Alternative Panzer Reconnaissance Companies
Just when you think you've completed the Odyssey of German Panzer Reconnaissance units, come the handful of official exceptions, that no doubt sat amidst the numerous unofficial ones. A handful of Battalions were authorised different types of Companies that took the place of the more standard wheeled armoured car or SdKfz 250/9 halftrack units.
Armoured Car Company Type 'a' (3 Officers, 136 men), circa late 1943
Company HQ (1 Officer, 11 men)
1 SdKfz 234/2
Maintenance Section (13 men)
Battle Train (14 men)
Baggage Train (4 men)
Four Platoons, each (1 Officer or NCO, 23 men)
6 SdKfz 234/2
Total strength of;
25 SdKfz 234/2
Points of note
The SdKfz 234/2, named the Puma, is oddly one of the best known German armoured cars of the war, while also being one of the rarest. There were only around 100 Pumas manufactured, and it would appear only two Battalions received enough to deploy a single Company each on the above organisation.
The Puma was another variant of the SdKfz 234 eight-wheeled armoured car series. It used the now standard crew layout of driver in the hull front, commander and gunner in the turret, and the second driver/radio operator. This fourth crewman was seated behind the turret and offset to the left, facing to the rear of the hull, and could take control of the vehicle to reverse away if required. The main difference in the Puma was the armament, which consisted of a 5-cm main gun and co-axial machine gun, and gave it equivalent firepower to the Panzer III medium tank.
The above KStN was issued in October 1943, and called for a Puma Company to have four Platoons of six vehicles each, plus one for the Company commander. Two Panzer Divisions in Normandy appear to have received a sufficient complement to field one Puma Company each in place of the usual Armoured Car Company that mixed four and eight-wheeled vehicles. After that time, the Puma vanishes from the vehicles named in various KStN tables. Some seem to have been issued later in 1944, no doubt going to the Staff Company of the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalions involved.
Armoured Car Company Type 'b' (4 Officers, 195 men), circa early 1943
Company HQ (1 Officer, 18 men)
1 SdKfz 123
Maintenance Section (21 men)
Battle Train I (23 men)
Battle Train II (20 men)
Baggage Train (4 men)
Four Platoons, each (1 Officer or NCO, 27 men)
7 SdKfz 123
Total strength of;
29 SdKfz 123
Armoured Car Company Type 'b' (3 Officers, 136 men), circa early 1944
Company HQ (1 Officer, 12 men)
1 SdKfz 123 or 1 SdKfz 140/1
Maintenance Section (13 men)
Battle Train (13 men)
Baggage Train (4 men)
Four Platoons, each (1 Officer or NCO, 23 men)
6 SdKfz 123 or SdKfz 140/1
Total strength of;
25 SdKfz 123 or SdKfz 140/1
Points of note
Again the above Type 'b' Company saw only limited use. The first version of January 1943 referred to the SdKfz 123, a vehicle better known as the Lynx. The Lynx was an offshoot of the Panzer II that had evolved into a reconnaissance vehicle within the Panzer Battalions, and added an extra crewman in the hull front, presumably as a radio operator because there was no bow machine gun. Armament remained the 2-cm cannon and co-axial MG34 found in the Panzer II. Just two Panzer Divisions, the 4th and 9th, appear to have received the SdKfz 123 during 1943, fielding them instead of an SdKfz 250/9 equipped Company.
Initially the Company used four large Platoons, each with seven vehicles, an odd number, plus one for the Company commander. By early 1944 the unit had been trimmed down to six vehicles per Platoon, and there was a substitute equipment available. The SdKfz 140/1 took the chassis of the Czech model 38 light tank, production of which had continued when the factories fell into German hands in 1938. Among the many uses for the chassis was a reconnaissance vehicle in similar vein to the Lynx, married to the turret of an armoured car mounting a 2-cm cannon and co-axial machine gun. General opinion indicates that just two Companies operated the SdKfz 140/1, one each with the 3rd Panzer Division and the Großdeutschland Panzer Grenadier Division, and then only in the last twelve months of fighting.
Armoured Car Company Type 'd' (3 Officers, 134 men), circa early 1944
Company HQ (1 Officer, 11 men)
1 SdKfz 234/1
Maintenance Section (13 men)
Battle Train (13 men)
Baggage Train (4 men)
Three Light Platoons, each (1 Officer or NCO, 23 men)
6 SdKfz 234/1
Heavy Platoon (1 Officer, 23 men)
6 SdKfz 234/3
Total strength of;
19 SdKfz 234/1 and 6 SdKfz 234/3
Points of note
Used probably a little more widely than the rarities detailed above, the Type 'd' Company was based on a combination of SdKfz 234 models, namely three Platoons each with 2-cm main armament, and one with the 7,5-cm gun for fire support. This was the same weapon that had begun life on the early Panzer IV medium tanks and was eventually adopted onto a host of halftracks and other vehicles.
German Reconnaissance units 1939 to 1945