Der Adler, der Wolf, und die Sonne: Die Geschichte des Stahlpakts
(The Eagle, the Wolf, and the Sun: The History of the Pact of Steel)
Book 1: "Peace"
Covering the years from 1936 through 1941, Book One of "The Eagle, the Wolf and the Sun: The Histo...
Significant funding resources were devoted to Germany's technical and theoretical knowledge bases to improve the capabilities of the Reich for the future.
The Heer.
In early January, Oberkommando des Heeres published their latest doctrinal field manual covering how commanders should phrase their own intent towards their mission from higher headquarters, now called the commander's intent. This was a statement of how the particular headquarters envisioned their fight, which would in turn guide how those subordinate commands approached their own portion of the mission. The annual spring and summer war games would provide further refinement of this doctrine as it was applied throughout the Heer and was updated through the end of the year. Further tactical command doctrine would be refined and issued by July.
The year of doctrinal improvements did not focus solely on orders issued by commanders. The employment of artillery, to include anti-tank and anti-aircraft varieties, in the defense needed to be refined as heavier artillery joined the ranks of the Heer. It was a truism to say that combat was a series of cycles, with forces going from offensive to defensive operations and back again; a unit attacking into some area would be expected to be prepared to defend it during a reorganization or consolidation phase. The training of calling for fires (from infantry and armor units) and responding to those calls for fires (for the artillery) absorbed a portion of the expenditures for training and research throughout 1937. Towards the end of the year, this progressed into defensive planning as it had been demonstrably shown during the previous war (and during the on-going conflict in Spain) that defending as stoutly as possible caused significant casualties as warfare became ever-more mobile. Flexibility in combat was the key, and fighting withdrawals to exhaust the enemy was seen as more beneficial to preserve combat power.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Panzers on exercise, 1937. The Panzerkorps would continue to use the PzKpfw.Is and IIs for exercises to keep their front line units fresh for any outbreaks of fighting.
The final focus area for doctrinal work focused on developing some sort of guidance for the employment of mechanized forces. As the Heer's Panzerkorps grew, applying them--both generally and at the decisive point of action--was problematic at best. The early organization of two full brigades of panzers and only one brigade of motorized infantry combined with a brigade of pioneers seemed like a good idea at the time. Lessons learned in the war games, however, time and again showed that having so many tanks with so little integrated infantry support was unwise. In late 1935 to early 1936, this had resulted in the reorganization of the Panzer-divisions to one brigade each of tanks, motorized infantry and pioneers, with a future expansion of self-propelled artillery when they became available. Despite the apparent dissolution of combat power, the ability of the Command, Control and Communications (C3) elements to exert their power at the decisive point was far better than before, which actually increased their efficiency. The doctrinal improvements would not be codified in the Field Manuals until after the end of the year.
