Heavy weapons German infantry units?

There were some special unit types available to the Axis player in the first Panzer General game: the heavy weapons infantry. Did such units really exist during the second world war?

Heavy weapons unit next to a standard infantry unit - Panzer General I

Let's see what kind of weapons were used by infantry during WW2:

Rifles

 This was the most used infantry weapon. Long range, great accuracy but slow rate of fire as the shooter had to manually operate the handle to eject the spent cartridge and load the next round.
Later in the war, semi-automatic rifles started to be used. In the German army, their numbers were relatively small compared to the number of bolt-action rifles. However, the M1 Garand, being the standard weapon of the U.S. infantry, was used extensively during WW2 and afterwards (Korean war).

Submachine guns

Able to shoot pistol cartridges at high rates-of-fire, they have much less range and accuracy than a rifle. However, in urban environments, these disadvantages are minimized and SMG infantry fares much better than riflemen. Additionally, this type of weapon does not require highly trained troops to be put to good use.

The German most used SMG, the MP-40, was not produced in high numbers (again, compared to the Mauser rifles), and they were issued only to squad leaders or specialized units, such as paratroopers. In contrast, the Soviets built their PPSh-41 drum magazines SMGs in large quantities and equipped whole battalions with it.

Assault rifles

 Combining SMG rate-of-fire with decent accuracy and range, the assault rifle concept appeared during the Second World War (as opposed with the rifle and SMG which had existed prior to the onset of the war).
Facing the Allies which enjoyed greater individual firepower (through the use of submachine guns or semi-automatic rifles), the Germans chose to use a different solution; StG 44 was born. It was available only 1944-1945, but after the war, the concept was embraced by most armies of the world and it's the current standard infantry weapon (e.g. AK-47 and M-16).

Light machine guns

The German military doctrine regarded the light machine gun as the primary firepower provider. One machine gun was allocated to each squad. The troops were armed mostly with rifles, but they were supposed to provide support to the LMG.

The most used German LMG was the bipod-mounted MG-34 (and its derivative MG-42).

Medium and heavy machine guns

The same MG-34 and MG-42 could be used on a tripod mount, feeding ammo through linked belts and changing the barrels as they overheated. Thus, it could provide sustained fire, fulfilling the role of a medium/heavy machine gun, even though it used the 7.92 calibre ammunition.

Grenades

The familiar stick grenade ("potato masher") was the most used German design, while the Allies relied on fragmentation-type ("pineapple") grenades

Land mines

These are defensive weapons and sometimes fake minefields were used to funnel enemy attacks to locations favourable to the defenders.

Anti-tank weapons

Early in the war, portable anti-tank weapons (e.g. anti-tank rifles, with limited penetration capabilities) were seldom used. They usually relied on anti-tank guns available at regimental-level.
Later, the famous Panzerfaust and Panzershrek weapons provided the soldiers with considerable anti-tank abilities, albeit effective only at small ranges.

Flamethrowers

Used when attacking fortifications by the Pioniersturmzug (Engineer) units.

Mortars

Infantry mortars were very useful in providing support during attacks,due to proximity to the combat zone, resulting in fast response times to changing conditions in the field.
They could also be carried by the soldiers, making them even more useful when larger artillery support is not available.

Support weapons

Field guns and howitzers, as well as anti-tank guns companies were available at the infantry regimental level, increasing the firepower available at critical sectors.

U.S. infantry also had antiaircraft .50 machine guns support available. The Germans would have to use their own MG42s to provide air defence.




In a future post, I will continue the analysis about the heavy weapons infantry units of the Wehrmacht and its validity as a unit type in a Panzer General-type strategy game.