Please assist.
Reserve forces during 1937-1945
Reserve forces during 1937-1945
I really need information about how the German military used the reserve forces during WWII.
Please assist.
Please assist.
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sid guttridge
- on "time out"
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Hi CThunder,
This is a massive question.
In essence, as a result of the ban on conscription imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and the insistence that all regulars in the 100,000 man Reichwehr serve a minimum of twelve years, there was virtually no trained reserve manpower available in 1937.
The youngest reservists were those who had served in 1918. They were in their late 30s in 1937 and had received no refresher training in the intervening period. The younger WWI veterans were called up at the outbreak of WWII and mostly went into 200-series divisions. Later they also made up the bulk of the 700-series security divisions.
The missing years of conscripts from 1919-36 were known as the "White Years" as they appeared as blanks on graphs of trained manpower availability. They were gradually trained up during the war years, but they were by then the backbone of the German economy and in declining health, so many had their service deferred. They were fed as replacements into existing divisions.
The younger generations of conscripts were almost continuously under arms from the introduction of conscription in the mid 1930s until the end of the war. Thus they never really contributed to the reserves.
Cheers,
Sid.
This is a massive question.
In essence, as a result of the ban on conscription imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and the insistence that all regulars in the 100,000 man Reichwehr serve a minimum of twelve years, there was virtually no trained reserve manpower available in 1937.
The youngest reservists were those who had served in 1918. They were in their late 30s in 1937 and had received no refresher training in the intervening period. The younger WWI veterans were called up at the outbreak of WWII and mostly went into 200-series divisions. Later they also made up the bulk of the 700-series security divisions.
The missing years of conscripts from 1919-36 were known as the "White Years" as they appeared as blanks on graphs of trained manpower availability. They were gradually trained up during the war years, but they were by then the backbone of the German economy and in declining health, so many had their service deferred. They were fed as replacements into existing divisions.
The younger generations of conscripts were almost continuously under arms from the introduction of conscription in the mid 1930s until the end of the war. Thus they never really contributed to the reserves.
Cheers,
Sid.
What exactly do you mean by "Reserve forces"? If you refer to the Reserve divisions, these were not in fact reserve divisions in the general sense of the word, but training units. Sometimes they would release drafts of trained men to existing combat units, sometimes they were used to form new divisions and sometimes they were amalgamated with remains of existing units to bring these back up to strength. For example, the 116th PzD was formed by merging the remains of 16th Panzer Grenadier Division with a Reserve Panzer Division. As such, they did not consist of reservist personnel, but on the contrary of new drafts of conscripts. From the middle of the war, they also doubled as occupation forces.
cheers
cheers