Trail in the Rockies" by David R. Witte
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html

10th Mountain Division Parade ceremony

This picture (taken in 1943 or 1944) shows a large formation parade in the center of a field at Camp Hale, Colorado. A color guard marches with flags while Tenth Mountain Division soldiers stand in large ranks behind them. The barracks are on the left side of the image and a stable on the right. The aspen trees on the hill behind the men are just beginning to grow leaves. A snowplow is parked near a pole close to the camera.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html

Kriegsweihnachten, Christmas in War Time

Wehrmacht soldiers from XXXXVI. Armeekorps (based in germany) reading book in their barrack during Christmas of 1940. The first German Christmas of World War II was celebrated in December of 1939 while the front was for the most part silent; the Western Allies and Germany were in the midst of the so-called "phoney war" between the period after the Invasion of Poland in September of 1939, and the Invasion in Norway later in April of 1940. In bunkers and trenches, pillboxes and depots, private homes and unit bases, all along the border, across Germany, and in occupied Poland, those German soldiers unlucky enough to not be with family and loved ones, spent time together amongst their comrades and exchanged simple gifts of fruit and drink, laughed and played, and sang traditional German Christmas songs such as "O Tannenbaum" - a timeless song of Christmas. Christmas 1940 was also a relatively quiet period, the Western Allies, minus Great Britain, were now occupied by German troops and the Eastern Front had not yet erupted - that would come in June of 1941 with the Invasion of the Soviet Union. The Battle of Britian was also over, leaving the vaunted Luftwaffe bloodied and although not defeated by any means, unable to achieve air superiority over the British Isles. Troops once again spent Christmas in bunkers and foriegn cities, now in a front stretching from the most northern arctic tip of Norway to the most southern tip of France in the Mediterranean.

Source :
http://www.feldgrau.com/weihnachten.html
http://historicalsocietyofgermanmilitaryhistory.com/wehrmacht-armed-forces-of-world-war-two/german-heer-army-photos/

M29 Weasels Tracked Vehicle of 10th Mountain Division

This picture was taken in 1943 or 1944 and showing Richard Foggarty of the US Tenth Mountain Division poses beside two M29 "weasels" (a snow tracked vehicle designed by Studebaker that could move through snow with ease) without canvas covers, near the S4 warehouse and 86th Regiment Headquarters at Camp Hale, Colorado. He is wearing a cap, a pullover sweater, khaki pants and boots. Note: mid/late M29s. Note 20" tracks and mudguards with foot plates, but no M29c style bolt patterns for float tanks.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
http://www.m29cweasel.com/gallery/gal_10thMt.html

Camp Hale, the Training HQ of the 10th Mountain Division

View of barracks at Camp Hale, Colorado (USA), which was the training headquarters of the US Tenth Mountain Division from 1943-1944. 

In spring 1941, the US Army began to consider establishing a mountain division trained to fight in winter conditions and rugged terrain. After the United States entered World War II, the US Army’s Eighty-seventh Mountain Infantry Regiment began to train near Mt. Rainier in Washington State. Soon it became clear that a larger training site would be needed. The army briefly considered a location near West Yellowstone, Montana, but it was rejected for environmental reasons (the camp would have disturbed the local trumpeter swan population).

In March 1942 the army decided to build its mountain training camp in the Pando Valley north of Leadville. The Pando Valley was originally homesteaded in the 1890s and had been used for ranching until the army acquired it in 1942. The valley met all the requirements for the army’s training camp: it was large enough to support 15,000 troops; it sat at a high elevation of about 9,200 feet, with easy access to 12,000-foot mountains; the Eagle River provided a reliable water source; and Highway 24 and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad facilitated transportation to and from the camp.

The army began construction of the camp in April 1942. Named Camp Hale, in honor of former Brigadier General Irving Hale, a Denver native, the camp occupied 1,456.8 acres of the Pando Valley floor. The army had to rechannel the meandering Eagle River and several tributaries through the valley to drain the site so that the camp could be built. Highway 24 was also rerouted around the camp. The army completed construction in November 1942 at a cost of $31 million.

The US Army’s first and only Mountain Infantry Division took shape at Camp Hale over the winter of 1942–43. New Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Mountain Infantry Regiments were added to the existing Eighty-seventh Regiment to form the Tenth Mountain Division. All the troops arrived at Camp Hale by January 1943, and the valley buzzed with the activity of thousands of soldiers training for war. At its height the camp had more than 1,000 buildings and housed about 15,000 troops.

The vast Camp Hale site included barracks, administration buildings, a hospital, stables, a veterinary center, a field house, and areas used as parade grounds, recreation areas, and gunnery and combat ranges. Enlisted men learned how to survive in winter conditions and fight in the mountains. They practiced skiing, snowshoeing, and technical mountain climbing. Some of the first nylon climbing ropes were tested at Camp Hale.

The ski troops of the Tenth Mountain Division seemed glamorous to the public, but at Camp Hale they were often miserable. Soldiers nicknamed the camp “Camp Hell.” Training was hard, requiring marches and maneuvers with heavy packs at high altitude. Soldiers often suffered from altitude sickness, frostbite, and low morale worsened by a lack of nearby entertainment options. (Leadville was often off-limits to the troops, and in any case it had increased efforts against gambling and prostitution.) Coal smoke from all the trains, stoves, and furnaces in the valley contributed to a persistent cough that the troops called the “Pando Hack.”

In addition to the famed Tenth Mountain Division, Camp Hale also housed other troops, such as the 620th Engineer General Service Company, which arrived at the camp on December 5, 1943. The 200 soldiers who made up this unit were not actually engineers. Like several other army units, the 620th was made up of suspected Nazi sympathizers (mostly Germans) and other opponents of the war. The army lumped them together and dumped them at remote Camp Hale, where they were assigned various menial tasks.

The army also placed several hundred German prisoners of war at Camp Hale. Though communication between prisoners and soldiers was officially forbidden, the German prisoners and the German sympathizers in the 620th understandably got along quite well, exchanging greetings and illegal gifts. Dale Maple, a pro-Nazi Harvard graduate in the 620th, helped a small group of German prisoners to escape. With assistance from a few other men in the 620th, Maple and two Germans slipped away from the lightly guarded camp on February 15, 1944. They made their way to the Mexican border before being arrested by a Mexican customs official on February 18. The two Germans were shipped to another prisoner-of-war camp in Wyoming. Maple was convicted of desertion and aiding the enemy. Originally sentenced to death, he was released in 1951 and lived quietly in San Diego for another fifty years.

Source :
http://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/287245.html
http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/camp-hale