Does anybody have links to US, Soviet, British, or German data of this sort? I found this interesting bit: 3 days of combat- Forward issue (first round of ammo carried with troops and not part of the divisional reserve) While these numbers are a bit weird, they mostly make sense to me for the exception of the bolded- IE. The German soldier armed with the automatic small arm is generally depicted wearing 6 ammunition pouches. I'm quite surprised that they were given so much ammunition. Were these all carried with the soldier and in magazines? Or were the magazines a fixed issue? I'm surprised at the 75 rifle grenades per launcher. I've never seen a German infantryman with a bandoleer of grenades in photos. And why were so few Panzershreck rounds issued? US troops used their bazooka liberally and effectively against ground targets. March 1945 Volksgrenadier (unmotorized) division 9mm pistols- 18 rounds MP40 -690 Stg44 -720 K98 -99 K98 (for support troops) -25 G-43 rifle -159 Rifle grenade launcher- 75 grenades MG34/42- 3,450 rounds MG34/42- (for artillery and AT troops- 1,350 MG34/42 on HMG mount- 6,300 Panzershreck- 5 rounds 81mm mortar-150 rounds 120mm mortar-150 rounds
You have done some great research but what is the breakdown per man? For instance was every mp-44 soldier equipped with 720 rounds or was this assigned per squad. The only thing i know for sure beyond what you have said is that more ammo was always assigned before an attack or while during continuous defensive attack. The Germans had a myriad hodge-podge of guns during WW2 but the odd ones tended to be assigned to support troops and those in occupied countries as well as police units, who took whatever was available-the weapons at the front were, quite logically, standardized; KAR 98, MP38/40, P38 pistol, mg-34/mg42. This is an interesting issue and hopefully there is more information to be found!
The Volksgrenadier division was a defensive formation with little motorization. It was not designed for offensive action. These are for March 1945 and were the ration for three days of battle. The numbers are the breakdowns per weapon IE. 720 kurz rounds per STG44 rifle, 75 rifle grenades for each rifle grenade launcher, etc. I'm assuming that surplus small arms ammo was carried in trucks, horse-drawn wagons, and in carts. There was another ration, called the "divisional reserve", which was 3-day combat serving that was stored in ammo dumps and ready for use. Another 3-day combat serving was at a Corps level ammo dump.
Silly of me. Since it's a 3 day combat supply, divide by 3 for one serving. It makes more sense now. MP40, Stg44 armed soldier with 7 magazines Rifle grenadier with 25 grenades MG on bipod with 4 ammo boxes plus change MG on tripod with 8 ammo boxes 15-20 boxes of mortar bombs for each medium/heavy mortar
