Landstreitkräfte

The Landstreitkräfte (LaSK), also Army or Heer, was the ground based military branch of the East German National People's Army. The Land Forces Command, located at Geltow was established on 1 December 1972 as a management body created for the land forces. The NPA itself was created on March 1, 1956 from the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (Barracked People's Police).

Contents

Organisation

The order of battle of the ground forces (1980–90).

Military District North

The headquarter of the northern district was in Neubrandenburg.

1. Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (Potsdam)

8. Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (Schwerin)

9. Panzerdivision (Eggesin)

Military District South

The headquarter of the southern district was in Leipzig.

4. Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (Erfurt)

11. Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (Halle)

7. Panzerdivision (Dresden)

Second line divisions

In the event of a full-scale mobilisation, the six regular divisions of the NVA would have been supplemented by three mobilisation divisions and two reserve divisions.[1] All five divisions would be mobilised on M+2. The cadre of each mobilisation/reserve division remained on hand as the regular staff of training centers/non-commissioned officer (NCO) schools. The five second line divisions were the 6th Motor Rifle Division (Königswartha), the 10th Motor Rifle Division (Ronneburg), the 17th Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (HQ Petersroda), the 19th Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (HQ Wulkow, which was not based on a training centre), and the 20th Motorisierte-Schützen-Division (HQ Bredenfelde).

Other units

The Kommando Landstreitkräfte also contained some specially trained units - like the 40. Fallschirmjägerbataillon Willi Sänger. The structure and equipment was mostly of Soviet design, and the NVA operated in close collaboration with the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. There were also reports of a special NVA diversionary battalion in south Germany equipped with M-48s and M-113s, able to cause confusion amongst NATO forces if war came (thus emulating and improving on the example of Otto Skorzeny's Panzerbrigade 150 during the Ardennes Offensive). However more recent reports throw doubt on the existence of any such unit.[2]

Types of units

Divisions

Regiments

Battalions

Detachments

Equipment

Personal Arms

Armored Vehicles

References

  1. ^ Shawn Bohannon Mobilmachungsdivisionen / Reservedivisionen, Axis History Forum, accessed May 2010
  2. ^ Steven J. Zaloga and James Loop, Soviet Bloc Elite Forces, Osprey Publishing, 1998, had the initial report of the battalion, more recent critical commentary is at Tanknet > NVA Special Units

Further reading

External links