TACTICAL NOTEBOOK T M THE GERMAN ARMY OF WORLD WAR II

The Assault Gun Escort Company Assault Gun Battalion 189

of the (78th Assault Division)
78th Assault Division on 9 June, 1943

The fact that the German assault gun

was a weapon designed to cooperate 189
directly with infantry did not, by itself,
solve the classic problems of coopera-
tion between foot soldiers and armored St

vehicles. In particular, the design of the 3

assault gun left unresolved the question
of how closely the two arms should be
tied together.
If the infantry kept its distance from the
assault guns, the assault guns would be
deprived of the benefits of close support.
There would be no one to spot land
mines or antitank guns and no one to
protect against the brave Russian with
a bundle of grenades or satchel charge.
If, on the other hand, the infantry got
too close to the assault guns, they would
deprive themselves of the infantryman’s
greatest advantage - his ability to hide
in even the smallest fold in the ground.
In addition, proximity to an assault
gun would expose the infantry to all
of the gratuitous fire that assault guns
attracted - artillery, small arms, and
mortar fire, not to mention near misses
from antitank weapons.
One answer to this problem was proper
training of the infantry that accompa-
nied assault guns into battle. Though
steps were taken in this direction, such
training would have to compete with the
scores of other skills needed by German
infantry­men. Thus, while steps were
taken to train German infantrymen in the
techniques of cooperating with assault
guns, the heart of the solution was an
organiza­tional change.
One of the early attempts at this was
the formation, in April of 1943, of the
Assault Gun Escort Company (Sturm­
geschütz-­Begleit­kompanie) of the As-
sault Gun Battalion 189 (Sturm­geschütz
Abteilung 189). Assault Gun Battalion
189 was “garden variety” assault gun
battalion, with three batteries of ten
assault guns (Sturm­geschütze III with
12 10
6 6
the long 75mm gun). At the time of the
formation of the Escort Company, the
chief distinction of Assault Gun Battal-
ion 189 was its position as the organic
assault gun battalion of the 78th As-
sault Division (78. Sturm-Division), an
exper­imental formation whose purpose
was to test a new, “equipment heavy”
approach to infantry combat.
Like many units formed to meet the
needs of the Eastern Front, the Escort
Company was “unofficial.” That is to
say, rather than being formed according
to a table of organization provided by
the Army High Command and thus be-
ing assembled from men and equipment
“force fed” from the rear, the Escort
Company was formed from resources
already present in the 78th Assault Di-
vision. (To use an term popular with
American soldiers, it was formed “out
of hide.” The German expression was
“auf dem Kommando­wege ge­stellt”)
The majority of men who ended up
in the Escort Company were from the
1st Company of the division Train-
ing School (1./Ausbil­dungs Schule),
another “unofficial” unit. True to its
name, the Training School was a unit
in which soldiers - recruits fresh from
their training regiments in Württem­
berg, veterans recovered from their
wounds, and soldiers “combed” from
non-combat units - were trained in the
peculiar methods of the 78th Assault
12 10 12 10
6
Division. (Most German divisions
of the time had “Field Replace­ment”
units that performed the same function.
The practice dated back to 1916, when
divisions established “Field Recruit
Depots” to train incoming soldiers in
skills peculiar to trench warfare or even
a particular sector of the front.)
The idea behind the formation of the
Escort Company was to provide each
assault gun battery with its own platoon
of close-support foot troops. This pla-
toon would be intensively trained in
the techniques of working with assault
guns. It would thus allow the ordinary
infantrymen to do their own job while
depriving them of any excuse for bunch-
ing up around the assault guns.
This is not to say that the Escort Com-
pany relieved the infantry entirely of
the burden of cooperating with assault
guns. The order that established the
company made it clear that there would
be times when the assault guns would
need the direct assistance of large units
of both infantry and pioneers. In such
cases, however, the Escort Company
would be able to serve as a sort of buf-
fer between the assault guns and the
ordinary infantry­ men and pioneers.
While taking care of the trickiest forms
of close support them­selves, the leaders
of the Assault Gun Escort Company
would be able to explain, in language
that the latter could understand, how the

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TACTICAL NOTEBOOK T M
infantry and pioneers might best help
the assault guns.
Because of this mission, there was a
one-to-one corres­pondence between
the elements of the Escort Company
and the sub-divisions of the Assault
Gun Battalion. Just as the Assault Bat-
talion was divided into three batteries
of three platoons of three assault guns,
the Escort Company was divided into
three platoons of three squads. Just as
each escort platoon was perma­nently
associated with an assault gun company,
each escort squad was linked to an as-
sault gun platoon.
The majority of the men of each escort
squad - eleven out of thirteen - were
infantrymen initially trained as riflemen
and light machine gunners. These men
were equipped with the chief weapons
of the German infantryman of 1943 -
light machine guns (with two MG42
light machine guns in each squad),
hand grenades, and bolt-action carbines.
In addition, each squad had a combat
engineer and a pathfinder. The com-
bat engineer was primarily concerned
with the art of locating, avoiding, and
disabling land mines. The pathfinder
was an experienced assault gun crew
member who was adept at recognizing
terrain that was unsuitable for assault
guns. (To ensure this expertise, the
pathfinder was to have the rank of Ge­
freiter or Unter­offizier.)
The training of the Escort Company in-
cluded techniques for protecting assault
guns against enemy antitank sappers;
using infantry fire to suppress antitank
gunners and antitank riflemen; liaison
between assault gun units and infantry
companies, platoons, and squads; the
use of signal flares fired from pistols
(“Very lights”); locating mine fields and
negotiating important terrain features
(trenches, creeks, bridges, bogs, cliffs);
re­inforcing bridges, roads, and ground
so that they might support the weight
of assault guns; and the recovery and
destruction of crippled assault guns.
Particular attention was also paid to
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THE GERMAN ARMY OF WORLD WAR II
Assault Gun Escort Platoon of the Assault Gun Escort Company
Assault Gun Battalion 189, 78th Assault Division
(According to the Divisional Order of 22 April, 1943)
Platoon Commander
Squad Leaders
Assistant Squad Leaders
Pathfinders (Assault Gun Crewmen)
Pioneers (from the 178th Pioneer Battalion)
Machine Gunner
Assistant Machine Gunner
Assistant Machine Gunner
Machine Gunner
Assistant Machine Gunner
Assistant Machine Gunner
Rifleman
Rifleman
Rifleman
the use of artillery and infantry heavy
weapons to suppress antitank weapons Students of contemporary mechanized
and the use of various signals to desig- theory will recognize the similar­ity
nate targets. between the Assault Gun Escort Com-
pany of the 78th Assault Division and
The Escort Company was not provided Richard Simpkin’s conception of Haus­
with any organic combat vehicles. infanterie. In both cases, the armored
Though it is not stated, the expecta­tion fighting vehicle units are provided with
seems to have been that the men would organic foot troops who are neither
ride on top of the assault guns. (With infantry nor combat engineers yet have
a ratio of thirteen men to three assault the skills of both.
guns, this would be a practical, if less
than comfortable, means of transport.) Source: 78. Sturm­division, Ia, “Sturm­
geschütz-­Begleitkompanie”, 22/4/43.
The German documents fail to make U.S. National Archives, Captured
mention of any company or platoon German Documents, Series T-315, Roll
headquarters. Apart from the men of 1100, Frames 164-165.
the squads, the only people mentioned
are the platoon commanders and a
Feld­webel from the Pioneer Battalion.
JUNE 1993