Essential to the panzergrenadier’s ability to fight was his ability to hit the enemy hard, and quickly. Panzergrenadiers, like their regular German Infantry counterparts, were heavily-armed with pistols, grenades, rifles, machine guns, flamethrowers, panzerfausts, and a host of other weaponry.
EINZ GUDERIAN considered that the ree key factors to the successful prose-[tion of armoured warfare were pro-ction, mobility and firepower. For the mzergrenadier, the Sd Kfz 251 pro-ded the first and, importantly, the sec-id of these factors. However, Guderian tnsidered that the most important fac-r of the three was firepower. Thus it as central to the effectiveness of eiTnany’s panzer arm that its elite obile infantry component was corre-Kindingly well armed. As the panzer-•enadiers were required to fight a variety of actions - ipport of the armour on the offensive, standard infantry tacks, assaults on fortified positions that the tanks could not ckle and defensive actions either as infantry alone or in imbination with the armour - they required a wide range of eaponry. This is particularly true in the case of the panzer-renadier division because, traditionally, the division is the nallest formation in which all arms are combined, and it mtained infantry, armour, anti-aircraft guns and artillery, onetheless, it should be remembered that, although usually lore lavishly equipped than much of the remainder of the .ehrmacht, particularly in the case of the Waffen SS, very lit-e of tlie panzergrenadiers’ weaponry was exclusive to them, [owever, to understand their tactics and performance in bat-
Jft: A Grossdeutschland flamethrower team in action during the jmmer of 1942 on the Eastern Front. The flamethrower was a larsome weapon, but it proved extremely useful for clearing Linkers and emplacements.
Tie a survey of some of the more common weapons with which the panzer-grenadiers fought is useful. This list is not comprehensive, given the bewildering variety of equipment used by the Germans in World War II, but covers a representative selection of the more common arms of the panzergrenadiers.
World History
