Hi All, I looking for a little help working out what this diagram is telling me. It's to do with the order of battle around Ypres in May 1940. Specifically I'm looking for info on 4/IR/54, 10/IR/54 and 11/IR/54. Would there be war diaries existing? thanks.
Hi Skimmod, have you looked at Feldgrau.com? Quite useful in such cases. The 11th IR of the 4th ID are noted here: Feldgrau :: 14.Infanterie-Division
Hi Skimmod, Regarding the diagram, the left hand side shows you part of the German OOB for the 6th Army, under von Reichenau. The left column shows the OOB for the IV ArmeeKorps, which had the 18th, 31st & 61st Infantry Divisions attached. Read down the same for the X & XI Corps. This organisation must apply to just the dates given at the top i.e. 26th-30th May 1940 because the OOB was different as of the 10th of May. The middle section and top two columns on the right hand side refer to the organisation of the Belgian Army. The first set of boxes list the Army Corps e.g. I LK refers to the First Army Corps, with the 14th Artillery Regt & 21 Engineer Regt as Corps assets. Unfortunately the Belgian army is not my strongpoint and I have no idea what the 21 TR BN refers to, possibly 21st Transport or Territorrial Battalion. Box 3 refer firstly to the Active Divisions of the Army, 1st to 6th Infantry Divisions and their associatted units e.g. 1 ID 3LI 4LI 24LI 1A 1 GN BN 1TR BN means 1st Infantry Division consisting of the 1st, 4th & 24th Infantry Regiments, 1st Artillery Regt, 1st Engineer Bn & 1TR BN(again possibly Transport or Territorial BN) Next the 1st Reserve Divisions, 7th to 12th Infantry Divisions. Then the 2nd Reserve Divisions, 13th to 18th Infantry Divisions. The 1AD & 2AD refers to the Ardennes Divisions made up of Ardennes Jager Regts. 1CD & 2CD are the Cavalry Divisions. My knowledge of the Belgian Army and/or Dutch? language means I have no idea what 4 to 19 are, I could guess for example that No. 5 means the Army had two Light Infantry Regts, but I may well be wrong. As to your specific request for info on the 4/IR/54, 10/IR/54 and 11/IR/54, those designations belong to the 4th, 10th & 11th Companies of Infantry Regiment 54. Infantry Regt. 54 belonged to the 18th Infantry Division until December 1940 when it was transferred to the 100th Light Infantry Division which in turn was redesignated the 100th Jager Division in July 1942. As to war diaries etc, barring personnal memoirs I doubt any Company/Regt diaries would have survived/been published in English. As to published Divisional histories I would think your best bet would be something in German, English language publishers tend to go mainly for the Panzer or Waffen SS divisions because that's what sells.
Excellent! thanks chaps... I'll have a read through the Feldgrau website. Thanks for the explanations on the */IR/54 bits. The documents I have are all written by a local Belgium who assisted to re-bury the dead afterwards. His map lists the german temporary graves and their units. It shows the mix of German companies involved during the fighting along the Ypres Comines canal. I have a transcript of an interview with two of the company commanders that describs the fighting but could tie up the names and companies. I'll have another go, armed with this new info! thanks
4 :border cyclist regiment 5 :light regiment (gendarmerie) 6:Heavy artillery 7:anti-aircraft artillery 8:fortress troops 9:Engeneering and fortress directions 10:army services 11:artillery depot 12 :insrtuction troops (class 1940) 13:instruction centers for 2nd lieutenants 14:naval base 15:air force 16:territorial commands 17:territorial guard batalions 18 :territorial transport corps 19:fabrication institution (I think it means military factory )
Would there be war diaries existing? thanks. You will find them in the military archive in Freiburg/Br. The signature for inf. divs. is RH 26, so 14. Inf. Div. would be RH 26 - 14. Ia and Ib KTB exist for May 1940, Ic only from Nov. 1940 on.
