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55-689: A panzer division was a combined arms formation, having both tanks ( German : Panzerkampfwagen , transl.  armored fighting vehicle , usually shortened to " Panzer "), mechanized and motorized infantry , along with artillery , anti-aircraft and other integrated support elements. At the start of the war, panzer divisions were more effective than the equivalent Allied armored divisions due to their combined arms doctrine, even though they had fewer and generally less technically advanced tanks. By mid-war, though German tanks had often become technically superior to Allied tanks, Allied armored warfare and combined arms doctrines generally caught up with

110-500: A military to achieve mutually complementary effects—for example, using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other. According to the strategist William S. Lind , combined arms can be distinguished from the concept of "supporting arms" as follows: Combined arms hits the enemy with two or more arms simultaneously in such a manner that the actions he must take to defend himself from one make him more vulnerable to another. In contrast, supporting arms

165-645: A battle would have lasted months with many hundreds of thousands of casualties. Co-ordination and planning were the key elements, and the use of combined arms tactics in the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918 allowed the Allied forces to exploit breakthroughs in the enemy trenches, forcing the surrender of the Central Powers . In World War II combined arms was a fundamental part of some operational doctrines like Heinz Guderian 's Blitzkrieg , or

220-566: A battlefield problem. For example, an armoured division , the modern paragon of combined arms doctrine, consists of a mixture of infantry, tank , artillery , reconnaissance , and helicopter units, all of which are co-ordinated and directed by a unified command structure . Also, most modern military units can, if the situation requires it, call on yet more branches of the military, such as infantry requesting bombing or shelling by military aircraft or naval forces to augment their ground offensive or protect their land forces. The mixing of arms

275-488: A combination of these skilled and unskilled forces to win battles. An army that has multiple skills available can engage a larger force that incorporates mainly one or two types of troops. Each type of military formation – infantry, archers, cavalry, or peasants – has certain advantages that the other does not have. Infantry allows a force to hold ground and in the event of overwhelming enemy forces withdraw into terrain that mounted troops cannot maneuver as easily, thus negating

330-581: A combined arms approach, seldom operating without supporting infantry. The French army of the Valois kings, composed of heavily armoured gendarmes (professional versions of the medieval knight ), Swiss and Landsknecht mercenary pikemen , and heavy cannons took form during the transition from the medieval way of war to the early modern period . The late 15th century saw the development of combined pike and shot formations in Europe, starting with

385-504: A major formation elsewhere. The German Sixth Army , which was destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad , was re-constituted and later made part of Army Group South in March 1943. By the end of December 1943, the strength of Army Group South had been reduced to 328,397 German soldiers, joined by another 109,816 allied soldiers and non-German volunteer troops. On 4 April 1944, Army Group South

440-521: A simple form of combined arms, with a combination of dismounted knights forming a foundation for formations of English longbowmen . The lightly protected longbowmen could down their French opponents at a distance, whilst the armoured men-at-arms could deal with any Frenchmen who made it to the English lines. This is the crux of combined arms: to allow a combination of forces to achieve what would be impossible for its constituent elements to do alone. During

495-459: A unit of heavy infantrymen armed with just sword and pilum, and fielded with a small attached auxiliary skirmishers and missile troops, and incorporated a small cavalry unit. The legion was sometimes also incorporated into a higher-echelon combined arms unit – e.g., in one period it was customary for a general to command two legions plus two similarly sized units of auxiliaries, lighter units useful as screens or for combat in rough terrain. Later during

550-460: Is hitting the enemy with two or more arms in sequence, or if simultaneously, then in such combination that the actions the enemy must take to defend himself from one also defends himself from the other(s). Though the lower- echelon units of a combined arms team may be of similar types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organization or informally in an ad hoc solution to

605-490: Is sometimes pushed down below the level at which homogeneity ordinarily prevails, such as by temporarily attaching a tank company to an infantry battalion. Combined arms operations date back to antiquity, where armies would usually field a screen of skirmishers to protect their spearmen during the approach to contact. Especially in the case of the Greek hoplites , however, the focus of military thinking lay almost exclusively on

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660-469: Is supplemented by satellite photos and passive reception of enemy radio emissions, forward observers with digital target designation, specialized scouting aircraft, anti-artillery radars and gun-laying software for artillery. Based on this doctrine, many US ground vehicles moved across the landscape alone. If they encountered an enemy troop or vehicle concentration, they would assume a defensive posture, lay down as much covering fire as they could, designate

715-418: Is usually given as a major contributing factor in the failure. It is an example of why generals needed to use combined arms to overcome the tactics used by enemy officers to frustrate an attack by a single arm of an army. In contrast the 27th (Inniskilling) suffered 478 casualties from an initial strength of 750 because of their exposure to attack by French combined arms. They were located near

770-530: The 2nd Panzerdivision was formed in Würzburg and commanded by Guderian, and the 3rd Panzerdivision was formed in Berlin and commanded by Ernst Feßmann . Most other armies of the era organized their tanks into "tank brigades" that required additional infantry and artillery support. Panzer divisions had their own organic infantry and artillery support. This led to a change in operational doctrine: instead of

825-610: The Napoleonic Wars . After 25 years of near continuous warfare, the armies that met at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 were organized in a similar manner – into corps which contained infantry, cavalry and artillery (see Order of battle of the Waterloo Campaign ), and used similar combined arms tactics. Within each corps were divisions of infantry or cavalry made up of brigades and an artillery unit. An army would usually also have reserves of all three arms under

880-749: The colunelas of the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , evolving into the tercios of Hapsburg Spain and the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire during the 16th century . In Japan, at the battle of Nagashino (長篠の戦い) in 1575, forces of the Oda clan successfully employed combined arms against the Takeda clan , which heavily relied on cavalry. The Oda army erected palisades to protect their ashigaru musketeers that shot down

935-490: The Germans, and shortages reduced the combat readiness of panzer divisions. The proportions of the components of panzer divisions changed over time. The World War II German equivalent of a mechanized infantry division is Panzergrenadierdivision ('armored infantry division'). This is similar to a panzer division, but with a higher proportion of infantry and assault guns and fewer tanks. Heinz Guderian first proposed

990-511: The Heer and the SS used their own ordinal systems, there were duplicate numbers (i.e. there was both a 9th Panzerdivision and a 9th SS-Panzerdivision ). The tank strength of the panzer divisions varied throughout the war. The actual equipment of each division is difficult to determine due to battle losses, the formation of new units, reinforcements and captured enemy equipment. The following table gives

1045-553: The Middle Ages military forces used combined arms as a method of winning battles and furthering a war leader or king's long-term goals. Some historians claim that during the Middle Ages there was no strategic or tactical art to military combat. Kelly DeVries uses the Merriam-Webster definition of combat "as a general military engagement". In the pursuit of a leader's goals and self-interest tactical and strategic thinking

1100-649: The Roman Empire, auxiliary soldiers outnumbered the core legionary troops. The army of the Han dynasty is also an example, fielding mêlée infantry (equipped with a variety of different weapons ranging from swords to pikes to halberd-like weapons), archers, crossbowmen, and cavalry (ranging from horse archers to heavy lancers). One recorded tactical formation during the Han dynasty included three ranks of halberds, swordsmen, and spearmen, supported by crossbows, and with cavalry on

1155-614: The Romanian Third and Fourth Armies. In preparation for Case Blue , the 1942 campaign in southern Russia and the Caucasus, Army Group South was split into two army groups: Army Group A and Army Group B . Army Group A was ordered south to capture the oil fields in the Caucasus . In February 1943, Army Group Don and the existing Army Group B were combined and re-designated Army Group South. A new Army Group B became

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1210-631: The Soviet deep battle doctrine, which was based on combining tanks, mobile units (mechanised infantry or cavalry) and infantry, while supported by artillery. In 1963 the United States Marine Corps formalized the concept of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force , which combined Marine aviation and Marine ground units for expeditionary missions. The Vietnam War had a profound influence on the development of

1265-467: The Takeda cavalry while their samurai cut down any enemies who managed to approach melee range. The 17th century saw increasing use of combined arms at lower (regimental) level. King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was the proponent of the idea. For fire support he attached teams of "commanded musketeers" to cavalry units and fielded light 3-pounder guns to provide infantry units with organic artillery. In

1320-557: The US Army in Vietnam also learned to combine helicopter operations and airmobile infantry with the armoured and artillery units operating from fire support bases as well as the US brown-water navy and USAF close air support units supporting them. AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into

1375-476: The US Army's combined arms doctrine. Due to the very difficult terrain that prevented access to the enemy-held areas of operation , troops were often deployed by air assault . For this reason, US troops in Vietnam saw six times more combat than in preceding wars, due to less time spent on logistic delays. The result: an infantry unit increased in effectiveness by a factor of four for its size, when supported with helicopter-delivered ammunition, food and fuel. In time

1430-474: The Western Front, fighting descended into stagnant trench warfare . Generals on both sides applied conventional military thinking to the new weapons and situations that they faced. In these early stages, tactics typically consisted of heavy artillery barrages followed by massed frontal assaults against well entrenched enemies. These tactics were largely unsuccessful and resulted in large loss of life. As

1485-429: The advantage of the horse. Archers provide standoff with their bows or crossbows. Cavalry can maneuver faster and provide fast attack before the enemy has had time to prepare defenses. Peasants are more numerous and cheaper on the royal coffers. Over the long term the army can cross-train and learn the skills of the specialties to increase combat effectiveness . This is known as a combat multiplier today. The combination of

1540-506: The artillery regiment replaced its former towed light howitzers with a mix of heavy and light self-propelled artillery (the Hummel with a 15 cm sFH 18 /1 L/30 gun and the standard 105mm howitzer -equipped Wespe ). The anti-tank battalion now included assault guns, tank destroyers ( Panzerjaeger / Jadgpanzer ), and towed anti-tank guns. Generally, the mechanization of these divisions increased compared to their previous organization. Since

1595-555: The centre of Wellington's line, but unlike most of the rest of Wellington's infantry were in a declivity on the exposed side of the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment . Exposed as they were, they were forced to stand in square for most of the day for fear of cavalry attack and so made an easy dense target for Napoleon's massed artillery. The development of modern combined arms tactics began in the First World War . Early in

1650-403: The different skills help provide a commander the flexibility to minimize risk when it comes to engagements. The overall objective of any military force is to fight and win, while also preserving the largest number of combatants to carry on the larger strategic aims of the king. This can be seen in some of the engagements during the Middle Ages. Generally the savanna cavalries of West Africa used

1705-402: The direct command of the army commander which could be sent in support of any corps or division of a corps to increase any arm which the army general considered necessary. The great French cavalry charge commanded by Marshal Ney during the battle failed to break Wellington's squares of infantry and Ney's failure to supplement his cavalry with sufficient horse artillery to break the squares open

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1760-503: The divisions underwent another reorganisation, with a tank regiment comprising from one to three battalions, depending on location (generally three for Army Group South , one for Army Group Centre , other commands usually two battalions). Throughout 1942, the reconnaissance battalions were merged into the motorcycle battalions. By the summer of 1943, the Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS also had panzer divisions . A renewed standardization of

1815-418: The eighteenth century, the concept of the legion was revived. Legions now consisted of musketeers , light infantry , dragoons and artillery in a brigade sized force. These legions often combined professional military personnel with militia . Perhaps the most notable example is the use of light cavalry , light infantry and light horse artillery in advance detachments by France's La Grande Armée during

1870-562: The enemy. Philip II of Macedon greatly improved upon the limited combined arms tactics of the Greek city-states and combined the newly created Macedonian phalanx with heavy cavalry and other forces. The phalanx would hold the opposing line in place, until the heavy cavalry could smash and break the enemy line by achieving local superiority. The early Republic Roman Legion was a combined arms force and consisted of five classes of troops. Lightly equipped velites acted as skirmishers armed with light javelins. The hastati and principes formed

1925-516: The flanks. Civilizations such as the Carthaginians and Sassanids also were known to have fielded a combination of infantry supported by powerful cavalry. At the Battle of Hastings (1066) English infantry fighting from behind a shield wall were defeated by a Norman army consisting of archers, foot soldiers (infantry), and mounted knights (cavalry). One of the tactics used by the Normans

1980-402: The following battalions: reconnaissance, motorcycle, anti-tank, pioneer, field replacement, and communications. The number of tanks in the 1941-style divisions was relatively small, compared to their predecessors' composition. All other units in these formations were fully motorised (trucks, half-tracks , specialized combat vehicles) to match the speed of the tanks. During the winter of 1941/42,

2035-564: The formation of panzer units larger than a regiment, but the inspector of motorized troops, Otto von Stuelpnagel , rejected the proposal. After his replacement by Oswald Lutz , Guderian's mentor, the idea gained more support in the Wehrmacht, and after 1933 was also supported by Adolf Hitler . The first three panzer divisions were formed on 15 October 1935. The 1st Panzerdivision was formed in Weimar and commanded by Maximilian von Weichs ,

2090-659: The ground assault phase, tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles supported by attack aircraft swept over remaining forces. The front line moved forward at upwards of 40–50 km/h at the upper limit of the Army's tracked vehicles. In 2000, the US Army began developing a new set of doctrines intended to use information superiority to wage warfare. Six pieces of equipment were crucial for this: AWACS (for Airborne early warning and control ), JSTARS (for Airborne ground surveillance ), GPS , VHF SINCGARS (for ground and airborne communications), and ruggedized computers . The mix

2145-418: The heavy infantry. In more elaborate situations armies of various nationalities fielded different combinations of light, medium, or heavy infantry, cavalry, chariotry, camelry, elephantry, and artillery (mechanical weapons). Combined arms in this context was how to best use the cooperating units, variously armed with side-arms, spears, or missile weapons in order to coordinate an attack to disrupt and then destroy

2200-431: The late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively maneuvering defense, and air forces attacking rear-echelon forces feeding those front line enemy forces. In the 1991 Gulf War , General Schwarzkopf used a mix of strikes by fixed-wing aircraft including carpet bombing and precision bombing in combination with large numbers of strikes by attack helicopters . During

2255-431: The main attacking strength of the legion with swords and pila , whilst the triarii formed the defensive backbone of the legion fighting as spearmen (initially as a denser Greek phalanx and later as a looser spear wall formation) with long spears and large shields. The fifth class of troops were the equites (the cavalry), which were used for scouting, pursuit and to guard the flanks. The Legion then became notionally

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2310-401: The old divisions were partially reorganised (adding a third battalion to some infantry regiments or alternatively adding a second regiment of two battalions). Around this time, the newly organised divisions ( 6th through 10th ) diverged in organisation, each on average with one tank regiment, one separate tank battalion, one or two infantry regiments (three to four battalions per division). By

2365-540: The start of Operation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the 21 panzer divisions had undergone further reorganisation to now consist of one tank regiment (of two or three battalions) and two motorised regiments (of two battalions each). Until the winter of 1941/42, the organic component of these divisions consisted of a motorised artillery regiment (of one heavy and two light battalions) and

2420-412: The tank regiments was attempted. Each was now supposed to consist of two battalions, one with Panzer IV and one with Panther (Panzer V). In reality, the organization continued to vary from division to division. The first infantry battalion of the first infantry regiment of each panzer division was now supposed to be fully mechanised (mounted on armoured half-tracks ( Sd.Kfz. 251 ). The first battalion of

2475-568: The tank strength of every division on two dates when this was known. Arrived on the Eastern Front after Operation Barbarossa. Formed after the Polish Campaign. Renamed following the Polish Campaign. Merged into other Divisions following the Polish Campaign. Panzer divisions used pink military flags . Combined arms Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of

2530-430: The tanks supporting operations by other arms, the tanks led operations, with other arms supporting them. Since the panzer divisions had the supporting arms included, they could operate independently from other units. These first panzer divisions ( 1st through 5th ) were composed of two tank regiments, one motorised infantry regiment of two battalions each, and supporting troops. After the invasion of Poland in 1939,

2585-474: The targets for requested air and artillery assets. Within a few minutes, on station aircraft would direct their missions to cover the ground vehicle. Within a half-hour heavy attack forces would concentrate to relieve the isolated vehicle. In an hour and a half the relieved vehicle would be resupplied. In 2020, the Israel Defense Forces established a dedicated combined arms battalion to test

2640-414: The viability of full integration of infantry, armor, and aircraft into a single battalion command structure. The unit fields Merkava Mk.4 main battle tanks, F-16D multirole fighters, Heron and Hermes 450 drones, and AH-64 Apache helicopters. Army Group South Army Group South ( German : Heeresgruppe Süd ) was the name of one of three German Army Groups during World War II . It

2695-523: The war progressed new combined arms tactics were developed, often described then as the "all arms battle". These included direct close artillery fire support for attacking soldiers (the creeping barrage ), air support and mutual support of tanks and infantry. One of the first instances of combined arms was the Battle of Cambrai , in which the British used tanks, artillery, infantry, small arms and air power to break through enemy lines. Previously such

2750-400: Was first used in the 1939 September Campaign , along with Army Group North to invade Poland . In the invasion of Poland , Army Group South was led by Gerd von Rundstedt and his chief of staff Erich von Manstein . Two years later, Army Group South became one of three army groups into which Germany organised their forces for Operation Barbarossa . Army Group South's principal objective

2805-435: Was re-designated Army Group North Ukraine . Army Group North Ukraine existed from 4 April to 28 September. In September 1944, Army Group South Ukraine was re-designated Army Group South. At the end of World War II in Europe , Army Group South was again renamed; as Army Group Ostmark , the remnants of Army Group South ended the war fighting in and around Austria and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Army Group Ostmark

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2860-827: Was to advance up to the Volga River , engaging a part of the Red Army and thus clearing the way for the Army Group North and the Army Group Center on their approach to Leningrad and Moscow respectively. To carry out these initial tasks its battle order included the First Panzer Group (Gen. Kleist) and the German Sixth (Gen. Reichenau), Seventeenth (Gen. Stülpnagel) and Eleventh Armies (Gen. Schobert), Luftlotte 1 (Keller) and

2915-681: Was to capture Soviet Ukraine and its capital Kiev . In September 1944, Army Group South Ukraine was renamed Army Group South in Eastern Hungary. It fought in Western Hungary until March 1945 and retired to Austria at the end of the Second World War, where it was renamed Army Group Ostmark on 2 April 1945. Ukraine was a major center of Soviet industry and mining and had the good farmland required for Hitler's plans for Lebensraum ('living space'). Army Group South

2970-635: Was to tempt the English to leave the shield wall to attack retreating Norman infantry only to destroy them in the open with cavalry. Likewise Scottish sheltrons – which had been developed to counter the charges by English heavy cavalry, and had been used successfully against English cavalry at the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297) – were destroyed at the Battle of Falkirk (1298) by English archers acting in concert with mounted knights. Both Hastings and Falkirk showed how combined arms could be used to defeat enemies relying on only one arm. The English victories of Crécy , Poitiers and Agincourt were examples of

3025-409: Was used along with taking advantage of the terrain and weather in choosing when and where to give battle. The simplest example is the combination of different specialties such as archers, infantry, cavalry (knights or shock mounted troops), and even peasant militia. At times, each force fought on its own and won or lost depending on the opposing military competence. During the Middle Ages leaders utilized

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