
Сообщение от
AGA
Appendix for Structuring and Equipping
a Close Antitank Combat Troop
(Addition to HDv 469/4, sections 44-48)
1. On the basis of past experience, the minimum strength of a close antitank combat troop is 3 to 4 men; the following structure has proved itself:
1 Troop Leader
1 Tank Blinder (if needed)
1 Tank Destroyer
1 Securer (simultaneously Carrier)
The strength can - depending on the situation - be expanded to a whole squad, and strengthening with heavy weapons is often useful. There is always a leader who commands how, with what weapons and in what order the attack shall be made. Otherwise one waits for another or brings another into danger.
2. The equipment of a close antitank combat troop with weapons varies. It depends on the tank to be attacked, the situation and the available weapons. A machine weapon in the troop is advisable.
3. An example of the equipment of a 4-man troop lying in ambush:
Troop leader: Pistol (MPi or automatic rifle), one magnetic
charge, two hand grenades, two twin smoke grenades, one short spade.
Blinder: Pistol, smoke bombs, two hand grenades, two twin smoke
grenades, one short spade.
Destroyer: Pistol, smoke bombs, one magnetic charge, one Tmine
with anchor hooks (or one 3-kilogram concentric charge) with detonator
and three detonators (in reserve), 7 cm long, in a container,
two hand grenades, one short spade.
Securer: Rifle, one magnetic charge, one T-mine with anchor hook (or one 3-kilogram concentric charge) and three detonators, 7 cm long, in a container, two hand grenades, one short spade.
Additional personnel are to be equipped similarly to the securer.
4. The equipment for defense is more extensive than for attack and can include additional smoke, incendiary and explosive devices kept ready in foxholes, especially smoke grenades, stick grenades, incendiary bottles, smoke bombs and concentric charges.
5. According to its combat assignment, the close-combat troop - strengthened under some conditions - fights alone or within the framework of the squad or, as the case may be, the platoon; the tank destroyer and securer are generally located in one foxhole during defensive fighting for the sake of better cooperation. As a decoration for a destroyed enemy tank (by the destroyer), a "special decoration for the defeat of tanks by individual fighting men" was introduced on March 9, 1942. And in special cases, the reward was the much more desirable furlough back home.
With what bravery, but also what courage of desperation, the infantryman,
engineer, artilleryman or any other soldier defied the masses of
enemy tanks is shown by the score of victories. According to it, Generaloberst
Guderian stated the number of tank-destroying decorations
awarded as of May 1944 at 10,000. There were 14,000 in all - or in other
words, given the strength of a Soviet tank corps as something above 250
tanks, about fifty enemy tank corps were destroyed by close-combat soldiers.