Found this site,has some info about them among other stuff. www.feldgrau.com PS The General forum is still broke as you already know.
Thanks alot Framert. What a well done site. Right up there with Skalman's site I dare say! It's definition of Jager I already knew, and I could not find any histories of Jager units on the site. What confuses me and has me curious, is that it seems to me that in the context of WWII, Jager units are special "hunter-killer" units, or some sort of specialized infantry. But also Napoleon employed Prussian Jager units did'nt he? In the Napoleonic context it would seem that a Jager unit was more like light infantry. Can anyone clear this up?
Jager in German means Hunter. ager units were made of of sharpshooters and snipers. Jagers were elite troops. Gebirgejager literally means Mountain Hunter or Mountain trooper. Partisanjager means Partisan hunters. Etc.
Well, it's hard to say. They are and they aren't. If you look through a listing that lists all the units that make up German Inf Divs and other Divs, you will find the riflemen listed as Grenadiers, Panzergrenadiers, Jagers etc. I think it depended on the role they were chosen to perform. Now is the time for Andreas and or Andy to let me know if I am wrong or not.
The German Jäger Division is simply a infantry division that was reduced slightly in size and given slightly more mechanization to make it more mobile. Units in this series include: 5th Jäger. Converted from the 5th Infantry divsion after that unit was destroyed. 8th Jäger. Converted from the 8th ID in a similar manner 28th Jäger. Converted from the 28th ID. 97th Jäger. 99th Jäger. Converted after formation to 7th Mountian (Grebs) division 100th Jäger. 101st Jäger 104th Jäger 114th Jäger 117th Jäger 118th Jäger The nominal TO&E of these divisions was 2 Jäger Regiments, each having 3 battalions. The 13th Company (infantry guns) was not present. Each division had a reduced artillery regiment of 2 battalions of 105mm howitzers and a 15cm heavy battalion. A motorized antitank battalion was provided and organized as in a regular infantry division. The Aufklarungs Abteilung was a mix of bicycle and motorcycle troops. Later, many had kubelwagen mounted companies. The engineer battalion was partially motorized. Services had a higher proportion of motor vehicles than in a regular infantry division but their size overall was smaller.
There were also Jäger units in the Austro-Hungarian Army during WWI, being these the truly élite units within this Army. They were almost only involved in fighting the Italians at the Isonzo and the Alps.
