In the late 1980s, all eyes were on the Germanies
as the setting for a potential Third World War, should one kick off between
NATO and the Warsaw Pact. There were of course the significant non-German
militaries ready to go, but West and East Germany themselves boasted significant armored forces
that would’ve faced off against each other. This video is going to compare East and West
German tank units of the time from the crew to battalion-level to show what they would have been
working with if the Hyperwar kicked off in 1989. We’ll start at the base, the Tank Platoon. The West Germans were relatively
straight forward. They had just one Tank Platoon organization, consisting of 4 tanks. Generally speaking in 1989, Tank Battalions
under Panzergrenadier Brigades, the primary infantry force, were equipped with variants
of the Leopard 1, primarily upgrades to the 1A1 standard including the 1A1A1, as well
as the 1A5. One of the key exceptions was the 10th Panzer Division’s 30th Panzergrenadier
Brigade which had Leopard 2A4s. Tank Battalions under Panzer Brigades meanwhile were equipped
with various batch variants of the Leopard 2. Both tanks were crewed by 4 soldiers. A Commander,
Gunner, Loader, and Driver. One tank per platoon would be commanded by the Platoon Leader, who
would be a Lieutenant in one platoon per Company and an NCO in two platoons. Tanks would be
split into two Half-Platoons or Sections, one under the Platoon Leader and one
under the Deputy, who was an NCO. Compare this to the East German platoon.
Unlike the West Germans, the East Germans had two distinct organizations. Tank Platoons
part of Tank Regiments consisted of 3 tanks, while those under Motor Rifle
Regiments, the infantry force, consisted of 4 tanks. I haven’t seen
anything definitive on this matter, but I assume the infantry organizations got 4
tanks per platoon because 4 is easier to split in pairs for attachment or maneuvering through
complex terrain. Three tanks had a logic to it for Eastern tank organizations because they’re
easier and faster to control during an armored maneuver. Additionally, in the context of a
battle, a Tank Platoon attached to a Motor Rifle Company may be the only tanks in a particular
area, so the ability for it to provide its own overwatch may have also been a factor. A
Tank Platoon operating under its own Tank Company would probably have other Tank Platoons
supporting it so that’d be less of a concern. There was also some added complexity with regard
to tank models. Regiments part of Motor Rifle Divisions, regardless if they were Tank or Motor
Rifle Regiments, ran variants of the T-55. But the 9th Panzer Division and most of the 7th Panzer
Division—East Germany’s two tank divisions—were equipped with T-72s, T-72Ms and T-72M1s from the
Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia. This extended to the Tank Battalion under the Motor
Rifle Regiment in each of those Panzer Divisions. So if you had a four square matrix
of regiment versus division, tank platoons under Tank Regiments regardless of
division had 3 tanks, and Motor Rifle Regiments regardless of division had 4. But all regiments
under the Panzer Divisions had T-72s by 1990, while all regiments under Motor
Rifle Divisions still had T-55s. Because the T-55 was a 4-man tank with a
dedicated loader, each of those platoons had between 12 and 16 crewmembers under
a Lieutenant. But T-72s were autoloaded, so each tank only had 3 crewmembers. So
those platoons had between 9 and 12 crews. Companies
At the company-level there were more similarities than differences.
Both the East and West German company consisted of 3 Tank Platoons. In the East German
case, these were all commanded by officers, while in the West German case one was
led by an officer and two by NCOs. Both had a headquarters element. The East
had a tank for the Company Commander, a motorcycle for the Deputy of Equipment
and Armaments, and a Ural 375D truck for the Hauptfeldwebel and a clerk. There was also a
Deputy for Political Work in Warsaw Pact fashion. The West German equivalent also had only one
tank for the Company Commander at this time. Unlike today, the West German tank company
had only one officer in the Command Group, the company commander who was
usually a Captain or Major. The second staff member was the Company
Sergeant or Kompaniefeldwebel, normally held by a Hauptfeldwebel. The difference was
in East Germany Hauptfeldwebel was the name for the appointment equivalent to Company Sergeant
Major or First Sergeant, but it could be held by a senior NCO, such as a Stabsfeldwebel, or
a grade of Warrant Officer called a Fähnrich, which was added to their rank structure
in 1979 in Soviet fashion. There was no East German rank of Hauptfeldwebel. But in West
Germany, the appointment was Kompaniefeldwebel, which was held by an NCO normally
at the rank of Hauptfeldwebel. But in any case, while the East German
Hauptfeldwebel rode around in a Ural, the West German company had a
Company Sergeant’s Troop. At the time this included an Unimog 2-ton
truck and Mercedes-Benz 5-ton truck. The Company Troop, which was a sort
of command group, included the tank, a half-ton jeep, and three
motorcycles for messengers. The West German Company also had two Replacement
Crews, a total of 6 junior enlisted crewmembers that could fill vacancies. Having these
spare crews at the company-level allowed platoons to still conduct exercises
even when slightly understrength. A tank with even one crewmember down is at best
significantly degraded in its performance. One level up, most East and West German Tank
Battalions consisted of 3 Tank Companies and a staff. The West German equivalent had
a much more substantial staff though, with a 183-man Staff and Supply Company
versus the 43-man East German battalion staff. In terms of armor, the West German Battalion
HQ had 2 tanks and the East German had 1. West German Brigades had 1 or 2
of this type of Tank Battalion, depending on if it was a Panzer
or Panzergrenadier Brigade. East German Tank Regiments meanwhile had 3 of these
battalions, while Motor Rifle Regiments had 1. But there was also the case of
the West German mixed battalion. For the 1980s the West Germans wanted to
increase the amount of tank units in the field without increasing the number
of armored vehicles in service. This entailed reducing each tank platoon from 5,
as was the case since the 1950s, to 4 tanks, reducing the tanks in the company HQ from
2 to 1, and the tanks in the battalion HQ from 3 to 2. They used those savings to create
an additional tank company per Tank Battalion. This was also done with
Panzergrenadier Battalions, and the new companies were moved into
their own mixed fourth battalion, numbered as the 1st battalion in the
brigade basically. In Panzer Brigades, this mixed battalion had 2 tank companies
and 1 infantry company, while Panzergrenadier Brigades had 2 infantry and 1 tank company,
matching the number of other combat battalions. But this battalion’s staff was actually a cadre force that would only be activated for
war and exercises. During peacetime, these new companies were actually housed
with one of the three original battalions. The East and West Germans had somewhat
similar practices when it came to tank unit organization at the low-levels,
the biggest difference being the more substantial logistics in the West German
battalion and the dimorphism in East German units depending on if they were in a tank
regiment or supported an infantry regiment. The platforms were obviously quite
different though. I’m not going to get into comparing the specifications
of tanks because that’s not what I do, but the West Germans had significantly more of the
newest Leopard 2s than the East Germans had T-72s. East Germany had 4 Motor Rifle Divisions and 2
Panzer Divisions in the first line. The former type each had about 214 T-55 tanks in theory.
The 9th Panzer Division had 322 T-72s while the slightly smaller 7th Panzer Division had 223 T-72s
and 40 T-55As in the 1990 handover of equipment. The larger West Germany on the other
hand had 4 Panzergrenadier Divisions and 6 Panzer Divisions in its active
field army. There were some exceptions, like the 3rd Panzer Division under the 1st
Dutch Corps. But broadly speaking if you were to assume the generic number of subunits at
full-strength, Panzergrenadier Divisions were meant to have 254 tanks and Panzer Divisions
were meant to have 309. So roughly comparable, although about 34 of these were contained
in an Armored Reconnaissance Battalion that supported the division. The East German
equivalent had BMP-1s as its heavy hitters. But in terms of fielded maneuver battalions,
the West German Panzer Division had 5 pure Tank Battalions, 2 Mixed Tank Battalions, and
1 Mixed Panzergrenadier Battalion, in addition to the 4 pure Panzergrenadier Battalions. To
compare, the East German Panzer Division had 10 pure Tank Battalions and 4-ish Motor Rifle
Battalions. 4-ish because the East German Tank Regiment didn’t have an infantry battalion,
they at most had a Motor Rifle Company each. So what the East Germans traded in lack of
resiliency at the platoon- and company-level with only 3 tanks per platoon they gained
some with more Tank Battalions in the field for a similar amount of tanks, which is probably
more critical in the case of a large-scale conflict. They also fielded more divisions as
a proportion of their population than the West. Not that I think this bean counting matters
all that much given the West Germans had three times the active Tank Divisions
as the East and fielded an arguably better tank. But I find these sorts of
comparisons at least mildly interesting. If you want more info on German armored
units, check out this video on the West’s Panzergrenadier units in the 1950s and 60s, their
armored infantry force. I’ll see you over there!
