Pz Artillery Regiment 74

[philip turland]

Could anyone help me please.

What is the tactical marking for either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Battery of Pz Artillery Regiment 74 when in Normandy.

wwIIdaybyday just confuses me as does the organisational charts

maybe me being stupid but all help appreciated.

regards

philip

[Alanmccoubrey]

The marking should have been for self-propelled howitzers, light for the 1 and 2 bty and heavy for the 3 bty, This would be the tank track with the howitzer sysmbol above it, there is a pic of such a sign in the artillery, infantry guns, flak section of Tactical Signs in the ww!!daybyday site. Alan

[philip turland]

Thanks, is it the sign in the 3rd table bottom left corner

philip

[philip turland]

This is where I get confused. I thought that because it is part of a panzer division the 1<SUP>st</SUP> battery would have the panzer symbol with the howitzer sign because it is self-propelled

The 2<SUP>nd</SUP> and 3<SUP>rd</SUP> batteries were towed units but still part of a panzer division and would have the same marking. Are you saying that this is not the case.

[Lennard]

Panzer Artillerie

One of the confusing points about artillery units is that they are titled differently to most other units, where for instance other units were Kompanie and Abeilung with artillerie its Batterie and Battallion.

Specifically for Pz Artillerie Regiment 74 on 1st June 1944, they had three Battalions, I, II and III, each had three Batterie, numbered 1,2,3 (I Batt), 4,5,6 (II Batt) and 7,8,9 (III Batt).

As with all Pz Art Rgt the I Battalion were Self-Propelled guns (Sfl) whilst the other two Battalions were towed guns (mot).

Thus the I Batt contained Hummel Sfl and Wespe Sfl, and used the fully tracked tactical sign with the howitzer sign above it, to the right the Batterie number would we written (1, 2 or 3) and to the left the 's' for schwere (heavy) or 'le' for lichte (light) guns, Hummel being heavy and Wespe being light.

As it happens Pz Art Rgt 74 in June 44 had its Wespe in Batterie 1 and 2 and its Hummel in Batterie 3, in other Pz Art Rgt's it could easily be the the reverse, it was their choice.

Of interest and to show the typical confused German situation, the 7th Batterie of Pz Art Rgt 74 was not Artillerie but an 8,8cm flak Batterie, which I suppose could be considered dual-purpose flak and artillerie .

lennard

[Sam Wren]

Would you mind sharing your sources, Lennard?

I have been unable to find a source verifying the OOB of Artillery Regiment 74 in Normandy therefore I have been searching for other sources. Thank you very much in advance.

sam

[Lennard]

Pz Art Rgt 74

The description of the content of Pz Art Rgt 74 described two notes above is from one of their OBB documents and dated 1st June 1944 (Gliederung)

"Anlage zu 2. Pz Div. Ia. Nr. 392/44 g.Kdos." from the Bundesarchiv.

lennard

[Sam Wren]

thanks lennard

no text