After the end of the First World War, Germany had to sign the Treaty of Versailles which prohibited it, among other things, from owning combat tanks. Only 150 machine guns for the police and 105 unarmed armored personnel carriers were authorized. The German strategic thinking was that Germany had lost the war because of the lack of tanks, so the German strategists, like the Englishman Fuller, thought of the future German army as mechanized and motorized to the maximum, it was therefore necessary to train in the art of mobile warfare but without armored vehicles. In Germany, the proponent of this approach was Major Guderian.
Before he was accepted into the Reichswehr after the First World War , he served for several months as a general staff officer in the so-called Iron Division, a Freikorps fighting Russian-Bolshevik troops in the Baltic States. In the Reichswehr he was initially deployed as a company Commander in Jäger Battalion 10. After working for three years as a teacher of tactics and military history at the officers’ school in Stettin, he switched to the Verkehrstruppen (Traffic troops).
In 1927, Guderian was promoted to Major and appointed Commander of theTruppenamtes für Heerestransport (Troops Office for Army Transport and Ausbilder für Taktik motorisierter Transportverbände (instructor in tactics for motorized transport formations) in Berlin. In this capacity, he has already collected material for tank tactics and visited tank units in other countries. Upon his arrival in this position, he made every effort to promote the training of motorized formations in every way possible. On a practical level, the lack of tanks made it necessary to turn to other solutions, while ensuring the allied control commissions. From a financial point of view, it was cheaper to use converted civilian vehicles than to manufacture special vehicles. This therefore led the German army to use different vehicles, all atypical:
Fahrrad Panzerattrappe (1920s, number attrappen unknown) :
See specific article in countries
These were simplified superstructures from tissue or cardboard mounted on a frame with bicycles
wheels. They were pushed by hands.
Hanomag Panzerattrappe (#300 attrappen bought from 1927 to 1932) :
These panzerattrappe were based on the two-seater 2/10 hp Hanomag passenger car also called kommissbrot because often used by bakers to deliver the bread. The body was simplified and covered by thin metal plates mounted on a frame. The first 32 were delivered to 6th Kraftfahr Abteilung in Hannover in 1927 and because of its success, to the 1st Kraftfahr Abteilung in Königsberg a little later.
Dixi Panzerattrappe (160 attrappen bought from 1927 to 1929) :
Initially it was a licensed version of the austin 7 produced by the vehicle factory in Eisenach. In 1929, the BMW firm, which only manufactured motorcycle and aircraft engines, sought to establish itself in the automobile industry. Rather than developing a vehicle on its own, it bought the factory and produced the dixi under its own reference. It was the first car model of the BMW firm also named BMW 3/15 hp. This model was a success and quickly equipped 5 other Kraftfahr Abteilungen. The Dixi was capable of running at 45 km/h on the road and 20 km/h off-road. It weighed 750 kg and had a range of 200 km. Another version of this vehicle was the befehlspanzerattrappe which was not covered and mounted a machine gun.
Adler Panzerattrappe (1930 à 1932, number unknown) :
Based on the Adler Standart 6 passenger car, it was a more imposing vehicle which allowed a crew of four. A radio/command version was even produced in small numbers, which showed the importance already given to transmissions at that time. The weight was 2 t, the speed 50 km/h on the road, 30 km/h off-road and the range around 300 km. Note that this model will also be the basis of the military version Adler kfz13.
Organization :
After the German Army (“Reichsheer”) was dissolved in January 1919 and was to be transformed into a peacetime army, the Reich government decided in March 1919 to form a provisional Reichswehr. The strength of this army should be 400,000 men. From October 1, 1919 to April 1, 1920, the armed forces of the so-called Provisional Reichswehr were transformed into the 200,000-strong » Transitional Army « . At the same time, the previous units and departments of the old army were eliminated . After the intermediate step of 150,000 men in October 1920, the final army strength of 100,000 men was reached by January 1, 1921. The Reichswehr was formed on January 1, 1921, with the military law of March 23, 1921 regulating the details. The Reichswehr was divided into the Reichsheer (“100,000-man army”) and the Reichsmarine . The Reichsheer consisted of seven infantry and three cavalry divisions , with all units being renumbered. Territorially, the Reich was divided into seven military districts (Wehrkreis I–VII). The divisions were subordinated to two gruppen kommando (group commands) , No. 1 in Berlin and No. 2 in Kassel .
Gruppenkommando I (Berlin) controls:
– 1st Infantry Division (Wehrkreis I) East Prussia
– 2nd Infantry Division (Wehrkreis II) Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein
– 3rd Infantry Division (Wehrkreis III) Silesia, Brandenburg
– 4th Infantry Division (Wehrkreis IV) Saxony, Prussia
Gruppenkommando II (Kassel) controls:
– 5th infantry division (wehrkreis V) Thuringia, Hesse, Württenberg, Baden
-6th Infantry Division (Wehrkreis VI) Brunswick, Hanover, Oldenburg, Westphalia
– 7th infantry division (wehrkreis VII) Bavaria
The cavalry divisions are controlled first by the gruppenkommandos (I for the 1° and 2° cavalry divisions and II for the 3°) then by their own cavalry corps.
Full details can be found here: http://www.lexikon-der-Wehrmacht.de/Wehrmachtbis39/Reichwehr1932.htm
In each Infanterie Division, there was a Kraftfahr Abteilung divided into three companies. At first, the three companies were equally equipped with a zug of attrappen but from 1933 on, The 1st company was a Kradschützen rifle company (twelve light and four heavy machine guns on BMW motorcycles with sidecars), the 2nd company as a kampfwagen company, equipped with attrappen, and the 3rd Company was a Panzerspäh-nachbildung company with Sd.Kfz.3 (at least 5) and later maybe attrappen too.
