One of the most effective tactical formations the Germans used throughout the Second World
War, was “Kampfgruppen” - or Battle Groups. They were Ad Hoc formations - formed to complete
a task, or as a solution to a specific problem. They didn’t have standard sizes or compositions,
but generally were from company-size and up, usually formed around battalions or regiments.
They were temporary. Created by a leader to plug a gap, or provide unity with the various
units at hand. Usually once the purpose of the kampfgruppe was completed, or it had become
irrelevant, then the kampfgruppe would dissolve - until the next crisis appears or the next
mission is assigned. The Kampfgruppe concept works well with other German tactical doctrines
like Auftragstaktik - mission-oriented leadership doctrine. The main advantage of kampfgruppen
was that they could be formed hastily, around strong-charismatic leaders, and used for a
variety of missions. This was a really flexible system of command and organisation, which
allowed officers to achieve more with less. And these battle groups weren’t necessarily
balanced formations. They may have had armoured cars mixed with a mortar unit. Or a larger
infantry and tank force, which lacked artillery. Towards the end of the war, kampfgruppen were
just Frankenstein-monster-type formations with just anything they had at hand - cooks,
staff officers, naval units, eyes and ears battalions - whatever they could find! Anything
to plug a gap. And yet, kampfgruppen were effective in their own right, and even stopped
entire enemy offensives. There are many examples of kampfgruppen in action, and not just on
the defensive. At Stalingrad in 1942, 24th Panzer Division made great use of kampfgruppen.
One of their leaders, Colonel Maximilian von Edelsheim, leader of the 26th Panzergrenadier
Regiment, formed a kampfgruppe from various units within 24th Panzer Division - not just
his own regiment. To give you an example, on the 23rd of August 1942, Kampfgruppe Edelsheim
consisted of - Hellerman’s 21st Panzergrenadier Regiment, Edelsheim’s 26th Panzergrenadier
Regiment (minus 1st Battalion), 2nd and 3rd Battalions from 89th Panzer Artillery Regiment,
one battery from the 53rd Werfer Regiment, 602nd Flak Battalion, 2 Flak combat groups,
and z.b. V. Kompanie 800. Effectively, what you have here is a regiment commander, forming
a temporary unit that consisted of his own regiment, but also that of another, and then
a bunch of extra units as well. On this day he was given the task of clearing the Soviets
from Lake Sarpa, south of Stalingrad. However, Edelsheim would form and dissolve kampfgruppen
again and again throughout the city-fight inside Stalingrad. In fact, in early September,
Edelsheim was in command of another kampfgruppe which only had one battalion from his own
regiment, with the other units from his regiment in another kampfgruppe. So this real was a
flexible system of command. If you want to see Kampfgruppen doing well in defensive action,
look no further than Operation Market Garden. This campaign was was awash with German Kampfgruppen.
When the British dropped at Arnhem, SS-Lieutenant-Colonel Spindler cobbled together a Kampfgruppe in
the afternoon of September 17th 1944 - the first day of the operation. “This Kampfgruppe…
contributed more than any other identifiable formation to the defeat of the 1st British
Airborne Division. Its full significance in the battle of Arnhem has yet to be fully assessed.”
It wasn’t the Panzer-Divisions at Arnhem that stopped the British, it was Spinder’s
force - although, yeah he was actually part of one of those divisions, but had no tanks at the beginning.
Spindler was an artillery regiment commander - and his regiment (now reduced to two companies)
formed the main element of the Kampfgruppe. His force consisted of various ‘alarm’
companies, Krafft’s 16th SS Training and Replacement Battalion, Kampfgruppe Moeller
(yes, a kampfgruppe within a kampfgruppe), and eventually swelled to have 16 separate
units within its command. Kampfgruppe Spindler was actually split into two big kampfgruppen - one
based around the 9th Panzerjäger Battalion (Kampfgruppe Allworden), and the other around
9th Panzer Regiment (Kampfgruppe Harder). Some of these units had barely 100 men, yet
were able to slow and then stop the British paras from reaching Arnhem - except for Frost’s
battalion, who slipped around them to the south. Frost at Arnhem bridge was also surrounded by several
kampfgruppen, these were all hastily formed to root out his force from the buildings
there. When the 82nd Airborne failed to take Nijmegen road bridge on the 1st day, the 10th
SS Panzer Division sent forces south to hold onto Nijmegen city, and deny the Americans
from taking either the road bridge or the rail bridge later. Kampfgruppe Frundsberg
- the name of the 10th SS Panzer Division's HQ, commanded by Harmel - sent Kampfgruppe
Henke, and then Kampfgruppe Reinhold, to hold Nijmegen. Now, it does get quite complicated and
really beyond the scope of the video, but within a couple days, you have Kampfgruppe Henke
in the west of Nijmegen, holding the rail bridge. And you had Kampfgruppe Reinhold in
the east of Nijmegen, holding the road bridge (with another kampfgruppe called Euling as part of that).
So, yes, with Euling, you have a kampfgruppe, within a kampfgruppe, within a kampfgruppe.
And these kampfgruppen put up stiff resistance until early on the 21st - the beginning of
the 5th day. And this delay allowed other kampfgruppen at Arnhem to move south, across the now freed
Arnhem road bridge, to form a blocking line south of Arnhem, preventing the Allies from
reaching their ultimate objective. So, during Operation Market Garden, kampfgruppen saved
the day for the Germans. The Battle of the Bulge is a well-known battle in the west,
and one of the more famous units in it was Kampfgruppe Peiper. But I just want to point
out that Peiper’s Kampfgruppe wasn’t the only one. In 2nd Panzer Division alone, you
have Kampfgruppe Cochenhausen, Kampfgruppe von Bohm, Kampfgruppe Gutmann and Kampfgruppe
Holtmeyer. There were others too, like Hansen (based around 1st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment),
or Knittel (based around 4th Panzergrenadier Regiment). So Kampfgruppe Peiper wasn’t
the only one. But Kampfgruppe Peiper does get the lion’s
share of the fame. Peiper was the commander of a 1st SS Panzer Regiment, and his Kampfgruppe
was formed around that. It included another regiment, and several other battalions as
well. This actually allows Peiper to split his force into two towards the end of the
battle - again, showing the great flexibility such a formation could have. And while the
German offensive ultimately failed, such is the power of Peiper’s personality and the
potential of his unit’s drive west, that several books have been written on just him alone
and several more about his units actions during the battle - which is probably a tribute to
the effectiveness of the kampfgruppe concept, since Peiper’s divisional commander Wilhelm
Mohnke (the guy in charge of 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler - who
went on to fight at Berlin) barely gets three books written on him in English, even though
he was Peiper’s commander at the Bulge. Now, it must be said that the Germans weren’t
the only ones to use ad hoc units. The British used Flying Columns throughout the war - also
known as Jock Columns - in a similar way to the German Kampfgruppen. And I’ll be doing a
video on them soon, because they directly impact the North African Campaign, but basically
Jock Columns were small artillery-units designed to harass the Germans wherever possible. “US
armoured divisions were designed to be split down into three roughly equal groupings called
Combat Commands, designated ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘R’ (for Reserve), a response to,
and imitation of, the very effective German Kampfgruppen.” However, the difference between
the Allied (or even Axis allied) ad hoc units and the German kampfgruppen, is that on a
whole the Allied units tended to operate as separate units. So for example, during Operation
Crusader, the British form the ‘Oasis Force’, which was a reinforced brigade - essentially
a Kampfgruppe. But they do this prior to the battle, and the elements of this formation
fight separately - not as one blob, in a sense. In the battle itself, the other brigades and
regiments and so on fighting in the thick of the action, remain separate entities. There’s
no example of one brigade taking over the units of another brigade to form a more powerful
unit - in the way the Germans would do with their kampfgruppen. The formal structure of
the regiment, brigade, or division, remained fixed in the allied formations - and really
shows just how inflexible the allies were at the tactical level compared to the Germans. Now,
the reason you hear about Kampfgruppen more in the last two years of the war (1944 to
1945), is because by this point the German army is in dire straights. In the early part
of the war, the Germans might plug a gap with an entire division (which might have three or
four kampfgruppen in them), but you’d hear about the German division moving into that
area. By 1944, they don’t have this luxury, so they’re using brigades and/or battalions,
or even smaller units, to plug the gaps, rather than divisions. This is why you hear about
the kampfgruppen more often. But they had always been there. And they gave the Germans the
edge on the small-scale. They could only form Kampfgruppen because they had experienced
officers. These strong leaders weren’t always good leaders - but they had charismatic personalities,
allowing them to form a unit in the first place, establish a goal, and maintain order
as they threw their scratch force at the enemy. As Hastings concluded about their use in the
later period - “No one pretended that such formations were satisfactory substitutes for
the balanced divisions deployed by the allies. Yet the achievements of the Kampfgruppen were
considerable. Battle groups lacked coherence, transport and artillery support to mount major
attacks. But in defence - and defence was now the business of the German Army - their
contribution was critical to Hitler’s survival through the months ahead.” Thank you to
my Patreons, without you none of these videos would be possible. A follow-up video on Jock
Columns will be coming soon. So look forward to that.
In the meantime, to see Kampfgruppen in action, check out my
Operation Market Garden video where I show the events of the battle in great detail from
the pre-planning stages, through each day of the operation. You get to see Kampfgruppen
like Spindler or Euling, form and get into the action - plugging gaps in the lines, giving
the Germans time to send in reinforcements to stop the paratroopers. Link in the description
and the pinned comment below. Thanks for watching, bye for now.
And yes, drinking game - go back through this video and have a drink every time I say "kampfgruppen".
Or "kampfgruppe"