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ARMY GROUP SOUTH

Army Group South was a huge organization, initially consisting of 797,000 men in occupied Poland and 175,000 men in Rumania.
On Barbarossatag von Rundstedt's command numbered 46-1/2 German and allied divisions. Manpower and material shortages throughout the Third Reich meant that units varied according to when they were created. While most of Army Group South consisted of only German units on 22June, the Eleventh Army had a11 German corps and corps with Rumanians under command.

During Barbarossa corps and armies' tables of organizations changed at a confusing rate. All of the Ostheer can be divided into two groups; a motorized elite and the vast bulk of marching and horse-drawn troops. When, after the victory in France, Hitler doubled the number of Panzer divisions he robbed the German infantry of much of its motor transport. Lessons learned in that campaign, for example the benefits of motorizing both anti-tank guns and artillery forward observers, could not be applied to Barbarossa.

The greatest burden of the fighting fell on von Rundstedt's infantrymen - the Landser. Even the bulk of the Panzer divisions' combat soldiers rode to battle in trucks but dismounted to fight. As early as 22 June it became obvious that war in the USSR would be much harder than that in Poland or France. The 111th Infantry Division noted roads rendered impassible by rain as early as 24 June, while clouds of dust rose from the bone-dry steppe a day later. One company commander wrote: "the roads and the day belonged to the Germans. But the forests and the night belonged to the Russians."

Army Group South's armored formations were concentrated in the First Panzer Group. As a "group" it did not have the engineer, artillery, signals and other support units associated with an "army". After von Kleist's Panzer group became a Panzer Army on 5 October it gained these assets. All of his Panzers were of German manufacture. The Germans hoped that newer Panzer III and IV would compensate for the smaller number of tanks in the reorganized Panzer divisions. In modern warfare artillery usually causes the most destruction. At Army Group South's lowest level infantry platoons were equipped with 50 mm and 82 mm mortars. The campaign in the west had made clear that the former were too small to be effective. Larger formations had 105mm infantry guns and 150 mm howitzers. Higher echelons fielded Nebelwerfer ("smoke projector") rocket launchers. These 150mm weapons threw an anti-personnel round over 7,600 yards. Von Rundstedt had four 280mm K5 railroad guns transferred from the English Channel. Each required two trains to move and operate and could send a 561 lb projectile up to 37.5 miles.

Flak guns were critical to von Rundstedt's success, but when the Royal Air Force stepped up attacks on Germany Hitler ordered 15,000 army Flak guns held back to guard the Reich. Anti-tank artillery ("PAK") was stretched to the limit. Gennan 37mm guns were useless against the new Soviet tank models, the 50mm gun only slightly better. Large-bore guns, normally used for indirect fire, operated against tanks over open sights. Luftwaffe Flak pieces, most notably the 88mm, were the Landser's best hope of defeating Soviet armor. Germany never adopted the infantry-support tank used by other nations and instead employed the Sturmgeschulz ("assault gun"), which was employed in the infantry support role.